Selected Stories [Paperback]

Alice Munro (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 704 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Books (1998)
• ISBN-10: 0140267751
• ISBN-13: 978-0140267754
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,896,541 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Alice Munro grew up in Wingham, Ontario, and attended the University of Western Ontario. She has published eleven previous books.During her distinguished career she has been the recipient of many awards and prizes, including the W.H. Smith Prize, the National Book Circle Critics Award, the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in Short Fiction, the Lannan Literary Award, the Commonwealth Writers' Prize, and the Rea Award for the Short Story. In Canada, she has won the Governor General's Award, the Giller Prize, the Trillium Book Award, and the Libris Award.Alice Munro and her husband divide their time between Clinton, Ontario, and Comox, British Columbia.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Exquisite, but..., January 4, 2003

By 

Miles D. Moore (Alexandria, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Selected Stories (Paperback)

Alice Munro is rightfully considered to be one of the greatest short-story writers in the English-speaking world. Certainly a story like "The Progress of Love," in this volume--a rich, poignantly ironic delineation of the selectivity of memory--is proof enough that Munro is as great as her reputation would have it, and that she is one of the few living writers who deserves to be mentioned in the same sentence as Chekhov. Nevertheless, plowing through her Selected Stories is like gorging on a box of chocolates; you'd be a lot better off savoring just one or two at a time. The maiin problem is that Munro's subject range is narrow. How many stories can you read in one sitting about women from impoverished small-town Ontario, who are misunderstood and often brutalized by their families, boyfriends and husbands? (The reviewers who called Munro's women weak are misreading the stories severely; these women could have hauled the wounded Titanic to port, 2,000 passengers and all, single-handedly. They have the clemency of the very strong, which unfortunately means that weaker, more spiteful souls can walk all over them.) Yet within each story, Munro's elegant, lucid prose style and encyclopedic knowledge of the human mind and heart make themselves felt. I will reread stories such as "Material," "Chaddeleys and Flemings," "Dulse," "The Turkey Season" and "The Beggar Maid" with joy and admiration for their perfect artistry. But I'll have to wait to reread stories such as "Labor Day Dinner," which after an unrelieved diet of Munro stories can almost seem like a parody of the author. Do yourself a favor; buy this wonderful book, but savor its delights sparingly, as you would a box of Godivas.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's all right to giggle at a funeral, March 29, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Selected Stories (Hardcover)

I was thoroughly entranced and mesmerized by these stories. Ms. Munro accomplishes what has to be the most beautiful and difficult task in fiction--illuminating the darkest corners of human nature. I don't mean dark as necessarily evil, but dark as in the sides of oneself no one talks about, or even knows is there. "Fits" is a perfect example of this. I read the stories out of order, which produced an interesting effect. They do have a chronology. The opening pieces are very different from the ones at the end.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Munro's short stories are contemporary classics-, October 27, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Selected Stories (Paperback)

Alice Munro's collection of short stories embodies over 25 of her finest works. Within the text, she deals with issues of family, friends, betrayal, and the creation of art--sometimes all at once. Her writing is powerful, and she controls it with unimaginable skill. A must-read for anyone truly interested in the art of fiction.