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What i find interesting about Munro is that her style, her subject, her characters and their homes -- none of it suggests an obvious connection to my own interests. But I feel completely connected to it all by her storytelling. Mar 29, Dave Comerford rated it it was amazing. I bet Alice Munro is responsible for a lot of really bad writing.
These stories involve ordinary people living in unremarkable towns and cities Toronto; small prairie towns doing pretty humdrum things - many of these stories recount visits to old friends or family. The language is so natural and the scenes so well drawn that the text requires no effort to read. It is tempting to believe then that they took no effort or particular talent, or even much a subject matter, to write. What I am left I bet Alice Munro is responsible for a lot of really bad writing.
What I am left with is a sense that I witnessed these stories, so that now it takes more effort to remember reading about that family than it does to see them sitting on the deck after dinner. And now that I have an entire album of Alice Munro photos in my mind, I wonder why these images, which would sound so banal if I tried to articulate them, are burnt into my retina. The only explanation that I have is that Alice Munro put them there. She is a magician. Aug 03, Kaisa rated it it was amazing Recommends it for: Alice Munro writes entirely in the medium of short stories.
While I don't mind the trend of ever elongating fiction in modern literature, this collection of Munro's selected shorts is nothing short of a thrill of economy. Munro's stories are brief, but the impressions her characters and the events to which they are sewed leave with the reader are long lasting.
In White Dump, Munro gives us two characters, one a mother, the other her daughter, who move forward and back towards an event that does Alice Munro writes entirely in the medium of short stories. In White Dump, Munro gives us two characters, one a mother, the other her daughter, who move forward and back towards an event that does not seem inescapable, but is just as fixed by the ennui that everyday life creates.
This book's only weakness is that it takes stories from other collections, sometimes missing the mark on the arrangement of themes. Aside from this occasional fit and start however, the stories of this book are a pleasant place to spend an afternoon. Alice Munro is one of the best contemporary short story writers. I know this because everybody says so. Some of them say she is the best. I love short stories but although I have read Munro before, I have never quite clicked with any of hers.
These seemed to be the most difficult things she had ever done. She had immense difficulty reading the names of the subway stations, and getting off at the right one, so she could go to the apartment where she was staying. She would have found it hard to describe this difficulty.
She knew perfectly well which was the right stop, she knew which stop it came after; she knew where she was. But she could not make the connection between herself and things outside herself, so that getting up and leaving the car, going up the steps, going along the street all seemed to involve a bizarre effort. This sort of thing, in another context, would be called poetry. She is stunningly good at visual description too, photographically good. I would quote more if I had more space. It did happen at last. The first line of this story might be in one of those exercise books that trains you how to start a short story well: Maybe a car accident?
Read on to find out. Munro sets the scene in the first 8-paragraph section, and the main characters are laid on the canvas: Rob, a middle-aged store keeper has married her late after a series of affairs with married women. It is Peg who finds the couple dead and the focus of this story is her reaction to their deaths, and the effect of her reaction on Robert. The news of the violent incident is, to most people in the town, an enjoyable possession: And yet Peg, who finds the bodies and reports the deaths to the police, tells neither her friend Karen about it, nor her husband Robert.
Karen, on the other hand, tells her mother in hospital and her friend Shirley.
And that was true, says, Munro. Is she in shock? He would have said he was watching to see if she was in any kind of trouble, if she seemed numb, or strange, or showed a quiver, if she dropped things or made the pots clatter. She was preparing an ordinary meal, listening to the boys in her usual mildly censorious but unruffled way.
The only thing more apparent than usual to Robert was her gracefulness, lightness, quickness, and ease round the kitchen. Robert has heard most of it already from the local gossip-mongers. He talks casually about what causes violent events and this is where the story title comes in: But it only happens once in a long while.
Peg was looking at Clayton. She who always seemed pale and silky and assenting, but hard to follow as a watermark in fine paper, looked dried out, chalky, her outlines fixed in steady, helpless, unapologetic pain. It is, at heart, a relationship piece, I think, and it is beautifully handled. It is all about her. The dead next-door neighbours are incidental. Her stories often open in a way that provides a focus of interest — a character, or an event — something that seems part of the commonground of stories.
But in fact, the obvious focus is never what she is interested in. The events that inform the narrative are also not of especial interest to her, so much so that sometimes you feel a sense of flatness or disappointment that the happenings have become sidelined and unimportant compared to a single aspect the author is pursuing. To me, these stories are like seeing a detail from a huge painting, with the main canvas simply there for background. Yes, she is a marvelous writer. I must get more of her for next summer. She benefits from slow reading, like a very good wine. Jun 30, Kristen rated it really liked it Shelves: The stories in this collection range in era from the s to the s, and they primarily focus on the lives of rural or isolated people in Canada.
One thing that sets Munro apart for me is her decision to write several short stories about the same protagonist. You saw the emotional points the character was at — age 20 and in college, divorced at 43, etc. It made it easier to stay engrossed in the collection, because you really felt like you were starting to get under the skin of a character. Beautifully broken, if you will. Jun 12, the gift rated it it was amazing Shelves: Apr 08, Jenni rated it it was amazing Shelves: This is totally random, but when we were in Victoria, BC, I walked into this giant, wonderful bookstore called Munro's Books.
I bought a few things there, and the cashier gave me some free store bookmarks. Well, I pulled one out the other day to stick in this book, and then read in the author bio that Alice Munro is in fact the owner of Munro's Books! Thanks for the rec, Paula! Dec 09, Shelley rated it it was amazing Recommends it for: Recommended to Shelley by: I learned that you have to slow down--really, really slow down--and let yourself be carried along in the cadence of each sentence.
Her whole stories can be fragments placed together, artfully and artlessly. The effects are dazzling. I have to say I do not enjoy the later pieces as much the exception being "The Wilderness Station". They are noticeably more ambitious and complex, but some parts just seem ill-fit together, contrive My first Munro. They are noticeably more ambitious and complex, but some parts just seem ill-fit together, contrived, and not nearly as naturalistic as the others.
My favourites, in the order of appearance in this book, are: Masterful, as complete as a novel, feels effortless, tender even in its ironies. A complex story that defies summary and ages extremely well. Beryl, the indomitable aunt of the narrator, might well be my favorite literary creation in this book. A traumatic event happens in childhood: Beryl's sister is forever scarred and propagates its aftermath to her children; Beryl lets it roll off her and transforms it into a game.
Some may call it callousness, but I see a remarkable resilience and force of life.
Munro really accomplishes the impossible here—making me, who is not anywhere near to being a parent, feel parenthood, a feat akin to making a blind person feel colour. A quintessentially Canadian story that takes place in the Great Canadian Winter. Everywhere is snow, all 50 version of it, covering and uncovering, concealing and revealing, the fits and cracks underneath the veneer of life.
Similar to "The Progress of Love" in its portrayal of intergenerational dynamics, but a shade darker Southern Ontario Gothic? View all 3 comments. Jun 13, Gail rated it it was ok Shelves: I have read about halfway through this book and am going to have to set it aside. I can appreciate the literary quality of Alice Munro's writing, but I don't enjoy her stories. It's not that I have to enjoy everything I read, but I haven't cared about or identified with a single character very much.
For others, at least one read of one book is a must - their propitiation to literary excellence! Her stories are so dismal. Thanks for the rec, Paula! And yet Peg, who finds the bodies and reports the deaths to the police, tells neither her friend Karen about it, nor her husband Robert. You see them going around with notebooks, scraping the dirt off gravestones, reading microfilm, just in the hope of seeing this trickle in time, making a connection, rescuing things from the rubbish. Each story is a world in itself, and I enjoy reading only one or two a week so I have time to think about them. Give me a Wendell Berry story over one of these any day.
None of them are very memorable. These stories are dreary and devoid of any joy, humor, hope or beauty. Every romance and marriage fails. There's a lot of cynicism here. I can see why Munro's stories I have read about halfway through this book and am going to have to set it aside. I can see why Munro's stories are critically acclaimed, but they're not for me.
It seems like if you've read one, you've read them all. Give me a Wendell Berry story over one of these any day.
Feb 17, Sylvie rated it did not like it Shelves: Unfortunately, this wonderful writer is not for me. Her stories are so dismal. I've tried to read Ms. Munro's work many times and I always end up abandoning it. OK, let me be perfectly blunt: For me, this woman's writing can ruin a perfectly good day. Her writing is magnificent; her subject matter plunges me down a dingy well. OMG, I am so happy I'm finally done with book. Apparently I am not a fan of short stories. I don't like how by the time you have gotten to know a character the story is over.
And when these short stories end, they just end. There's never much of an ending.
Selected Stories has ratings and reviews. www.farmersmarketmusic.comich said: 'The complexity of things - the things within things - just seems to be endless. I. Selected Stories is a volume of short stories by Alice Munro, published by McClelland and Stewart in It collects stories from her eight previously published.
I just don't get the appeal. View all 11 comments. It goes without saying that Munro is an amazing writer. From this collection, three tales stood out: If I were to rate her stories individually, these three would get the highest possible rating and the second one would surpass it. Her short stories tend to focus on the lives of everyday men and women and expose life for what it is, in the context of its everydayness turned farce; it is the breaking point, the shock, the sen It goes without saying that Munro is an amazing writer.
Her short stories tend to focus on the lives of everyday men and women and expose life for what it is, in the context of its everydayness turned farce; it is the breaking point, the shock, the sensuous or sexual adventure, the delayed and never-to-be- fulfilled possibilities and the dying memories that she portrays. And she does so with frank, heartfelt prose. For she hadn't thought that crocheted roses could float away or that tombstones could hurry down the street.
She doesn't mistake that for reality, and neither does she mistake anything else for reality, and that is how she knows she is sane. If you want to know more, read it. I would recommend "Labor Day Dinner" to everyone and anyone, as it faces the two most important things in life and literature: Aug 08, Keegan Gore rated it it was amazing. Seriously one on the best short story collections I've ever read. Each story is alive and brimming with emotion.
Some made me want to cry, some shocked me, some had me putting the book down in disbelief, grabbing my forehead, pacing around my apartment in order to mull over what I had just read. I cannot say enough good things about Munro. In the introduction she refers to her stories as "houses"that one walks into, rather than linear paths one must take, and I am inclined to see her stories tha Seriously one on the best short story collections I've ever read.
In the introduction she refers to her stories as "houses"that one walks into, rather than linear paths one must take, and I am inclined to see her stories that way, as portals. Mainly, Munro writes about young women in Canada. Some of these stories are set in the country, some revolve around urban life, and some straddle the line between the two. Some of her rural stories are indeed gothic, particularly the ones set in the nineteenth century.
Mostly, the stories in this collection are about relationships, romantic and platonic, the tension between urban and rural life, and in general love, how to find meaning in one's life. To read these stories--about a traveling salesman and his children on an impromptu journey; an abandoned woman choosing between seduction and solitude--is to succumb to the spell of a writer who enchants her readers utterly even as she restores them to their truest selves.
Would you like to tell us about a lower price? If you are a seller for this product, would you like to suggest updates through seller support? Read more Read less. Customers who bought this item also bought. Page 1 of 1 Start over Page 1 of 1. Selected Stories, Vintage International. Collected Stories LOA Stories of Flo and Rose. Customers who viewed this item also viewed. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier.
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Top Reviews Most recent Top Reviews. There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later. Having regrettably inherited the attention span of the current generation I've been taken up by short stories lately. I feel a bit less ashamed of choosing such brevity in story telling over longer novels by recalling that Faulkner rated novelists as failed short story writers and short story writers as failed poets.
So, here I am One of the gems of this class of writers at least to me, who's rather new to the genre is Alice Munro. Well, for what it's worth, I think Munro's highs are no less grand than those of "The Greats" - she simply lacks the luxury of nostalgia. So, by all means pick up a copy of her "Selected Stories" - you'll soon find yourself in awe. Kindle Edition Verified Purchase. Munro, born in in Burma and educated in England. He began his writing career as a journalist and foreign correspondent but later turned to writing fiction—predominantly short stories for which he is… More about Saki.
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