I’m still getting through my holiday reading – in case anyone thinks I’m reading books in one day!
I really like Alice Munro’s short stories. I’ve read Too Much Happiness (check back later for a review of that one) and Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship and Marriage. I was keen to check Runaway out when I saw it at the library.
Here is the blurb …
A collection of stories about women of all ages and circumstances, their lives made palpable by the subtlety and empathy of this writer. Here are the infinite betrayals and surprise of love – between men and women, between friends, between parents and children – that are the stuff of all our lives. Alice Munro is the award-winning novelist, and has published ten previous collections of stories.
As always these stories are full of fabulous characters (very ordinary everyday people) dealing with difficult, interesting or just plain mundane circumstances. Munro has an uncanny knack of expressing her character’s inner lives – the good and the bad – which astonishes me. It is unusual to have things that you think are uniquely yours expressed in a novel.
My one criticism is the way the stories are collected. I know it makes sense to collect like with like, but I find each story loses it’s impact when it is surrounded by similar stories. I would prefer an eclectic mix of all of her stories.
More reviews …
From The Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2005/feb/05/featuresreviews.guardianreview
and the New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/14/books/review/14COVERFR.html?pagewanted=all