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bookgirl1209's review against another edition
3.0
I should not have liked this book...it is like the trifecta of what I hate about some books:
1)It's Canadian - Now, I'm Canadian, don't get me wrong there is plenty I love about my country and about Canadian authors, artist, musicians etc. but I do find that often SOME Canadian authors try so very hard to write GOOD LITERATURE instead of just telling a story, that it turns me off.
2)Munro is an award winning author...for Pete's sake! Marian Engel's Bear, a book about an erotic love between a woman and (you guessed it!) a bear, won the Governor General's award. Many of the Canadian Award-winning books I've read are..um...not award winners.
3)Short stories...blech. Just as I'm getting into them they are winding up and ending. Hate that.
All those things stood in the way of me liking this book but surprisingly I did like it. Munro writes unusually. Short stories are often things you can read quickly, they don't take a lot out of you, you don't have to invest a lot but these, I found, I had to slow down, pay attention.
Munro is very good at building mystery or tension and then releasing it. Her endings don't wrap up nicely - you are left with some ambiguity, some loose ends that cause you to think about the story for awhile after it's done.
She will definitely go on my list of Canadian authors who I like.
1)It's Canadian - Now, I'm Canadian, don't get me wrong there is plenty I love about my country and about Canadian authors, artist, musicians etc. but I do find that often SOME Canadian authors try so very hard to write GOOD LITERATURE instead of just telling a story, that it turns me off.
2)Munro is an award winning author...for Pete's sake! Marian Engel's Bear, a book about an erotic love between a woman and (you guessed it!) a bear, won the Governor General's award. Many of the Canadian Award-winning books I've read are..um...not award winners.
3)Short stories...blech. Just as I'm getting into them they are winding up and ending. Hate that.
All those things stood in the way of me liking this book but surprisingly I did like it. Munro writes unusually. Short stories are often things you can read quickly, they don't take a lot out of you, you don't have to invest a lot but these, I found, I had to slow down, pay attention.
Munro is very good at building mystery or tension and then releasing it. Her endings don't wrap up nicely - you are left with some ambiguity, some loose ends that cause you to think about the story for awhile after it's done.
She will definitely go on my list of Canadian authors who I like.
piapaya's review against another edition
3.0
I respect the hell out of Alice Munro and her craft, but I think I just don’t feel her magic the way so many other people do.
moony_reads_'s review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
oxnard_montalvo's review against another edition
This was my first time reading Alice Munro. At the time, with each story I found myself thinking she's a very perceptive writer. Maybe not the most accessible, but her ability to capture THIS feeling, THAT mood, THOSE fleeting emotions that have no name is something special.
I finished this book and the same day, Munro's daughter spoke up about her sexually abusive stepfather and her family's, her mother's, inaction after learning about it. Not just inaction, not just heads buried in the sand, but animosity. The daughter was a child at the time of the abuse, an adult when it came to light. Munro stayed with the stepfather.
Learning this has certainly coloured my perceptions of these stories somewhat (understatement). How can someone so perceptive and unafraid to delve into darker psyches be so seemingly reluctant to confront the truth in their own life? Easier written then done I guess but 'Open Secrets' take on a whole new meaning in light of this.
I finished this book and the same day, Munro's daughter spoke up about her sexually abusive stepfather and her family's, her mother's, inaction after learning about it. Not just inaction, not just heads buried in the sand, but animosity. The daughter was a child at the time of the abuse, an adult when it came to light. Munro stayed with the stepfather.
Learning this has certainly coloured my perceptions of these stories somewhat (understatement). How can someone so perceptive and unafraid to delve into darker psyches be so seemingly reluctant to confront the truth in their own life? Easier written then done I guess but 'Open Secrets' take on a whole new meaning in light of this.
mexicanwine's review against another edition
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
maebarron's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
3.0
hcube3's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
geoffdgeorge's review against another edition
Took my time with this one. Only read about a story a month. Munro puts together some of the densest, richest forty- to sixty-page stretches out there. She pushes you to pay attention, focus in on every detail, the importance of which might not emerge till twenty pages later. Stand-out stories included “A Real Life,” “Open Secrets,” and “The Jack Randa Hotel.”
I’m convinced it’s not a question of whether Munro had an affair but how many, given that it’s such a consistent, intimately explored theme throughout her work. From all angles, too—the cheaters, the cheated on, the third-hand witnesses, in trysts ranging from minutes or hours to months or years.
Most of the stories take place in small towns in the Canadian countryside, but they hit home just as well here in the US Midwest. And they aren’t the small towns of Norman Rockwell, either. So many characters are refreshingly opinionated, distant, or sometimes outright mean, just in that way endemic to rural areas where everyone often puts on a veil of politeness: Muriel Snow had not been Millicent’s first choice for best friend. What a cold line!
I think the stories in "Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage” might still have packed a greater emotional wallop for me, but you can still see here why Munro’s one of the greats.
I’m convinced it’s not a question of whether Munro had an affair but how many, given that it’s such a consistent, intimately explored theme throughout her work. From all angles, too—the cheaters, the cheated on, the third-hand witnesses, in trysts ranging from minutes or hours to months or years.
Most of the stories take place in small towns in the Canadian countryside, but they hit home just as well here in the US Midwest. And they aren’t the small towns of Norman Rockwell, either. So many characters are refreshingly opinionated, distant, or sometimes outright mean, just in that way endemic to rural areas where everyone often puts on a veil of politeness: Muriel Snow had not been Millicent’s first choice for best friend. What a cold line!
I think the stories in "Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage” might still have packed a greater emotional wallop for me, but you can still see here why Munro’s one of the greats.
lindseyzwilson's review against another edition
funny
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes