Runaway
by Alice Munro
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 1885)
Read in May, 2008
I was a little reluctant to begin reading more work by Alice Munro, as the images burned into my brain by "Wild Swans" have never fully left.
This collection is not nearly so haunting as I remember Alice Munro's other stories, and therefore also more enjoyable. Some of the pieces, notably "Runaway" and "Grace," had me forgetting that I was reading Alice Munro, and not that other prolific Canadian author, Margaret Atwood. Maybe there is something similar about the...more
This collection is not nearly so haunting as I remember Alice Munro's other stories, and therefore also more enjoyable. Some of the pieces, notably "Runaway" and "Grace," had me forgetting that I was reading Alice Munro, and not that other prolific Canadian author, Margaret Atwood. Maybe there is something similar about the...more
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Read in December, 2007
This was my first Alice Munro exploration, after years of having read about her reign as the queen of short stories. Overall, I was impressed, but not all stories are created equally, and some resonated more than others.
I was particularly impressed with "Passion," a story that flashes back on the summer of a young woman working as a waitress in a lake front community. With her future seemingly set in stone, she happens to come into contact with a wealthy family that owns a home on ...more
I was particularly impressed with "Passion," a story that flashes back on the summer of a young woman working as a waitress in a lake front community. With her future seemingly set in stone, she happens to come into contact with a wealthy family that owns a home on ...more
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Read in January, 2007
I am not big into short stories anymore, but this book kept popping up what felt like everywhere, so finally I gave in & decided to give it a shot. I had heard such good things! Unfortunately, I was largely disappointed. Munro is a very good writer, but it just didn't engage me. I especially found the 3 stories that followed the same character to be somewhat bland. She started off with a bang in her first story, but then it kind of went slow. It was a nice book to be able to pick up &a...more
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Read in May, 2008
Short stories can be deeply unsatisfying. Too often the nuance overshadows character and plot development, as if the author is cruelly trying to offer the reader a tiny taste of a story before yanking it away again. No so with Alice Munro. She writes with such simplicity and economy and mystery. The mystery arises from the way that she presents each story--just a few words at the outset, perfectly descriptive, but never overly so. And then the rest of it is just like (**alert**be prepared ...more
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Read in April, 2008
Here's what Jonathan Franzen (OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooo) said about this book in the NY Times Book Review:
Basically, Runaway is so good that I don't want to talk about it here. Quotation can't do the book justice, and neither can synopsis. The way to do it justice is to read it.
But here's what Michiko Kakutani says about it in the NY Times:
Instead of assuming the organic, musical form of real life, they feel like self-conscious, overworked tales, relying on awkwardly withheld sec...more
Basically, Runaway is so good that I don't want to talk about it here. Quotation can't do the book justice, and neither can synopsis. The way to do it justice is to read it.
But here's what Michiko Kakutani says about it in the NY Times:
Instead of assuming the organic, musical form of real life, they feel like self-conscious, overworked tales, relying on awkwardly withheld sec...more
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Alice Munro is an amazing short story writer. Runaway is yet another example of her mastery of the craft. Realistic, vividly drawn characters. Well-developed plots. Insight and wisdom about human nature . . . about choices and defining moments. Check, check, check. As always, she seems wise, like someone who, for better or worse, understands exactly how we humans work.
I was also interested in some of the recurring themes here: the nature of power, particularly for her characters, most...more
I was also interested in some of the recurring themes here: the nature of power, particularly for her characters, most...more
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Probably not the best collection of short stories I've ever read, but not the worst either. The three stories that surround the woman and her boyfriend/husband were really interesting. I liked the way the three of them interlinked and showed how their whole lives ended up. I really did not like the last story though. I felt that it was overly fragmented and very incomplete. First it starts out like a journal, then it goes to just straight narration and then it gives two possible endings. I...more
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Read in December, 2006
recommends it for:
Munro fans/connected short story lovers
Like most short story collections, not every story in the collection is a winner (I suppose the same could be said about chapters in a novel, but the deficiencies are more obvious in a short story collection). That's all a long way of saying that some of Munro's stories are fantastic (particularly the several connected stories that cover three periods in one woman's life) and some are lacking. I sort of wish that she had kept the collection devoted to her main female protagonist. Filling in th...more
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This is my second favorite book of 2004. (My first being The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time.) Munro is a master of the short story, and this collection of eight stories is some of her best writing. They are all small, intimate stories that reveal the mysteries, intricacies, and wonders beneath the surface of common life.
My favorite stories include "Soon", one of three stories including "Chance" and "Silence", that revolve around the character Jul...more
My favorite stories include "Soon", one of three stories including "Chance" and "Silence", that revolve around the character Jul...more
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As Jonathan Franzen says, Alice Munro is indeed the underappreciated master of the short story. Her stories are filled with quiet moments, wonderfully, empathetically observed human detail and surprising plot developments that bring great aesthetic pleasure. Her style is unassuming, no verbal pyrotechnics here, but just solid story-telling, at a measured pace that guides the reader with a sure and confident hand. And she never fails to illuminate the Canadian landscape and countryside that fo...more
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Read in April, 2007
Munro always gets heralded as the "greatest living writer" and all of that mumbo jumbo, but not for my buck. Do I think Munro has some gifts and talents as a writer, sure, yes I do, but I feel like she needs a better editor (if such a thing exists these days.) Most of her "short stories" are about 40 pages long. I always thought short stories were supposed to be digestible in one sitting and have a certain pacing. Sometimes I feel like she needs to make up her mind... are...more
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Read in December, 2006
recommends it for:
people who like good writing with a little twist
From the picture on the cover (shown here), I thought this collection of short stories would be a little too girly for me. I was pleasantly surprised. The eight stories all have women protagonists leading seemingly normal lives until…well, I’ll let you find out. I was very impressed with Munro’s deceptively simple plots that turn in unexpected and slightly disturbing directions. Honestly, I thought this was going to be a very ‘Oprah Book Club’- type book, by which I mean no offense, bu...more
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Read in June, 2008
Just finished reading this--loved it! Can't decide whether to give it 4 or 5 stars. This is surprising, because I'm really not a short story type person (give me a nice thick novel any day). So aside from a little Chekhov and some O'Henry, I haven't read many short stories.
But I really savored reading these stories. Each one revolves around a different woman as the central character (except for 3 connected stories which are about the same woman), and they are set in a variety of differe...more
But I really savored reading these stories. Each one revolves around a different woman as the central character (except for 3 connected stories which are about the same woman), and they are set in a variety of differe...more
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Read in September, 2007
Great book. Several short stories- some a few chapters long, some a few pages long. All following the stories of different women as central characters. So well written, these stories were engaging and are stuck in my mind- I keep thinking about what happened in each of these womens' lives and rolling it around in my head like it actually happened to me or something. And I think hidden within the really interesting tales and characters there were a few gems of lessons to be learned about a woman'...more
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Read in September, 2007
in recent attempts to find beauty in the art of the short story, combined with my current short attention span - a traveler on a journey, i breezed through this collection... i'm not sure if i'm still sold on short stories. i feel like i'm cheated and just get to know the characters and feel somewhat deprived, only getting this window glimpse... but sweeter i suppose for the brevity... i liked it enough to check out another collection... but none of the stories or characters remained with me (i'...more
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Read in May, 2008
I finally gave up on this. I wasn't really enjoying it, and I can't tell you if it's the stories that I just didn't like, or if it was the narration that made me not like the stories. I felt then narrator just kept the same tone throughout -- not a monotone, but it didn't really draw me in. And I felt that the sound of her voice really highlighted how the women in these stories just seem to let things happen to them and don't really do anything about it. On the one hand, a lot of Joyce Carol Oat...more
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Read in September, 2007
I found this book on a shelf in my aunt's house and have been slowly working through the stories in it. I feel pretty ambivalent about the book overall but I keep on coming back to read them. It's just that these stories seem to be classic examples of "good writing". You know, the kind of mush that is boiled up in creative writing workshops, that for some reason gets published in each issue of The New Yorker (half the stories in here first appeared in The New Yorker), the kind of writi...more
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Read in December, 2007
recommends it for:
Humanity
I have no way to describe how powerful this book is. I'm sure there's folks out there who've done closer job of that than I can even attempt, lauding it for its prose and the way it captures the texture of living and loss and the dull and inescapable ways in which existence slowly, quickly breaks our hearts. I'll just say that this collection of short stories is a rarity for me, in that I would reread it again from cover to cover, not leaving out a single word. I'm prepared to say that Alice Mun...more
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Read in January, 2008
I am trying to slow down because I am loving this book so much. I can't put it down and the characters are basically living with me right now. I have to be stingy with my reading time because it will all be over too soon.
Oh. I'm done. So amazing. I can't stop thinking about all the women I've read about. After reading this, I am so much happier to be a woman, and to have all this life ahead of me. This book will make you feel sorry for women who don't realize motherhood is one short i...more
Oh. I'm done. So amazing. I can't stop thinking about all the women I've read about. After reading this, I am so much happier to be a woman, and to have all this life ahead of me. This book will make you feel sorry for women who don't realize motherhood is one short i...more
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Read in July, 2008
recommends it for:
short story readers/writers
What I appreciate about Alice Munro is that she proves that the short story isn't just what a nice young mfa-er writes and publishes as a warm-up to writing their great fantastic eye-opening 800 page Novel, thereby being famous and winning piles of pulitzers and bookers and whatnot. Hell she's made a stupendous career out of it, gosh golly! I happen to think there is much worth in the 65 page story. Value in economy, power in brevity. Kudos to the fine smiling lady (her pictures make her look...more
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