Lives of Girls and Women in Reading with Style

May 16, 2020 Connie G rated it really liked it

Shelves: 1001-books, coming-of-age, canada, fiction

"Her concern about my life, which I needed and took for granted, I could not bear to have expressed. . . . Advice that assumed being female made you damageable, that a certain amount of carefulness and solemn fuss and self-protection were called for, whereas men were supposed to be able to go out and take on all kinds of experiences and shuck off what they didn't want and come back proud. Without even thinking about it, I had decided to do the same."

In "Lives of Girls and Women" Del Jordan tells ...more

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Sep 27, 2025 GONZA rated it really liked it

Shelves: goodreadsgroups, ebk

I wasn't aware that Munro had also written a book that wasn't a collection of tales, so when I found out, I read it right away. Given that this novel could very well be considered a collection of short stories with the same protagonists, I still loved it. Del is a wonderful character, with a particularly astute and raw view of the world. Rural Ontario in the 1950s does not seem so different from post-war Italy, as is the case with the "Lives of girls and women". I believe it is time to overcome ...more

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Feb 18, 2021 Bucket rated it it was amazing

Shelves: culture, literary, reviewed, identity, women, life-and-death, 1001-read-all-editions, love, bildungsroman, sex

SO GOOD. The first few chapters almost read like self-contained short stories (though they do still build on each other) but about a third of the way in, Munro finds the novel groove.

Del's coming-of-age story is about trying to fit in while trying to stand out. She feels both shame and pride in the women around her for the ways they do both. Her relationship with her mother, in particular, is fascinating.

She falls into many of the traps of adolescence, including one relationship with a man towa ...more

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