In these eight tales, Munro evokes the devastating power of old love suddenly recollected. She tells of vanished schoolgirls and indentured frontie...
read full description
reviews
Dec 09, 2007
Trish
rated it: 
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 foun 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 foun More...
0 comments
like
(3 people liked it)
Feb 14, 2008
Spiros
rated it: 
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 t More...
Were I a Canuck, I would regard Alice Munro as a National Treasure; from the outside, I would say that t More...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Nov 02, 2010
Michael
rated it:
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 " 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 " More...
Oct 18, 2011
Phil
rated it: 
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...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Jan 26, 2011
Oscar
rated it:
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...
Jun 08, 2011
Stephanie
rated it:
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 tr 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 tr More...
Jan 21, 2012
Kricket
rated it:
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 More...
it's hard to put my finger on what More...
Mar 25, 2010
Jett
rated it:
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 p
More...
Apr 02, 2011
Erma
rated it:
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
More...
Aug 22, 2011
Edwin
rated it:
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...
Aug 21, 2009
James
rated it:
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 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 More...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Feb 10, 2010
Eric
rated it:
"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 sto More...
And yet, these are sto More...
Apr 12, 2010
Traci
rated it: 
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 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 More...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Feb 19, 2009
Jana
rated it:
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, aft More...
Okay, aft More...
Feb 06, 2009
David
rated it:
I've read this collection twice now (by accident - I must have filed it back on my "to read" shelf by accident but I kept on reading again) and have enjoyed it. The title story, "Carried Away" and "Vandals" are my favourites but all are eight stories are good. Munro can pack a lot into 40 pages and some critics have suggested there's as much in her short stories as there is in many authors' novels!
No doubt part of my fondness for the stories is the fic More...
No doubt part of my fondness for the stories is the fic More...
Sep 28, 2009
Jamie
rated it:
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.
More...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Oct 25, 2008
Greg
rated it:
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...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
May 29, 2008
Heather
rated it:
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...
Nov 03, 2008
Erikaaaa
rated it:
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 f 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 f More...
May 10, 2010
Mary
rated it:
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 w More...
In any case, I had to reread whole big sections of the book and still don't know how story lines made peace w More...
May 05, 2011
Sonja
rated it:
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 "
More...
Jan 17, 2012
Kathy
rated it:
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
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Nov 06, 2008
Marieke
rated it:
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 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 More...
Aug 19, 2010
Aaron
rated it:
A short review:
My mother loves Alice Munro. She has a fair number of her collections and this time when I came home for vacation, I decided to take one on.
I see why my mother loves them. I have the same general criticism as well, namely that some of the stories are so good that I want more to read. 40 pages is too short for such intricate events and characters!
My mother loves Alice Munro. She has a fair number of her collections and this time when I came home for vacation, I decided to take one on.
I see why my mother loves them. I have the same general criticism as well, namely that some of the stories are so good that I want more to read. 40 pages is too short for such intricate events and characters!
Apr 21, 2009
Beverly
rated it:
I loved the quirky and interesting female characters that were the focus of each of these separate yet loosely related stories. From the librarian to the bookstore owner to the crazy mail-order bride, I enjoyed them all and their tales of life mostly centered around a small town in Canada. I enjoyed looking for the common links among the stories and seeing how the town had changed over time. The stories each grabbed you from the start and kept you entertained all the way through.
Feb 01, 2010
Jay
rated it:
Clearly one of the best short-story authors alive right now, but several of these stories actually left me confused. Many of her earlier stories affected me in a way that I can only describe as "pleasingly disturbed," while many of these left me either nonplussed or vaguely dissatisfied. Many family names and places recurred, giving the group a Faulknerian/Sherwood Anderson feel as far as viewing a town from the perspective of various residents and seeing within their respective family
More...
Nov 14, 2011
Nick
rated it:
Quick, easy read - a collection of short novels that reminds me of "Olive Kitteridge" .... one got the Pulitzer (the American), one got the Giller (the Canadian) .... same short stories based around a hub point, somewhere in SW Ontario (it is the Eastern sea board for OK) - from where then the roads diverge .... possibilities, lives, open choices/open secrets.
Jul 27, 2011
Erika
rated it:
A luminous anthology of eight short stories centered around the common theme of women and their romantic relationships. Munro's prose is polished almost to a fault, and while certain stories-- such as "Carried Away," "A Wilderness Station" and "The Jack Randa Hotel" were truly absorbing, I doubt I will remember much from this collection a few years down the road.
Jan 18, 2012
Monica
rated it:
I was disappointed in this short story book. The narratives jumped around and I felt like some events had nothing to do with anything else in a story. The stories were loosely woven together through location and through ties to one family (The Douds). I just had higher hopes because everyone says Alice Munro is a great writer. I'll give her one more try and if that's as disappointing as this book I'll move on to other authors.
Nov 01, 2009
Lynne
rated it:
She's the master. These stories, mostly set in a small Canadian factory town, create character and setting swiftly and deeply and then telescope out into a future that makes you question the significance of the events in the context of a total life. She understands the soul of a middle aged library loving woman.
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
