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267th out of 447 books
—
828 voters
Something I've Been Meaning to Tell You: 13 Stories
by
Alice Munro
In the thirteen stories in her remarkable second collection, Alice Munro demonstrates the precise observation, straightforward prose style, and masterful technique that led no less a critic than John Updike to compare her to Chekhov. The sisters, mothers and daughters, aunts, grandmothers, and friends in these stories shimmer with hope and love, anger and reconciliation, a...more
Paperback, 256 pages
Published
October 12th 2004
by Vintage
(first published 1974)
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I love Munro's writing. She reminds me of all the complexities of a woman's relationships. As daughters, sisters, wives, lovers, friends. God, she writes sisterly characters exceptionally well. I'm especially drawn to stories of elderly sisters, often living together after one or the other is widowed. There is love, but there is all this history and conflict between them, as in the title story. Memorial is another sister story, about one sister arriving at the other's home for her teenage son's...more
Oct 01, 2009
Kirsten
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Munro fans; women; humans.
There's an odd mixture of sadness and pleasure to be gained from reading Munro. Time and again, I finish her stories, and all I can think is "She *gets* it," which isn't really a sufficient way of encapsulating her artistry as a story-teller. I enjoyed this entertaining review by Jonathan Franzen, and agree with everything he has to say: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage...
"Something I've Been Meaning To Tell You" is Munro's second collection, and was published in 1974. Compared with her lat...more
"Something I've Been Meaning To Tell You" is Munro's second collection, and was published in 1974. Compared with her lat...more
In Dance of the Happy Shades, Alice Munro found herself on several occasions visitor to a richly dilemmatic territory of storytelling that her mature work has since lived in. But, about as she was with those narratives that moved organically and to unbound endings, she stayed as often in places that were visibly finite and grounded by their styles in the time they were written. Something I've Been Meaning to Tell You looks like a conversation between these two different approaches, or between tw...more
Written in the early seventies, some of the stories are strongly marked by the hippie culture of the time. If you can get beyond this the stories are very good.
I thought I had read everything Alice Munroe has written, when I came across this collection in a used book store (where I generally like to purchase my books).
While I loved some of the stories, in particular, "How I met my husband", and "Tell me yes or no", there were a few I had to force myself through, which has never happened to me with this author before. Having said that, it is still a highly worthwhile read. Her characters are richly developed, and evoked a sense of curiosity and wonder....more
While I loved some of the stories, in particular, "How I met my husband", and "Tell me yes or no", there were a few I had to force myself through, which has never happened to me with this author before. Having said that, it is still a highly worthwhile read. Her characters are richly developed, and evoked a sense of curiosity and wonder....more
Oct 02, 2010
Tim
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
fiction,
short,
stories,
canadian,
canada,
women,
female,
characters,
protagonists,
childhood,
marriage,
death,
rural,
life,
provincial,
wellington,
public,
library
I'm not a huge fan of realism as a genre, but Alice Munro is such a good writer that I always enjoy her work. She is outstanding at shaping her short stories in such a way that they proceed logically, yet not predictably, from introduction to conclusion. The only slight criticism I have is that the range of the stories in this book is small: they are about similar women in similar situations. One or two stories with different settings or protagonists would provide the mixture with a little more...more
Jun 17, 2008
Kerri
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Lovers of short stories and the inner workings of women
Recommended to Kerri by:
Sarah
Shelves:
short-stories,
fiction
This collection of short stories got off to a slow start, and finished off the same way for me. But the middle was biting and raw, and those stories really hit at the core of some of the more uncomfortable feelings of being human (or female, specifically)?
I remember now that I tried to start this book long ago, and put it aside before finishing the first story-- I just couldn't get into it. That first story had me stuck again. It's the type of thing where you read five pages and realized you ha...more
I remember now that I tried to start this book long ago, and put it aside before finishing the first story-- I just couldn't get into it. That first story had me stuck again. It's the type of thing where you read five pages and realized you ha...more
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Munro's second collection of stories (originally published in 1974) is a fine book, and the stories have all of Munro's essential signature elements -- a minimal plot, vivid and surprising (yet entirely apt) depictions of rural Canada, and deep character development obtained with a pasimonious expenditure of words. Ultimately, though, they pale in comparison to her later, more finished, works like those found in "Friend of My Youth" or "Runaway".
I am not sure how I missed out on Alice Munro for all of these years -- I am completely under her spell. I was incensed and confused by a New York Times review I found from the year of its publication in which the reviewer condescendingly refers to Munro's work as, "well-made" and "journeymen's work."
http://www.nytimes.com/1974/10/27/boo...
The reviewer complains,
"Alice Munro's subject matter is ordinariness--disappointment, the passage of time--but she doesn't bring to her stories what, say, J...more
http://www.nytimes.com/1974/10/27/boo...
The reviewer complains,
"Alice Munro's subject matter is ordinariness--disappointment, the passage of time--but she doesn't bring to her stories what, say, J...more
Apr 24, 2012
Nicola
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
2012-books,
challenge-books
I do not know why I keep doing this - I do not like short stories. A friend suggested this to me, and I have had it sitting around for a while. I finally read it. While the writing was good, I always find it difficult to enjoy a short story - it just is not enough for me. The rating is more of a personal opinion than a reflection on the book or the author.
I love everything Alice Munro writes; in my mind the woman can do no wrong. I had read this collection years ago, but they were the stories I had read less frequently than most of her other collections. "Tell Me Yes or No" is a sentimental favorite. I just needed a fix while I'm on the library waiting list for "Dear Life."
The hub has got it into his head that I like Alice Munro. Well, he’s right about that, but it doesn’t mean he can keep on giving me Munro’s books ad infinitum. In the first place, theres a finite supply, and in the second place, I’ve already read most of them. When this turned up for me on xmas, I was sure I’d read it. But either my memory is worse than I think it is, or I had not. I wish I could say what it is that a love about Munro’s writing. She ignores the advice that a short story should c...more
I read her with utter absorption. Beautiful, stunning writing. Nonjudgmental but dead-on exposure of feminine complexity. I learn something significant, sometimes momentous, about myself and other women EVERY time I read one of her amazing collections of short stories. I adore this author!
This is another great collection of stories by Munro. My only slight criticism is that there isn't much range between these stories. They all seem to be centered around women in similar situations. Other than that, highly recommended!
There seems to be a continuity that occurs in books up to Virginia Woolf, and then disappears in books after her. I'm not sure if that's real, or if I just want it to explain why I don't like so much modern literature.
I'm a sucker for Alice Munro stories, but there are collections of hers I consider better. It doesn't get much better than The Love of a Good Woman. In Something I've Been Meaning to Tell You, "Material," "Forgiveness in Families," and "How I Met My Husband" are favorites.
As always these stories of Canadian women are forceful and poignant. Many of them I have read in other collections or anthologies, but are still a pleasure to read again.
Nov 04, 2010
Eswrowell
is currently reading it
Early Munro, makes me hopeful for my own growth. She's not quite as perfect then as she is now. Genesis isn't necessarily born. It can be cultivated.
Burned through this, the third Alice Munro book, in just over one day. You won't want to put it down. On to book four!
Great, as always. One of her earlier books, so interesting to see how her style has developed, and where it began.
Not quite as fabulously perfect as her later collections, but still essentially, wonderfully Munro.
Alice Munro is one of the best things to come out of Canada. Her writing more than makes up for Alanis Morissette.
And Celine Dion.
And Celine Dion.
May 07, 2011
Phyllis Jennings
added it
What a short story writer!
Jun 30, 2008
Tim
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
fiction,
short,
stories,
canadian,
canada,
women,
female,
characters,
protagonists,
childhood,
marriage,
death,
rural,
life,
provincial,
wellington,
public,
library
I'm not a huge fan of realism as a genre, but Alice Munro is such a good writer that I always enjoy her work. She is outstanding at shaping her short stories in such a way that they proceed logically, yet not predictably, from introduction to conclusion. The only slight criticism I have is that the range of the stories in this book is small: they are about similar women in similar situations. One or two stories with different settings or protagonists would provide the mixture with a little more...more
Alice Munro just gets it. It amazes me how she can capture the entirety of a person's life, including all its complexities, in just a few pages.
Enjoyed this collection a lot. A couple of the stories have that late 60s/early 70s social commentary going on that makes them dated and hard to relate to, but aside from those, this collection is full of stories written by a woman who seemed concerned & reflective about what happens to the relationships of women as they age, and how their life experiences are effected.
Okay, so I haven't actually read all of them because so far I'm near the end and have loved only one story, but the others are okay. I can say that every now and then I think about these characters, which is maybe a greater compliment to Munro: I didn't like everyone or what happened, but they have stayed with me somehow.
Alice Munro can't write a bad story, but some selections in this book were stronger than others. She conveys a very strong sense of place and even her early works portray human nature in raw, vulnerable and poignant terms. This book was one of my book club suggestions and I was surprised to see it had "won" over other works.
These stories are a bit experimental in their non-linear storytelling format, but the material itself feels familiar - not alien as one might expect from modern literature. Most of the stories are about older women, many of whom are divorced or single, who have a secret knowledge of something... (hence the title).
Jun 09, 2007
Sharon
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
anyone who loves stories
Shelves:
booksalreadyread
This is early Munro, but let's face it, there's no such thing as bad Alice Munro. Shows of lot of the themes that she will go on to explore in other books--the poor girl working for the wealthy family; men leaving and women left behind; issues of class and female jealousy.
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Alice Ann Munro, née Laidlaw (born 10 July 1931) is a Canadian short-story writer who is widely considered one of the world's premier fiction writers. Munro is a three-time winner of Canada's Governor General's Award for fiction. Her stories focus on human relationships looked at through the lens of daily life. She has thus been referred to as "the Canadian Chekhov."
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“The unhappiest moment I could never tell you. All our fights blend into each other and are in fact re-enactments of the same fight, in which we punish each other--I with words, Hugh with silence--for being each other. We never needed any more than that.”
—
11 people liked it
“Hugo felt the world was hostile to his writing, he felt not only all its human inhabitants but its noises and diversions and ordinary clutter were linked against him, maliciously, purposefully, diabolically thwarting and maiming him and keeping him from his work. And I, whose business it was to throw myself between him and the world, was failing to do so, by choice perhaps as much as ineptitude for the job. I did not believe in him. I had not understood how it would be necessary to believe in him. I believed that he was clever and talented, whatever that might mean, but I was not sure he would turn out to be a writer. He did not have the authority I thought a writer should have. He was too nervous, too touchy with everybody, too much of a showoff. I believed that writers were calm, sad people, knowing too much. I believed that there was a difference about them, some hard and shining, rare intimidating quality they had from the beginning, and Hugo didn’t have it. I thought that someday he would recognize this. Meanwhile, he lived in a world whose rewards and punishments were as strange, as hidden from me, as if he had been a lunatic.”
—
2 people liked it
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