false 14281 11 "Too many things," a creative writing instructor tells the narrator of "Differently." "Too many things going on at the same time; also too many people. Think, he told her. What is the important thing? What do you want us to pay attention to? Think." What does Alice Munro want us to pay attention to in her <I>Selected Stories</I>? Everything, really, and so her narratives loop back on themselves, jump decades backward and forward in time, introduce characters who later drop out of the action, and generally break every rule in the short-story-writing book. In "Carried Away," for instance, a dead character makes a sudden, inexplicable appearance in what is otherwise the thoroughly naturalistic account of a librarian's disappointment with love. "The Albanian Virgin" is two stories in one: the first--the fanciful tale of Ghegs kidnapping a young Canadian woman--is told within the second, about a bookstore owner who has lost her own bearings after a divorce. There are stories that begin with their endings, and several more that end with beginnings; others are told from three or four different angles, each with varying degrees of reliability. Taken together, they form an intricate web of relationships and connections, falsehood and anecdote, a kind of fictional palimpsest laid over the faint traces of plot.<p> And yet Munro trusts her readers; she believes that we will pay attention to all these things and more. She aims to create the illusion that everything in her fiction has been left in, and it is this very capaciousness that sets her work apart, making possible the keen psychological insight of her stories about marriage as well as the cool violence of "Vandals" or "Fits." Hers is an unusual sort of realism, technically innovative and amenable--especially in the later work--to loose ends. (It also possesses a quick, flinty wit: "This was the first time I understood how God could become a real opponent, not just some kind of nuisance or large decoration," says the narrator of "The Progress of Love.") To call Munro the Canadian Chekhov is by now a commonplace--and yet she may have done more for the short fiction form than any writer since. These are stories that will be read, savored, and admired hundreds of years from now. <I>--Mary Park</I> 351589 1996 Selected Stories total:595|5:319|4:191|3:64|2:13|1:8| 595 2585 974 64 14281 067976674X 9780679766742 557 57 4.34 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14281.Selected_Stories 5 2 false Fri Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Fri Aug 03 15:47:08 -0700 2007 Fri Aug 03 16:43:10 -0700 2007
Munro's stories are brief, but the impressions her characters an...more...]]> 14281 067976674X 9780679766742 557 57 4.34 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14281.Selected_Stories 5 1 false Sat Mar 07 15:13:09 -0800 2009 Sat Mar 07 16:46:24 -0800 2009 more...]]> 14281 067976674X 9780679766742 557 57 4.34 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14281.Selected_Stories 5 2 false Mon Nov 10 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Tue Sep 23 13:27:01 -0700 2008 Fri Jan 23 14:50:02 -0800 2009 more...]]> 14281 067976674X 9780679766742 557 57 4.34 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14281.Selected_Stories 4 1 false Sat Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Thu Dec 04 05:21:43 -0800 2008 Thu Dec 04 05:25:44 -0800 2008 more...]]> 14281 067976674X 9780679766742 557 57 4.34 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14281.Selected_Stories 5 1 false Fri May 02 14:15:14 -0700 2008 Tue Apr 08 08:59:50 -0700 2008 Fri May 02 14:15:14 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3150550 0701165219 9780701165215 1 1 4.34 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3150550.Selected_stories 0 0 false Tue Feb 24 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sun Feb 15 20:40:48 -0800 2009 Tue Feb 24 15:34:27 -0800 2009
I have read only one short story in the collection, though not for the reason that people usually leave off reading a book, that is, not because I was unsatisfied with what I had read. On t...more...]]> 14281 067976674X 9780679766742 557 57 4.34 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14281.Selected_Stories 5 3 false Sun Aug 09 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 29 04:20:48 -0700 2009 Fri Aug 14 09:08:08 -0700 2009 the best.

I love short stories but although I have read Munro before, I have never quite clicked with any of hers. And I love that ‘click’ that comes with th...more...]]> 14281 067976674X 9780679766742 557 57 4.34 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14281.Selected_Stories 5 0 false Mon Jun 15 19:09:40 -0700 2009 Fri Jul 03 17:58:15 -0700 2009
Munro is a genius. The stories are beautifully written and constantly shift in unexpected directions. She does fascinating things with time and the narrators' voices but you barely notice any of the technical work because the stories are so engrossing. The stories spa...more...]]> 14281 067976674X 9780679766742 557 57 4.34 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14281.Selected_Stories 5 0 false Mon Apr 21 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Apr 16 20:51:03 -0700 2008 Fri Jun 13 19:23:46 -0700 2008 more...]]> 14281 067976674X 9780679766742 557 57 4.34 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14281.Selected_Stories 5 0 false Sat Feb 02 12:41:29 -0800 2008 Sat Feb 02 13:43:44 -0800 2008 more...]]> 14281 067976674X 9780679766742 557 57 4.34 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14281.Selected_Stories 4 0 false Sun Aug 02 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Jul 20 08:56:23 -0700 2009 Sun Aug 02 22:02:58 -0700 2009 more...]]> 14281 067976674X 9780679766742 557 57 4.34 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14281.Selected_Stories 5 0 false Sat May 03 20:23:11 -0700 2008 Sat May 03 20:53:12 -0700 2008 “Georgia once took a creative writing class, and what the instructor told her was: Too many things. Too many things going on at the same time; ...more...]]> 14281 067976674X 9780679766742 557 57 4.34 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14281.Selected_Stories 4 0 false Tue Aug 04 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Aug 04 17:26:32 -0700 2009 Tue Aug 04 17:28:29 -0700 2009 14281 067976674X 9780679766742 557 57 4.34 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14281.Selected_Stories 5 0 false Wed Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Jul 06 13:34:32 -0700 2009 Mon Jul 06 13:34:32 -0700 2009 more...]]> 14281 067976674X 9780679766742 557 57 4.34 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14281.Selected_Stories 5 0 false Mon Jun 22 14:17:29 -0700 2009 Mon Jun 22 14:19:07 -0700 2009 3150551 0771065205 9780771065200 2 2 4.34 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3150551.ALICE_MUNRO_SELECTED 5 0 false Mon Jun 08 23:01:55 -0700 2009 Mon Jun 08 23:02:58 -0700 2009 14281 067976674X 9780679766742 557 57 4.34 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14281.Selected_Stories 4 0 false Fri Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Mon Sep 07 17:05:22 -0700 2009 Mon Sep 07 17:06:17 -0700 2009 14281 067976674X 9780679766742 557 57 4.34 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14281.Selected_Stories 3 0 false Tue Nov 10 13:00:48 -0800 2009 Tue Nov 10 13:01:29 -0800 2009 14281 067976674X 9780679766742 557 57 4.34 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14281.Selected_Stories 5 0 false Sat Oct 31 08:06:14 -0700 2009 Sat Oct 31 08:08:53 -0700 2009 14281 067976674X 9780679766742 557 57 4.34 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14281.Selected_Stories 5 0 false Tue May 19 11:03:15 -0700 2009 Tue May 19 11:04:58 -0700 2009 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=14281