Dagny's Reviews > Too Much Happiness
My rating:
Too Much Happiness
by Alice Munro
by Alice Munro
December 2009:
This book will be my Christmas treat.
January 2010:
Too Much Happiness was a bit of a re-gifting, because I had read all but two of the ten stories in the New Yorker. Still I read them all again, with gratitude, because that's Alice Munro for me. Few other authors combine the natural, commonsense and communicable with the strange, barely grasped and inexplicable in the way she does. She writes with absolute authority; I feel the truth weather the subject matter is esoteric or (seemingly) ordinary, her protagonist is a man or a woman, contemporary or figure from the past.
Well this book is not uplifting. It is Interesting to read the Goodreads reviews, everyone praises the book fully but people don't give it 5 stars, I think because it has such turgid subject matters involving such strange people, or at least, such hitherto un-storied people, such non-inspiring people.
For the writer, the searcher of the human heart and human nature, these discomfiting ongoings are none the less her concern. As if now, in her advanced age, her courage has only gotten greater, her insight deeper, and she has the uttermost confidence to feel life as it is and voice it for us, voice it in the way of art so we are spellbound and in the end we too have been a part of it all, like it or not. And, here or there, there are moments of stunningly strange beauty.
This book will be my Christmas treat.
January 2010:
Too Much Happiness was a bit of a re-gifting, because I had read all but two of the ten stories in the New Yorker. Still I read them all again, with gratitude, because that's Alice Munro for me. Few other authors combine the natural, commonsense and communicable with the strange, barely grasped and inexplicable in the way she does. She writes with absolute authority; I feel the truth weather the subject matter is esoteric or (seemingly) ordinary, her protagonist is a man or a woman, contemporary or figure from the past.
Well this book is not uplifting. It is Interesting to read the Goodreads reviews, everyone praises the book fully but people don't give it 5 stars, I think because it has such turgid subject matters involving such strange people, or at least, such hitherto un-storied people, such non-inspiring people.
For the writer, the searcher of the human heart and human nature, these discomfiting ongoings are none the less her concern. As if now, in her advanced age, her courage has only gotten greater, her insight deeper, and she has the uttermost confidence to feel life as it is and voice it for us, voice it in the way of art so we are spellbound and in the end we too have been a part of it all, like it or not. And, here or there, there are moments of stunningly strange beauty.
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Sounds like a treat indeed, too much happiness..how can that even happen? I bought your Wolf Hall book, and I guess that is my Christmas treat...maybe Christmas 09, 10, 11 as it's a pretty thick tome. Blessings to you! and let me know what you think of the new Alice...
Yes Vicki, I'm with you. And coming from Alice Munro there is some twist.Have you read any of her books? She's a short story writer and perhaps the best ever (along with Chekov?). Read Runaway (all stories). Also for example the first story in The Love of a Good Woman. Read all her stories.
So glad you've got Wolf Hall, you can combine a workout lifting that thick tome and reading it.
Blessings to you too and let me know how you are getting along with Cromwell. (there are even some lovely images of Christmas of yore in the book)
PS I have put up our ornaments from New Mexico, I am homesick for it.
I am one of those people who believes that just buying a book sort of means that it is osmosing into your brain...so sometimes I buy books and don't actually get around to reading them for a long, long time! I think there's some Alice Munro around here somewhere, but I'm not sure where! I will check her out; normally I'm not much for short stories (except J.D. Salinger...) but I will give it a try. I can use the workout with Wolf Hall! Maybe I can use it too to help my posture! remember the dictionary on your head days? Come visit me! We could have a girls weekend!
Yes it is a good feeling to have some good books around waiting to be read. But what better than to have a friend who wants me to visit! Thank you so much, my friend, and likewise, come here! I was just leafing through a book on NM Christmas; oh I loved the clear and still weather, the sandy colors and the contrast with the crisp green of the pinions, the red pepper wreaths, the luminarias at night...
