In the nine breathtaking stories that make up her celebrated tenth collection, Alice Munro achieves new heights, creating narratives that loop and ...
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Nov 01, 2007
I tried and failed to read this again last night. Maybe the fifth time I've enthusiastically given AM another shot. It seems like it just can't be done. I can't stick with the sentences. I zone out. The sentences themselves don't seem to have enough tension in them, enough joy, enough oomph. I have trouble savoring stories (macro level) if the sentences (mirco level) don't hold and propel me. This is my opinion only: everyone else totally lurves her. I want to love her. I want to be like everyon
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Dec 17, 2009
Laura
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These short stories seem much simplier than they are; they come from a special ability to note (and glory in) small details that echo throughout one's life. I checked this book out because "The Bear Went Over the Mountain," the last story in the collection, is the basis of a movie with Julie Christie that is just out. But I started with the first story and haven't gotten to the Bear yet. I would love to be able to write such clear, complicated and subtle prose fiction as Munroe does. I
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May 12, 2011
I sometimes get into conversations with people who have a hard time connecting with the short-story format; they say that they hardly have time to muster an emotional involvement in the characters and events, before the story is over. To those readers I might recommend Alice Munro. True, I have only experienced one of her collections, but the stories in Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage are nothing if not emotionally affecting—or "crushingly tragic," I suppose, if
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Aug 26, 2011
rachel
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Loved loved "Family Furnishings." It made me think all night about what's lost when desire, passion, and truth are repressed, which is always something I personally need a kick in the pants about. (Though, don't most people?) Even better getting that kick from a good book.
For me, the collection as a whole is good, very good, but maybe not so far as great. It seemed like it might be something I'd call great in the beginning, when Munro's precision in describing the pecul More...
For me, the collection as a whole is good, very good, but maybe not so far as great. It seemed like it might be something I'd call great in the beginning, when Munro's precision in describing the pecul More...
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Mar 21, 2010
Stella
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This collection of short stories was my introduction to Alice Munro's world and writing. It is not light reading material, not ideal if you seek some fluffy escapism, but each novella will stay long with you and make you think. Her short stories are like snapshots of the lives of her characters, this was something that I personally don't like: I prefer a story to have a beginning, a middle and an ending, it bothered me that I didn't get a glipmse of what would happen to the characters after the
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Jan 30, 2008
Erik
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This is my pick of late great 2007, which is timely because Sarah Polley's new film Away From Her is actually based on "The Bear Came Over the Mountain"--the last story in this volume...
These stories are rich and imaginative accounts of private selves elevating moments of the isolated, individual mind ranging from the workaday to the [actually frequently] moribund. In writing what she knows, Munro's characters are typically writers, members of academia in some form, or at More...
These stories are rich and imaginative accounts of private selves elevating moments of the isolated, individual mind ranging from the workaday to the [actually frequently] moribund. In writing what she knows, Munro's characters are typically writers, members of academia in some form, or at More...
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Dec 17, 2009
Amy
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This was our first book club selection; it's a collection of 9 short stories. We met Wednesday night. Amy's comment: "Relentlessly realistic. Could I get some unrealsitic happiness, please?" Fran's comment: "I know she writes about women, but do you think she likes them?" Lynne's comment: "Of course she likes us. She knows how we think, and she's not afraid to put that out there. She does that so we can all feel better about feeling exactly the same way."
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Mar 09, 2011
Mia
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Mi sono piaciuti questi racconti di Alice Munro.
Più di una volta, leggendo, mi è venuto in mente Carver, per la scelta delle ambientazioni,la vita quotidiana, per la resa schietta e asciutta dello svolgimento dei fatti.
Certo, la Munro scrive molto di più da donna e sulle donne (niente retorica femminista, però, e nemmeno nessun angelo del focolare), e sicuramente è molto ma molto più descrittiva.
Ha una scrittura asciutta, precisa, si intuisce un gran lavoro di pulizia e sottrazione. Una struttur More...
Più di una volta, leggendo, mi è venuto in mente Carver, per la scelta delle ambientazioni,la vita quotidiana, per la resa schietta e asciutta dello svolgimento dei fatti.
Certo, la Munro scrive molto di più da donna e sulle donne (niente retorica femminista, però, e nemmeno nessun angelo del focolare), e sicuramente è molto ma molto più descrittiva.
Ha una scrittura asciutta, precisa, si intuisce un gran lavoro di pulizia e sottrazione. Una struttur More...
Feb 09, 2011
Zeruhur
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Nove racconti della grande narratrice canadese. Alice Munro ha una capacità evocativa eccezionale, unita a uno stile elegante e asciutto che in poche dense parole è capace di restituire meravigliosi affreschi, spezzoni di vita e di sensazioni.
La qualità dei racconti contenuti nell'antologia è piuttosto varia, si va dall'ottimo al discreto.
Io ho apprezzato soprattutto "Nemico, amico, amante..." (che da il nome alla raccolta), "Mobili di famiglia", "Ortiche", "Qu More...
La qualità dei racconti contenuti nell'antologia è piuttosto varia, si va dall'ottimo al discreto.
Io ho apprezzato soprattutto "Nemico, amico, amante..." (che da il nome alla raccolta), "Mobili di famiglia", "Ortiche", "Qu More...
Jan 29, 2011
Tancredi
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Dicono la Munro sia la più grande narratrice nordamericana, che possieda una capacità straordinaria nello scavare nell'animo umano. Ne ho sempre sentito parlare benissimo, e mi ha sempre incuriosito molto. E ora che finalmente ho letto qualcosa di suo, com'è cocente ed incomprensibile la delusione.
Certo, è assolutamente innegabile la Munro abbia dalla sua uno stile ricco e complesso, ma in questi racconti non mi è sembrato affatto sostenuto da una narrazione, trama e personaggi adatti. La altrim More...
Certo, è assolutamente innegabile la Munro abbia dalla sua uno stile ricco e complesso, ma in questi racconti non mi è sembrato affatto sostenuto da una narrazione, trama e personaggi adatti. La altrim More...
Jan 04, 2010
Munro's short stories in this volume often revolve with either an event or a person that changes the protagonist's life. The first story is by far the best, with its honest portrayal of a woman on the cusp of spinsterhood who is the butt of a mean prank by some teen girls, a prank which does not go as expected. Other stories concern a larger-than-life female family member that appeared so dynamic when the story's protagonist was a child, but lost that appeal when the protagonist entered womanhoo
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Jan 22, 2012
Abeer
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I read my first Alice Munro short story last year in a bookstore in London. I picked up her latest collection, thought I'd read the first page and finished the entire story standing, rapt. So when I saw "Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage" in a used bookstore in Northampton, I bought it without a second thought and read it in a week, which for me is really fast.
The amazing thing about Ms. Munro's stories is how simultaneously easy they are to read and how de More...
The amazing thing about Ms. Munro's stories is how simultaneously easy they are to read and how de More...
Nov 17, 2011
Ms.
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I truly enjoyed this anthology of short stories by a long-favorite author of mine. I discovered Alice Munro in third year university upon the recommendation of my third year Honors English professor, Dr. Jenkins. He suggested that I read Munro for her sophisticated, articulate style.
Still today, I admire Munro's writing style, but now, it is her characters that resonate. Ordinary individuals in everyday situations are made to seem extraordinary and fascinating. Munros gets bene More...
Still today, I admire Munro's writing style, but now, it is her characters that resonate. Ordinary individuals in everyday situations are made to seem extraordinary and fascinating. Munros gets bene More...
Aug 05, 2011
Erin M.
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I read the first two stories a couple of years ago, then must have gotten distracted and started reading something else. I'm glad I came back to this book, because it is really excellent, especially considering the stories are only thirty or forty pages long each.
When I started over with the first two stories again, it turned out I remembered them as clearly as if I had read them yesterday.
The characters are not fantastical or over-dramatized; they could be any one of us. The More...
When I started over with the first two stories again, it turned out I remembered them as clearly as if I had read them yesterday.
The characters are not fantastical or over-dramatized; they could be any one of us. The More...
Jun 03, 2011
Nikitabanana
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Alice Munro is one of the greatest contemporary writers of short stories today, and her collection “Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage” is just as deep, dark and unique as her other acclaimed writings, blazing a beautiful originality out of her seemingly commonplace subjects. The women in this book, much like the men in the fiction of John Updike, find themselves perpetually torn between domesticity and independence; between familial roots and freedom; between a connection with
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Oct 28, 2010
Kaara
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I know Alice Munro is one of the most celebrated contemporary authors around. I'd read a short story or two and had been meaning to read this collection for a while. I hated it.
To a one, the women unpleasant, narrow, either narcissistic and selfish or ignorant and pliant, and oppressed, my god, so oppressed by the absolute pricks in their lives that I wanted to run around the block screaming just to prove to myself it wasn't me trapped in that miserable existence. And the men, idiot je More...
To a one, the women unpleasant, narrow, either narcissistic and selfish or ignorant and pliant, and oppressed, my god, so oppressed by the absolute pricks in their lives that I wanted to run around the block screaming just to prove to myself it wasn't me trapped in that miserable existence. And the men, idiot je More...
Sep 17, 2010
Chantal
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Not a review so much as a consideration of the flashback:
“Avoid flashbacks whenever possible,” was the advice I once received from a writing teacher. This advice came in the form of a lecture to the entire class, after an early story of mine was read aloud and found to contain a flashback within a flashback within -- yet another -- flashback. The experience left me humbled, and nervous, about tense: past tense and more particularly flashbacks.
Yet, try as I might I More...
“Avoid flashbacks whenever possible,” was the advice I once received from a writing teacher. This advice came in the form of a lecture to the entire class, after an early story of mine was read aloud and found to contain a flashback within a flashback within -- yet another -- flashback. The experience left me humbled, and nervous, about tense: past tense and more particularly flashbacks.
Yet, try as I might I More...
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Sep 17, 2009
Louis
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I read this book after seeing the movie "Away from her" with that great, subtle performance by Julie Christie. The movie is based on Munro's short story, "The bear came over the mountain", part of this collection.
It took me a while to read this collection. I read "The bear..." right away but then put the book in my large to-be-read-whenever pile. To be honest, Munro's storywriting is not the kind that makes you want to race to pick up the book. Her More...
It took me a while to read this collection. I read "The bear..." right away but then put the book in my large to-be-read-whenever pile. To be honest, Munro's storywriting is not the kind that makes you want to race to pick up the book. Her More...
Jul 24, 2011
Allison
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If this book had been a novel, I would have put it down after the first 50 pages. However, because it is a collection of short stories, I convinced myself that maybe the next story would be more interesting; if I didn't keep reading, I might not be giving Munro a fair chance.
Alas, I reached the end of the book and felt nothing but relief--relief that it was over. Munro is a lovely writer, with a good command of language, but her choice of subject matter, story development, and characters wa
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Feb 07, 2009
Bob
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I had read this once before, but just re-read most of the stories after seeing Away from Her, which is based on the final story in the collection. The movie was decent, but lacked subtlety in a few scenes. I've enjoyed almost all of the Munro collections I've read. Her characters seem very real and I enjoy how most of the stories, in one way or another, span the characters' entire lives. I would highly recommend this and a number of Munro's other collections (Runaway, Friend of My Youth, the
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Mar 09, 2011
Amélie
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Il y a quelque chose de, je sais pas, délicieusement anachronique dans la façon qu'Alice Munro a de raconter ses histoires. Jamais d'éclat, un cadre souvent domestique, des événements qui se suivent lentement, paresseusement. Des phrases faussement sobres qui laissent deviner quelque chose de sombre en-dessous, un courant sous-jacent de petites & de grandes angoisses ordinaires. & des vies entières racontées, circonscrites en quarante pages.
Ses personnages évoluent toujours dans les m More...
Ses personnages évoluent toujours dans les m More...
Jan 03, 2010
Renee
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Oh, Alice Munro is like a big delicious slab of german chocolate cake! Her writing is rich an dense. In that same way it can also be a bit much. I found I enjoyed it better when I paced myself.
I find that I like stories that aren't about anything--I don't need a wild plot to be entertained. I like those stories that are about the crisscrossing scars that relationships bring, and she did that in nearly every story. However, her stories are about people of a generation just before me; More...
I find that I like stories that aren't about anything--I don't need a wild plot to be entertained. I like those stories that are about the crisscrossing scars that relationships bring, and she did that in nearly every story. However, her stories are about people of a generation just before me; More...
Dec 27, 2009
Mag
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I love it and am a bit ambivalent at the same time. Munro’s stories are so close to real life, and so undisguised, and about such difficult subjects, that reading her is like going to the therapist. She is an absolute master of the structure, the intrigue and the style. Once I start reading, I cannot stop. I just get immersed in her, and can’t even stop thinking about what she writes when I am not reading. I guess she is just too intense for me. She reaches somewhere in my psyche, and exposes tr
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Sep 01, 2011
Vivianne
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There's nothing extra in these stories. In some aspects, they seem almost laconic. And yet they brim with richly, distinctively-drawn people. The events range from small to momentous, but they gain their impact from the impress they make on her characters' minds and hearts. The final story, "The Bear Comes Over the Mountain," is utterly amazing. I'd seen the movie made from it, Away From Her, so I knew the basic outline of the story and, because it's an excellent movie, I'd caught many
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Dec 14, 2010
Paola
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La Munro eccelle nella potente capacità di farti passeggiare nei pensieri dei personaggi, di farti entrare dalla porta principale di quello che si chiama dialogo interiore o flusso di coscienza che ognuno di noi sperimenta quotidianamente, che non si interrompe mai nello stato di veglia.
Le storie raccontate dalla Munro sono minimal, sono i piccoli e grandi eventi quotidiani della vita di uomini e donne.
La maestria della Munro é quella di saper trascrivere in modo preciso e nei minimi dettagli l More...
Le storie raccontate dalla Munro sono minimal, sono i piccoli e grandi eventi quotidiani della vita di uomini e donne.
La maestria della Munro é quella di saper trascrivere in modo preciso e nei minimi dettagli l More...
Oct 09, 2010
Steven
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Ingenious writer who makes the ordinary an epiphany of sorts. Positive, yet also scary, world view that change can come at any time and you've got to be able to adapt--usually emotionally. Also a wordsmith, though not as strongly as Updike. Characters fill out stereotypes after awhile--men are unimaginative dolts, who, because of their society, have to be that way to tend to the money, home, spousal and children support, etc. Women are emotional imaginatives who need that from their spouse,
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Jun 25, 2009
Amanda
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Alice Munro is a Canadian author who has written short stories since 1950. This year she won the Man Booker prize for one of her collections -- this one isn't it. My family recently took a trip to the Canadian side of Niagara Falls and found a nice little independent bookshop (and who doesn't love those?) and Munro seemed like the perfect thing for the 10-hour car ride back. In this book there are several stories that really stuck with me...some sentences that have amazing descriptions. She is g
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Jul 06, 2009
Carol
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This is my first time reading the Canadian writer Alice Munro. I really enjoyed all nine stories, with my favorite being "Nettles." In reading them one after another, they did start to all seem the same in a way, with a heavy emphasis on people being unfaithful in a relationship and what that did to both parties.
Here is a quote that, for me, sums up one of the main themes of the book. It is from The Bear Came Over the Mountain. The main character, Fiona, says (about I More...
Here is a quote that, for me, sums up one of the main themes of the book. It is from The Bear Came Over the Mountain. The main character, Fiona, says (about I More...
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Oct 22, 2010
Jeff
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I really want to give this 3 and a half stars, because it has a lot of great things about it. The problem with Munro's work is that once you've read one of these stories, it feels like you've read them all. Many characters and themes overlap from story to story and her techniques stay the same. In my Fiction Workshop, someone came up with the idea that she's the AC/DC of short story writing and I have to agree with this assessment. In honor of this wonderful assessment here is my suggestion
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Jan 08, 2010
Sara
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I think Alice Munro may be one of the best short story writers working today. Her prose is clean but also sharp and surprising, and she's an incredible structuralist. Each story is like a tabletop of mixed-up puzzle pieces you have to fit together. She trusts her reader. She's also gotten JCO-style prolific lately, releasing a collection almost every year and they're always pretty stellar. This one came out in 2001 and is most well-known for including the story that the film 'Away From Her' was
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