Tag Archives: Munro

Munro sets the stage: an older couple, Mildred and Wilfred, entertaining visitors, his brother Albert, his wife and her sister, in their small home for the summer. Then she paints in the characters, Mildred and Wilfrid are large, robust people; … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Two old friends meet, talk a bit about love and relationships and stories with twisted endings, and we go back to their last meeting of a few months' back. At that time, they attended a conference and accepted a ride … Continue reading → Continue reading →

This is a very interesting look at two old women who find themselves in a nursing home. Munro carefully draws out the difference in their lives, though they had known each other in kindergarten, over eighty years ago, and likely … Continue reading → Continue reading →

This story, as do most of Munro's, focuses on how people interact, what part of their inner self they compromise or embellish in order to deal with life and the people in it.  There is usually, as is here, a … Continue reading → Continue reading →

"And nobody does it better,makes me feel sad for the rest…"  (Carly Simon) Again, Munro's just tops with creating a rounded character that evokes empathy. Here, a husband and wife (Roberta) are going to a friend's for dinner and they've … Continue reading → Continue reading →

While Alice Munro pins down her characters so well that they remain in the mind for a while as an acquaintance, this definitive description of a 12 year-old caught me by surprise: Eva is wearing several fragile, yellowed lace curtains … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Let's put aside the fact that I can relate to this story of love and infidelity far too easily. Munro is superb at getting inside the emotion of relationships by viewing them through a character that may or may not … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Another close writing from Munro–by close, I'm using the "close reading" application, the same attention to diction and use of writing tools such as dialogue and character reflection to give information that a lesser writer might merely present as backstory. … Continue reading → Continue reading →

This story, in the anthology "The Moons of Jupiter," is a peek into a woman's affair with a married man.  It follows a short time span when Ted's only son Bobby is killed in a snow sled accident, while rounding … Continue reading → Continue reading →

A young girl, the first person narrator, goes to work at a turkey slaughter house where she hopes to overcome doubts about her capabilities. Munro then uses the character to discover the facts and faults of the workers around her … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Maybe I’m losing my perception. Maybe I’m just overdosed on reading. This story in Alice Munro’s anthology follows a woman on a brief vacation after her relationship falls apart. It is self analysis on her part, even as written in … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Munro for a rainy day. I learn so much from her. She draws her characters out so carefully, each and every one.  Here, in the short story The Stone in the Field, we have a visit to the narrator’s father’s … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Alice Munro is extremely skillful at creating a world from a slice of life that may seem ordinary, and yet she recognizes that ordinary often contains drama that the reader can easily recognize.  In this first story of the anthology, … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Trying to get more reading done and so I’ve grabbed one of the many Alice Munro anthologies I have on the shelves. I’ve always loved Munro’s stories, since I first read one in a class many years ago.  Her style … Continue reading →