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kaitlynnightingale 's review for:
Lives of Girls and Women
by Alice Munro
I wanted to read Munro’s novel to experience the work of another renowned Canadian artist. In the city where I live, Munro’s Books (started in 1963 by Jim Munro and his first wife, Alice Munro, and operated by Jim until 2014) has become a well-known and well-loved local landmark for readers. Lives of Girls and Women chronicles the life of Del Jordan, a young girl growing up in rural Ontario in the 1940s.
I read this one a little while back and to be honest, I don’t remember a lot of this book now, but I remember that I didn’t find it to be relaxing/enjoyable—although thought-provoking—and had quite a slow pace. I can see how Munro's short stories would be highly praised, much of this novel was written in a way that it could be fragmented into several stories rather than a unified novel as it doesn't tend to carry an overall plot or theme apart from “coming of age”. For me, I felt like the book was difficult to connect with as I didn’t form strong/amiable feelings towards characters or relate to them, and it wasn’t driven by a central plot which made it hard for me to read until the end. There are definitely passages that show the talented writing of Munro, and I feel like this book reflected much of her own life in its setting.
I read this one a little while back and to be honest, I don’t remember a lot of this book now, but I remember that I didn’t find it to be relaxing/enjoyable—although thought-provoking—and had quite a slow pace. I can see how Munro's short stories would be highly praised, much of this novel was written in a way that it could be fragmented into several stories rather than a unified novel as it doesn't tend to carry an overall plot or theme apart from “coming of age”. For me, I felt like the book was difficult to connect with as I didn’t form strong/amiable feelings towards characters or relate to them, and it wasn’t driven by a central plot which made it hard for me to read until the end. There are definitely passages that show the talented writing of Munro, and I feel like this book reflected much of her own life in its setting.