Helpful Score: 3
This collection of short stories by Alice Munroe is a marvel. The characters in each are subtly and skillfully drawn that I found myself as much in awe of Munroes grasp of her craft as in the ability to inhabit the stories themselves. At the end of most I found myself wishing this were not a disparate collection, but a full-length novel where I could voyeuristically continue observing the characters.
In some cases this wish for an extension of the stories stemmed from the fact that I really wasnt sure Id caught the nuances of character and plot. I suspect some who dont often explore the world of honed fiction might end a number of stories with the line, What exactly was going on here? This is my confession as well, but at the end of the book, I still felt as if I had somehow been treated to prose so beautifully crafted as to breath fresh air. What a rare treat.
In some cases this wish for an extension of the stories stemmed from the fact that I really wasnt sure Id caught the nuances of character and plot. I suspect some who dont often explore the world of honed fiction might end a number of stories with the line, What exactly was going on here? This is my confession as well, but at the end of the book, I still felt as if I had somehow been treated to prose so beautifully crafted as to breath fresh air. What a rare treat.
Helpful Score: 3
I read this book of short stories for a fiction class. The stories are wonderful and the characters are real, something very hard to do in a short story.
Wow, this is a great collection of short stories! Thoughtful stores that pulled me in quickly and helped me break my summer reading slump. Many of these stores will stay with me for awhile, in that a number of them made me uncomfortable. The last story Too Much Happiness was my least favorite and was very different form the others. This collection is one I will keep and reread over time.
I'm not sure why exactly, but I didn't enjoy reading this book that much. I was expecting to love it based on what friends had told me about it.
