I haven't heard of her until her passing when I read the news. As a Canadian, I was astounded to learn that she lived so close, yet so far. Thank you for the introduction to this amazing Canadian author!
I really appreciated this essay having just finished her short story collection "Dear Life." The idea of looking over her shoulder is often how I felt while reading.
Thank you, Marjorie! Have you found your way to today’s virtual memorial for more perspectives on her writing? (They’re all wonderful.) At the bottom of the memorial page, there’s a tip for how to add something yourself, if you feel inclined.
A great appreciation of Munro. Thank you, Tara. I am somewhat wary of short stories precisely because they leave things out and sometimes there's a feeling that you have to know the code (I did, however, teach Hemingway's Hills Like White Elephants and pretend I had worked out the pregnancy reference myself, but I was younger then and keen to impress people: now I want to be honest!)
But with Munro I never feel she is withholding things to be 'clever' and there is a genuine mystery in some of her stories that is not about a missing piece of the puzzle deliberately excluded but, as you indicate, a recreation of the strangeness and richness of ordinary life. I don't know how many times I've read 'Runaway': my favourite Munro story but every time I love it and I so much enjoy being puzzled by it that I want to read it all over again!
Great minds, Kathy, great minds: For some reason, I've also been thinking about Hills Like White Elephants as a (starkly different!) comparison story. Oh my goodness, I also remember being baffled by that story. Eventually, I came to appreciate the art of having two characters talk about something without naming it directly. But in Hemingway's case, you know that the writer knows all along what the reader is trying to figure out. In a Munro story, there is no such superiority. The writer doesn't know any more about these mysterious people than the reader does. Thank you for pointing out this distinction. I hadn't thought about her in quite this way, but I think you're right.
One last thing. I was hoping for a chance to share this quote by Munro that I keep in my inspiring quotations notebook:
'I can't play bridge. I don't play tennis. All these things people learn, and I admire, there hasn't seemed time for. But what there is time for is looking out of the window.'
Much enjoyed your interview with the Alice Munro scholar, Robert Thacker. “[W]riters feel pressured to have categories you and I are familiar with, like regional or Canadian or Western or Prairie or small town, feminist, all those kinds of labels. Now it gets even narrower. Writers have always chafed at those labels. And now, not only are you going to have labels, but you're going to have some kind of image or brand that everybody will know you by. So I think that it's very relatable for writers to feel annoyed by checking those boxes.”
From “What's So Great about Alice Munro?”
“Munro’s stories similarly privilege detailed observation over genre conventions and narrative judgments. The later story “Free Radicals” (2008), for example, provides a good example of Munro’s tendency to observe characters without judging them, and without letting genre conventions prescribe the development of action. “
After reading the story I find I agree with this about ”Free Radicals”.
Some make distinctions between genre and literary fiction. I tend to think of literary fiction as a particular genre itself. There’s a lot of interiority or introspection going on, but this story is relatively free of that.
Knowledge on the works of these writers your piece on Munro’s stories had me thinking of genre claims by her (as you told us of her) and those claims of Margaret Atwood in relation to hers. Neither claims anything but the literary. The latter declines the SF moniker.
One thing I begin to notice, in part owing to SF scholar Amy Sturgis, with writers like these— that you’re reading in a capital L. Literary genre is important to them with regard to their works. Dr. Sturgis was animated by this. (Read not happy.)
I’ve been wondering about your namesake (wink) Tara Isabella Burton’s — her novel for January official publication. This may be an example of literary fantasy, maybe I’d call it a combo?
Thank you for reading with such care. Re: Sturgis and genres: I tend to see a lot of fiction as mixed-genre (like you’re saying about Burton). The capital L was important to Munro, but in the 50s and 60s, those distinctions made a bigger difference than, in some circles, they do today.
I haven’t read anything yet by T. I. B., though maybe the new novel is a good one to start with. It does sound like a hybrid, and I like those. Have you read and enjoyed it?
Thank you, Kelcey! If you feel moved to do it, please don't hesitate to publish something of your own in her honor for the virtual memorial on Thursday. (The guide is linked at the end of this post, just before the comments.) I look forward to hearing other people's perspectives and stories, too.
Spot on -- thank you for these reminders. I was always puzzled by students in my senior seminars who complained about how secondary sources on the assigned novels included plot spoilers. I suppose there are times when I enjoy reading to see what happens, but that's not typically what motivates me.
If the voice of a story does not endear itself to me, I don't care about twists or action or surprise reveals. I want a worthy companion when I read. And that is Alice Munro.
Good point about the student comment. That's when we know their motive for reading is plot, and they aren't motivated as much by the revelations of a phrase or structure or figure of speech, which are more powerful than the plot once a person "sees" them. It's exciting when students cross the threshold and figure that out.
“To enjoy Munro, do not ask, “How will this plot be resolved?” Instead, ask, “What is there to see in this situation?” This is wonderful, and might also be a beautiful way to approach life itself too. 😉
Thank you for this amazing and well researched essay Tara. As a Canadian who grew up on a steady literary diet of Munro, some of it force-fed during high school, other tidbits chosen voluntarily, I appreciate your perspective. I believe I didn't understand her work when I had to read it in my youth because, at that age, I was unable to see the extraordinary in the everyday so it seemed boring. Perhaps Munro's work is the kind that gets deeper with each passing year and possibly each subsequent reading? I'm not sure because I have not yet tried.
Thank you for paying such a wonderful tribute to a great Canadian writer.
Munro's characters aged with her, more or less, so you might find more to appreciate now. I think I'd have found Munro's stories boring and over my head in high school. You might like "Free Radicals," linked above. You'll recognize the boring writer you remember (a woman not much older than you and me alone with her thoughts), but also something more. :-) The link should go to the full New Yorker story, if you're allowed their "free story" access. 🇨🇦
Beautifully written with a depth of understanding Alice Munro’s interest in character/people and the astonishing unexpected actions that individuals sometimes take. ☺️
Thank you, Deborah, for commenting and sharing! I'm glad you enjoyed the post. For quiet stories where not much happens, there is plenty in Munro to astonish! That's the funny paradox, isn't it? :-)
Enjoyed reading this as I have been working through a few Munro stories for the first time. The suggestion to focus on what one can "see" in her characters and situations feels right.
Thank you, Peter. I'm glad this feels like an approach that makes sense of what you're reading. I hope you find much to appreciate. You and I don't know each other well, but I have a hunch we might both appreciate stories with a more traditional moral sense or redemptive arc in them, and I think that's not Munro's game. In fact, I think she would feel there's too much narrative interference in such a story. If I just "see" with her, I'm less inclined to miss the kind of story she's *not* telling. fwiw.
That's a not bad guess about my inclinations, Tara (although I think I have developed fairly broad tastes over the years). I am working with a quite limited sample of Munro stories at this point, but I do think there is a kind of moral perspective even in the reticence about any kind of judgement and the careful description of people and situations. It asks us to pay careful attention to individual persons in their complexity.
Ah, Kalpana! I am going to recommend the title story in "Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage" to you. You might say there are several stories within this story about little groups of 2-3 characters at a time, and the layers of story might be right up your alley. See what you think. The book should be widely available in libraries, and the title story is the first one in the collection.
Answer-Her amazing stories^^
Haha! Now if only I’d have thought of that, it would have saved a lot of words. 😄😉
Hmm..The Bear came over the mountain …Again^^
Sadly, it came early for her. By 2010, said her biographer, she was noticing slips.
Please keep a strong stride out for yourself, Please NO SLIPS….Yes I too love Alice like you^^
❤️
I haven't heard of her until her passing when I read the news. As a Canadian, I was astounded to learn that she lived so close, yet so far. Thank you for the introduction to this amazing Canadian author!
I'm so glad you found your way here and found the Munro series meaningful!.
TRAINS. And time travel
I really appreciated this essay having just finished her short story collection "Dear Life." The idea of looking over her shoulder is often how I felt while reading.
Thank you, Marjorie! Have you found your way to today’s virtual memorial for more perspectives on her writing? (They’re all wonderful.) At the bottom of the memorial page, there’s a tip for how to add something yourself, if you feel inclined.
https://open.substack.com/pub/tarapenry/p/alice-munro-virtual-memorial?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
A great appreciation of Munro. Thank you, Tara. I am somewhat wary of short stories precisely because they leave things out and sometimes there's a feeling that you have to know the code (I did, however, teach Hemingway's Hills Like White Elephants and pretend I had worked out the pregnancy reference myself, but I was younger then and keen to impress people: now I want to be honest!)
But with Munro I never feel she is withholding things to be 'clever' and there is a genuine mystery in some of her stories that is not about a missing piece of the puzzle deliberately excluded but, as you indicate, a recreation of the strangeness and richness of ordinary life. I don't know how many times I've read 'Runaway': my favourite Munro story but every time I love it and I so much enjoy being puzzled by it that I want to read it all over again!
Great minds, Kathy, great minds: For some reason, I've also been thinking about Hills Like White Elephants as a (starkly different!) comparison story. Oh my goodness, I also remember being baffled by that story. Eventually, I came to appreciate the art of having two characters talk about something without naming it directly. But in Hemingway's case, you know that the writer knows all along what the reader is trying to figure out. In a Munro story, there is no such superiority. The writer doesn't know any more about these mysterious people than the reader does. Thank you for pointing out this distinction. I hadn't thought about her in quite this way, but I think you're right.
A lack of superiority is exactly it.
One last thing. I was hoping for a chance to share this quote by Munro that I keep in my inspiring quotations notebook:
'I can't play bridge. I don't play tennis. All these things people learn, and I admire, there hasn't seemed time for. But what there is time for is looking out of the window.'
Isn't that just great?!
😂 😂 That reminds me of many things I do not have time for. ;-) Thank you for sharing that nugget of wisdom.
Like your shared understanding a lot. The last two paragraphs are capturing.
If I get a chance I may make a comment unrelated, maybe, to her work— about the Rural Story as Genre.
Thank you for the comment about the last two paragraphs. That was my poetic indulgence. I felt a little poetry was the best exit strategy. :-)
I think your comment about the Rural Story sounds perfectly fitting. I'll be interested in what you have to say.
Thank you! About a week late on this response.
Much enjoyed your interview with the Alice Munro scholar, Robert Thacker. “[W]riters feel pressured to have categories you and I are familiar with, like regional or Canadian or Western or Prairie or small town, feminist, all those kinds of labels. Now it gets even narrower. Writers have always chafed at those labels. And now, not only are you going to have labels, but you're going to have some kind of image or brand that everybody will know you by. So I think that it's very relatable for writers to feel annoyed by checking those boxes.”
From “What's So Great about Alice Munro?”
“Munro’s stories similarly privilege detailed observation over genre conventions and narrative judgments. The later story “Free Radicals” (2008), for example, provides a good example of Munro’s tendency to observe characters without judging them, and without letting genre conventions prescribe the development of action. “
After reading the story I find I agree with this about ”Free Radicals”.
Some make distinctions between genre and literary fiction. I tend to think of literary fiction as a particular genre itself. There’s a lot of interiority or introspection going on, but this story is relatively free of that.
Knowledge on the works of these writers your piece on Munro’s stories had me thinking of genre claims by her (as you told us of her) and those claims of Margaret Atwood in relation to hers. Neither claims anything but the literary. The latter declines the SF moniker.
One thing I begin to notice, in part owing to SF scholar Amy Sturgis, with writers like these— that you’re reading in a capital L. Literary genre is important to them with regard to their works. Dr. Sturgis was animated by this. (Read not happy.)
I’ve been wondering about your namesake (wink) Tara Isabella Burton’s — her novel for January official publication. This may be an example of literary fantasy, maybe I’d call it a combo?
Thank you for reading with such care. Re: Sturgis and genres: I tend to see a lot of fiction as mixed-genre (like you’re saying about Burton). The capital L was important to Munro, but in the 50s and 60s, those distinctions made a bigger difference than, in some circles, they do today.
I haven’t read anything yet by T. I. B., though maybe the new novel is a good one to start with. It does sound like a hybrid, and I like those. Have you read and enjoyed it?
No I have not read. I was hoping to hear your take on. 😇
Haha!
A wonderful elaboration and reminder of Munro’s brilliance!
Thank you, Kelcey! If you feel moved to do it, please don't hesitate to publish something of your own in her honor for the virtual memorial on Thursday. (The guide is linked at the end of this post, just before the comments.) I look forward to hearing other people's perspectives and stories, too.
Spot on -- thank you for these reminders. I was always puzzled by students in my senior seminars who complained about how secondary sources on the assigned novels included plot spoilers. I suppose there are times when I enjoy reading to see what happens, but that's not typically what motivates me.
If the voice of a story does not endear itself to me, I don't care about twists or action or surprise reveals. I want a worthy companion when I read. And that is Alice Munro.
Good point about the student comment. That's when we know their motive for reading is plot, and they aren't motivated as much by the revelations of a phrase or structure or figure of speech, which are more powerful than the plot once a person "sees" them. It's exciting when students cross the threshold and figure that out.
loved her for decades and always onward.
thank you for this
Thank you, Alix. Do you know about the virtual memorial on Thursday? I hope you're thinking of posting something yourself.
Wow. This is amazing. Thank you!
Christiana, Thank you for such warm and heartfelt praise! :-)
A wonderful read! I’m looking forward to Thursday’s memorial too.
Yes! Me, too.
“To enjoy Munro, do not ask, “How will this plot be resolved?” Instead, ask, “What is there to see in this situation?” This is wonderful, and might also be a beautiful way to approach life itself too. 😉
Haha! Oh, wise one. You mean I should not expect resolution to any of my gripping personal plots? Oh, fiddlesticks!
But I can see how this fits perfectly with the lesson of your Unfixed interviews and your memoir. Excellent point. :-)
Exactly!!! Fiddlesticks is right!
Northwestern vernacular. 😉
Thank you for this amazing and well researched essay Tara. As a Canadian who grew up on a steady literary diet of Munro, some of it force-fed during high school, other tidbits chosen voluntarily, I appreciate your perspective. I believe I didn't understand her work when I had to read it in my youth because, at that age, I was unable to see the extraordinary in the everyday so it seemed boring. Perhaps Munro's work is the kind that gets deeper with each passing year and possibly each subsequent reading? I'm not sure because I have not yet tried.
Thank you for paying such a wonderful tribute to a great Canadian writer.
Munro's characters aged with her, more or less, so you might find more to appreciate now. I think I'd have found Munro's stories boring and over my head in high school. You might like "Free Radicals," linked above. You'll recognize the boring writer you remember (a woman not much older than you and me alone with her thoughts), but also something more. :-) The link should go to the full New Yorker story, if you're allowed their "free story" access. 🇨🇦
Thanks Tara, I’ll check it out.
Beautifully written with a depth of understanding Alice Munro’s interest in character/people and the astonishing unexpected actions that individuals sometimes take. ☺️
Thank you, Deborah, for commenting and sharing! I'm glad you enjoyed the post. For quiet stories where not much happens, there is plenty in Munro to astonish! That's the funny paradox, isn't it? :-)
Enjoyed reading this as I have been working through a few Munro stories for the first time. The suggestion to focus on what one can "see" in her characters and situations feels right.
Thank you, Peter. I'm glad this feels like an approach that makes sense of what you're reading. I hope you find much to appreciate. You and I don't know each other well, but I have a hunch we might both appreciate stories with a more traditional moral sense or redemptive arc in them, and I think that's not Munro's game. In fact, I think she would feel there's too much narrative interference in such a story. If I just "see" with her, I'm less inclined to miss the kind of story she's *not* telling. fwiw.
That's a not bad guess about my inclinations, Tara (although I think I have developed fairly broad tastes over the years). I am working with a quite limited sample of Munro stories at this point, but I do think there is a kind of moral perspective even in the reticence about any kind of judgement and the careful description of people and situations. It asks us to pay careful attention to individual persons in their complexity.
You make an excellent point. Munro's effort to see better by looking longer is a perspective worth cultivation.
This is just an awesome post and you’ve inspired me to read Munro at the earliest, Tara!!!
Ah, Kalpana! I am going to recommend the title story in "Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage" to you. You might say there are several stories within this story about little groups of 2-3 characters at a time, and the layers of story might be right up your alley. See what you think. The book should be widely available in libraries, and the title story is the first one in the collection.