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148th out of 1,192 books
—
891 voters
Open Secrets
by
Alice Munro
In these eight tales, Munro evokes the devastating power of old love suddenly recollected. She tells of vanished schoolgirls and indentured frontier brides and an eccentric recluse who, in the course of one surpassingly odd dinner party, inadvertently lands herself a wealthy suitor from exotic Australia. And Munro shows us how one woman's romantic tale of capture and escap...more
Paperback, 304 pages
Published
November 7th 1995
by Vintage
(first published 1994)
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On Tuesday morning, while Frances was getting breakfast and Maureen was helping her husband to finish dressing, there was a knock at the front door, by someone who did not notice or trust the bell.
I love sentences like that, ones that stop me, draw me in; ones that introduce, define, portend. Alice Munro can not help herself from writing sentences like that, inventing such people.
Like this:
When Bea spoke of having had a checkered career, she was taking a sarcastic or disparaging tone that did no...more
I love sentences like that, ones that stop me, draw me in; ones that introduce, define, portend. Alice Munro can not help herself from writing sentences like that, inventing such people.
Like this:
When Bea spoke of having had a checkered career, she was taking a sarcastic or disparaging tone that did no...more
I don't think it's Alice Munro's fault. I think I just overdosed on her short stories. I loved Runaway, I liked Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage, and this one ... eh. Nothing in this collection really grabbed me.
The stories I enjoyed most were:
-- Open Secrets, because it's about a crime. A girl disappears while on a hiking trip. Because of a tale told by a woman who lives near the woods, a strange elderly man falls under suspicion, but no body is found and there is no eviden...more
The stories I enjoyed most were:
-- Open Secrets, because it's about a crime. A girl disappears while on a hiking trip. Because of a tale told by a woman who lives near the woods, a strange elderly man falls under suspicion, but no body is found and there is no eviden...more
Escribir relatos no es fácil. En pocas páginas han de caber el planteamiento, el nudo y el desenlace (aunque esta norma no se aplica necesariamente a según qué cuentos y qué escritores). El germen de una historia ha de estar presente. Ésto es algo, quizás al no ser escritor, que me resulta difícil de entender, el que tenga (el escritor) una idea que podría desarrollar y convertirla en novela, pero que al final decida cortar por lo sano y darle un fin en pocas páginas. Está claro que muchos cuent...more
Feb 14, 2008
Spiros
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Aficionados of great writing
Shelves:
freebox
Clarity and elegance: those are the words I would choose to characterize Alice Munro's writing. These stories limn the provincial Ontario town of Carstairs, from its inception in the 1850's through the present day; the town is brought to life through the travails of its residents, even those who have moved to more exotic locales, every bit as palpably as Spoon River or Grover's Corner.
Were I a Canuck, I would regard Alice Munro as a National Treasure; from the outside, I would say that the Awa...more
Were I a Canuck, I would regard Alice Munro as a National Treasure; from the outside, I would say that the Awa...more
Alice Munro's Open Secrets is a very strong collection of stories. Whether she is "our Chekhov," as Cynthia Ozick blurbs on the back cover, remains to be seen. She has a fine touch and a creative mind; but like a true and steady craftsman, she has a trick too – shhhh, there will be a (small/large) "twist/turn" to every story – something to take you to the alternative state of mind. What does this mean? Nothing, really. But as a reader I alternated between delight and ho-hum, there we go again. O...more
There are a couple of clever 'letter writing' stories here...
This book contains eight short stories written by Alice Munro, a gifted short story writer. I read them all and was sadly disappointed that they did not capture me as much as I'd hoped. My favorite stories were CARRIED AWAY and A WILDERNESS STATION. I really liked her clever usage of 'letter writing' as letters were intertwined into the stories. I also found some great lines in her stories, but it wasn't one of those "I can't put this...more
This book contains eight short stories written by Alice Munro, a gifted short story writer. I read them all and was sadly disappointed that they did not capture me as much as I'd hoped. My favorite stories were CARRIED AWAY and A WILDERNESS STATION. I really liked her clever usage of 'letter writing' as letters were intertwined into the stories. I also found some great lines in her stories, but it wasn't one of those "I can't put this...more
These stories are kind of peculiar. Very subdued, and on the surface often uneventful, they're also filled with little details that give a sense of magnitude and richness to their world. If you imagine narrative as a path, these details are like things clustered closely to the path's sides, even spilling over into it, giving you a sense of the wider and ultimately interconnected reality which enmeshes any sequence of events in the life of an individual, fictional or otherwise. Several of the sto...more
4 likes · like · see review
I've been meaning to read Alice Munro for a while. karen put Canadian authors on my radar as a group with George Elliot Clarke, and brian's reviews of her books have been tantalizing. Then the gauntlet was thrown down by that sleazy architect-loving Blake. Well, not really, but I perceived a gauntlet. Architects suck!
With the first story, I'm hooked. Amazing. I'm not even done with it yet, the very first story, but...so good. A simple tale that touches down on a solitary librarian's life like a...more
With the first story, I'm hooked. Amazing. I'm not even done with it yet, the very first story, but...so good. A simple tale that touches down on a solitary librarian's life like a...more
9 likes · like · see review
I bow to Alice Munro's character development, and interweaving texture in to stories that occur in and across space and time. These stories all left me with a bittersweet melancholy feeling, a longing to stare out the window and think of the way the lives of others have impacted my own in ways I can't even fathom, and will never be able to. Life is so interesting in that way! Anyway, the stories in this collection are set in different periods throughout history - from mid 1800's to World War I t...more
Some spoilers here, beware...
It's hard to know what to say about the work of Alice Munro simply because it is so astonishing and distinctive. As one of the blurbs on _The Love of a Good Woman_ says, she has her own, particular magic. Often during my reading of _Open Secrets_ I would stop and stare out the window, trying to wrap my mind around her method. She definitely does proceed by a method. It allows her to make web-like stories in which events unfold here and then there, out of traditional...more
It's hard to know what to say about the work of Alice Munro simply because it is so astonishing and distinctive. As one of the blurbs on _The Love of a Good Woman_ says, she has her own, particular magic. Often during my reading of _Open Secrets_ I would stop and stare out the window, trying to wrap my mind around her method. She definitely does proceed by a method. It allows her to make web-like stories in which events unfold here and then there, out of traditional...more
i've been meaning to read some alice munro for several years but couldn't quite get around to it. finally my friend kevin gave me this collection for christmas- hooray!- and she has absolutely lived up to my expectations. normally with short stories i take a break between each story or so, but with this collection i just wanted to keep going. it helped that the first story featured a librarian who sassily drinks wine each night. off to a great start!
it's hard to put my finger on what i liked so...more
it's hard to put my finger on what i liked so...more
1 like · like · see review
I finally get why people like Alice Munro. These stories are quite amazing--though I can't quite articulate what I find amazing about them. They are extremely subtle both in form and content; they seem to be about the slow unfolding of, for lack of a better term, wisdom, or revelation in life, or about, after many many years of boring, daily life, starting to "get it" and understand who you are and what your place is in the scheme of things. Munro writes with a deceptive ease; her prose is very...more
A lot of people find Alice Munro boring, even dated, but I like the fact that her stories are real - about real people and places, and never over the top. Though nothing much happens in these 8 pieces, at the same time they are as much puzzling as they are captivating. Here's an example of how she subtley and easily sets the mood for an uneventful event from "Open Secrets": They were grabbing the hose from each other and doing tricks and ... getting hold of the hose and shooting water on the res...more
My first time reading Munro. I have always heard how she is one of the masters of the short story, and I do think she's brilliant. I would also guess that Franzen is a devotee, as his writing style reminds me of hers. Her characters are beautifully drawn and complex. She's very skilled at squeezing a novel's worth of character development into about 35 pages and it never feels rushed or forced, but very natural. Her stories are also so quiet and sad, and yet there is almost always an emotional g...more
I was reminded that people now are much like people in ages past with similar strengths, weaknesses, hang-ups, confusions and the daily routines that bind societies together.
Similarly individuals develop gradually over a lifetime and things that would have seemed absurd when viewed as young people became natural and normal as they grew old.
The norms and values of a society are all powerful and form the lives we live yet over a time period of decades or generations change so fundamentally that th...more
Similarly individuals develop gradually over a lifetime and things that would have seemed absurd when viewed as young people became natural and normal as they grew old.
The norms and values of a society are all powerful and form the lives we live yet over a time period of decades or generations change so fundamentally that th...more
...but what she did think -- and she knew that this was very regressive and bad form -- what she did think was that some women, women like herself, might be always on the lookout for an insanity that could contain them. For what was living with a man if it wasn't living inside his insanity? A man could have a very ordinary, very unremarkable, insanity, such as his devotion to a ball team. But that might not be enough, not big enough -- and an insanity that was not big enough simply made a woman...more
"One whole summer, Eunie and Rhea played together, but they never had thought of their activity as play. Playing was what they called it to satisfy other people. It was the most serious part of their lives. What they did the rest of the time seemed frivolous, forgettable. When they cut from Eunie's yard down to the riverbank, they became different people. Each of them was called Tom. The Two Toms. A Tom was a noun to them, not just a name. It was not male or female. It meant somebody exceptional...more
Open Secrets is a collection of eight short stories, each centering on the whole-life spans of women who experience loss; most often, the loss of love, though the quiet, underlying theme of self-deception and self-delusion is foreshadowed in the title itself: the truth is plainly visible, but only if the characters choose to see it. It is important to note that readers of these stories must detect truths and answers, none of which are clear cut or easily discernable, and that we may change our i...more
"These are stories in which women are central," according to the inside cover. Oh yes they are. And that's fine, fine, fine. Men are not only peripheral. They are by turns toxic, tepid and/or total douchebags, while the women are, well, not those things. I overstate. A little. One line, from the final story, is revealing. "For what was living with a man if it wasn't living inside his insanity?" Can it really be that? Let's hope so.
And yet, these are stories that are superbly written.
And yet, these are stories that are superbly written.
These are the kinds of subtle, country-life, family/relationship-centered stories that I could never hope to write. Stories that, at their most dramatic, are about something not happening.
At the same time, however, I think I could learn a lot from Alice Munro. She does weird in a way that I can aspire to--the kind of weird that sneaks in under the crack in the door, so you don't even notice it until it's upon you. (A librarian wanders into the afterlife and meets the man she might have married....more
At the same time, however, I think I could learn a lot from Alice Munro. She does weird in a way that I can aspire to--the kind of weird that sneaks in under the crack in the door, so you don't even notice it until it's upon you. (A librarian wanders into the afterlife and meets the man she might have married....more
I think I might give up on this one for a while. I feel like I'm in a giving-up phase. Could it be winter? I read three of the stories, all of which were engrossing and beautifully written, until the last page. Munro is trying to be...experimental? She did this with one of her most recent books, The View from Castle Rock. I only lasted 5 pages in that one. These stories are so good and then you get to the last page--seriously, the LAST page--and you're like, WTF, Alice? WTF?
Okay, after reading G...more
Okay, after reading G...more
Munro is clearly a master in the genre. While some of the stories left me a bit cold--Vandals, Spaceships Have Landed, and The Jack Randa Hotel--the other five were simply superb. In "A Real Life," the characters are so well drawn as to have you thinking they're sitting next to you, telling their stories. Dorrie is an incredible character, and I love the ways in which Munro plays with 'myths' of Canada and the people who reside there--to great effect, in particular, in this story. "The Albanian...more
My friend Lawrence likes to tell me about books. I had read Munro on his recommendation about three years before (Friend of My Youth). Interesting, but I was 26 years old. It didn't overtake me. So we are sitting at a Sunday potluck three years later and he starts telling me about this story in Open Secrets called 'The Albanian Virgin' - how it starts off about this woman in Albania and then totally switches gears and goes to a hospital room years later where the 'I' narrator comes in and tells...more
I first read Alice Munro in Harper's magazine, and was so struck by the involvement i felt upon reading her story, that the next time i was at the library i picked up this collection, which was enjoyed immensely. She is great at capturing people, which is something i find extremely important, as someone who is constantly forming character studies of my own, in daily life. If i could ever write, hopefully i would be as good as getting people's nuances across as this. Alice Munro makes you care ab...more
I don't know why i had such a tough time with this book. It's really hard for me to rate it. But i can't give it less than 4 big ones.
The first story really turned me off, it felt way too ladies-book-clubby and i did not find it charming at all, and i wasn't in a hurry to pick the book up again after it started that way. I did pick it back up though, and became increasingly into the book with each following piece. At times the plots would bore me a little, is the thing, and i would find myself s...more
The first story really turned me off, it felt way too ladies-book-clubby and i did not find it charming at all, and i wasn't in a hurry to pick the book up again after it started that way. I did pick it back up though, and became increasingly into the book with each following piece. At times the plots would bore me a little, is the thing, and i would find myself s...more
This is the 3rd Alice Munro short story collection I read, and I can't decide if it was the most or the least sophisticated of them. Of course, the characters and themes resonated with me, as always, and I find myself even now pondering them. But the stories seemed less reader-friendly overall. Does that say something about her as the writer or me as the reader? I'm not sure.
In any case, I had to reread whole big sections of the book and still don't know how story lines made peace with themselv...more
In any case, I had to reread whole big sections of the book and still don't know how story lines made peace with themselv...more
I thought some of the stories were amazing, but about equally as many I didn't like much. Partly because I have read this book over a long period of time, a story here and a story there. I am still thinking about some of them and some deserve a re-read on my part, just to make sure the disinterest was more about the story than my mood at the time. Munro is a gifted writer, no doubt about it. I also just like reading short stories rather than a novel sometimes.
I love Alice Munro's writing. The stories in this book were mostly good ones but I didn't like the last one, entitled "Vandals." Even though one doesn't like a story of hers, the writing is still top notch. I am editing this because I talked to a friend who had read this book also and we discussed this story, "Vandals." Somehow, I totally missed the point - which I won't give away here -and I now realize that the vandalizing makes perfect sense. So I must admit that "Vandals" was better than I m...more
Open Secrets: Stories by Alice Munro is an anthology that is typically set in small-town Ontario, with some of the some characters transitioning and interconnecting within the different stories. These stories gave me the feeling of hope and anxiety that I equate with the exploits of the youth. Including characters both young and old gave me the intergenerational connection that I longed for.
4 Stars
4 Stars
Everything they say about Alice Munro is true. Her stories are deep, novel and haunting. Wonderful and disturbing. Her characters are flawed and mysterious. Why they do the things they do, we'll never know. But then, maybe we do know after all.
The most appalling acts have origins in some distant past event, or in a bizarre stubborn individuality.
Letters provide a narrative when "real" events are hidden from us. We read the words written by the characters explaining everything, or hiding behind...more
The most appalling acts have origins in some distant past event, or in a bizarre stubborn individuality.
Letters provide a narrative when "real" events are hidden from us. We read the words written by the characters explaining everything, or hiding behind...more
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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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“You cannot let your parents anywhere near your real humiliations.”
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“It was at this time that she entirely gave up on reading.
The covers of books looked like coffins to her, either shabby or ornate, and what was inside them might as well have been dust.”
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The covers of books looked like coffins to her, either shabby or ornate, and what was inside them might as well have been dust.”
Apr 29, 2013 10:05am
Apr 29, 2013 10:19am