![]() The most recent award was a victory not only for Munro and her admirers but also for the often-overlooked genre of which she is a grand master: the short story. And, for nearly all of Munro’s characters, the possibilities of a different life beckon just outside their grasp.įor creating these characters, Munro has received numerous awards, including the Man Booker Prize, the PEN/Malamud Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award - and, in 2013, the Nobel Prize for literature. ![]() ![]() They get married and have children, friendships and affairs. Munro’s women grow up and leave home - or they never have the opportunity to leave. Starting with her 1968 collection “Dance of the Happy Shades,” Munro has given us 139 stories and one novel, “Lives of Girls and Women,” which she describes as “really just a collection of linked stories.” Much of her work involves intimate portraits of women in rural Canada. It is particularly illuminating to read the stories in the context of an insightful introduction by Jane Smiley, who asserts that she “cannot read any Alice Munro story without believing every word” - which is exactly how I have felt about Munro’s work over the years. This is a doorstop of a book, at more than 600 pages, and there is something deeply satisfying about finishing one story and knowing that there are many more to savor. ![]()
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