A review by raulbime
The Beggar Maid: Stories of Flo and Rose, by Alice Munro
4.0
"The thing she was ashamed of, in acting, was that she might have been paying attention to the wrong things, reporting antics, when there was always something further, a tone, a depth, a light, that she couldn't get and wouldn't get."
At this point I'm certain my friends are tired of hearing me talk about Alice Munro. But she's remarkable and they'll just have to put up with it, and this book, as well as the others by her, is testament to that. This is a collection of stories following Rose, a girl from a small town in Ontario, Canada, through childhood and well into adulthood.
Munro's mentioned influences of women writing of the American South, such as Carson McCullers, Eudora Welty, Flannery O'Connor, are more pronounced in this book than any other by her I've read thus far. The setting, small poor towns; the attitudes of the people as complex as they are, bigoted and narrow-minded yet still empathetic, dignified and good-natured; the eccentric characters, usually in the peripheries, that help define the character of the towns.
Rose grows up in Hanratty, with her stepmother Flo, her father, and her step-brother. As a child it is attempted to instill a kind of humility in her. A humility that is a kind of self-preservation against ambitions that might turn into failure and humiliation, and that enforces a kind of belonging in individuals. Simplified: know your place, or as the title of a story (and the Canadian title of this book which I wish had been maintained for all editions) suggests, Who Do You Think You Are?
Rose however leaves this town and goes to university, marries and moves up the social ladder, divorces and moves down the social ladder, and becomes a known actress. Putting physical and formative distance between herself and her town, which on a certain level she can't outrun and is always coming back to in different ways.
This book is similar to [b:Lives of Girls and Women|14285|Lives of Girls and Women|Alice Munro|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1320391660l/14285._SY75_.jpg|1322861], still by Munro, in structure. Each is a series of stories following a girl's development in a small town, and the stories are so interconnected and consistent that both books could be novels. The distinguishing feature being that each chapter or story in the books doesn't function as a chapter in a novel typically would, meaning that they can and do stand by themselves; whereas a random chapter in the standard novel can make for a disorienting reading experience when read by itself. This book is just as great a read as [b:Lives of Girls and Women|14285|Lives of Girls and Women|Alice Munro|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1320391660l/14285._SY75_.jpg|1322861] too.
At this point I'm certain my friends are tired of hearing me talk about Alice Munro. But she's remarkable and they'll just have to put up with it, and this book, as well as the others by her, is testament to that. This is a collection of stories following Rose, a girl from a small town in Ontario, Canada, through childhood and well into adulthood.
Munro's mentioned influences of women writing of the American South, such as Carson McCullers, Eudora Welty, Flannery O'Connor, are more pronounced in this book than any other by her I've read thus far. The setting, small poor towns; the attitudes of the people as complex as they are, bigoted and narrow-minded yet still empathetic, dignified and good-natured; the eccentric characters, usually in the peripheries, that help define the character of the towns.
Rose grows up in Hanratty, with her stepmother Flo, her father, and her step-brother. As a child it is attempted to instill a kind of humility in her. A humility that is a kind of self-preservation against ambitions that might turn into failure and humiliation, and that enforces a kind of belonging in individuals. Simplified: know your place, or as the title of a story (and the Canadian title of this book which I wish had been maintained for all editions) suggests, Who Do You Think You Are?
Rose however leaves this town and goes to university, marries and moves up the social ladder, divorces and moves down the social ladder, and becomes a known actress. Putting physical and formative distance between herself and her town, which on a certain level she can't outrun and is always coming back to in different ways.
This book is similar to [b:Lives of Girls and Women|14285|Lives of Girls and Women|Alice Munro|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1320391660l/14285._SY75_.jpg|1322861], still by Munro, in structure. Each is a series of stories following a girl's development in a small town, and the stories are so interconnected and consistent that both books could be novels. The distinguishing feature being that each chapter or story in the books doesn't function as a chapter in a novel typically would, meaning that they can and do stand by themselves; whereas a random chapter in the standard novel can make for a disorienting reading experience when read by itself. This book is just as great a read as [b:Lives of Girls and Women|14285|Lives of Girls and Women|Alice Munro|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1320391660l/14285._SY75_.jpg|1322861] too.