A review by skrrtvonnegut
Too Much Happiness by Alice Munro

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This was just what I needed after kind of getting bogged down by my last two books; a book of stories kept my engagement high and got me engrossed pretty immediately. The stories themselves were definitely mostly bummers, but Munro's writing style, leaving plenty of blanks to be filled in by the reader, made great use of the small space they take up, fuller and richer than a typical short story. "Child's Play" was probably the most striking story to me, leaving a lot unsaid that did a great job of evoking a past horror that the narrator is trying to leave behind. "Wood" and "Free Radicals" are packed with tension and relief, especially when you compare it to some of the other stories in here, like "Dimensions," where the characters weren't as lucky. I'm not as versed in reading short stories so this was a nice entry for me; even with my unfamiliarity I could tell Munro was a master of the form.