Nothing I can say would do justice to the mastery of Alice Munro's writing. Her metier is the short story and she has written hundreds of them, each a gem. For this she received a well-deserved Noble Prize in Literature. There are 28 stories in this collection. A Canadian, Munro writes about what she knows. Her characters could be your neighbors or relatives, they could live in cities, but most often live in the countryside of western Ontario. Many involve the past memories of the characters as they display universal human strengths and weaknesses. Human emotions drive these stories, often with a woman as a central character, yet I wouldn't call Munro a woman's writer. She is a writer for all mankind. She has been compared to Chekhov and like him, her characters reveal themselves with their internal reactions to what life has dealt them. They are all spellbinding and after finishing a selection, I find myself thinking, "this is my favorite," that is, until I read the next selection.
This is a wonder anthology to begin with or revisit if you are already a Munro fan. Many of Munro's stories can now be read on line and the "New Yorker" has archived the many stories she wrote for that magazine. I highly recommend this collection for all readers.
No comments:
Post a Comment