Alice Munro

I've been going back to Alice Munro the past couple of weeks, and I'll probably spend the rest of my time before my fellowship starts reading as much of her work as I can (though maybe I'll take a break for some work-related reading). Sometimes I think I want to read them so fast that I don't appreciate them as much as I could if I just slowed down, but believe me there's plenty for me to think about even at my current pace. I read a review of one of her most recent collections, which captured some of what I find so compelling about Munro's stories:

Jonathan Franzen on Alice Munro

Reading Munro puts me in that state of quiet reflection in which I think about my own life: about the decisions I've made, the things I've done and haven't done, the kind of person I am, the prospect of death.

I guess the things I read that I find most memorable tend to evoke these kind of reflections, particularly fiction. Also, I like that her stories are filled with flawed people (women especially). Or maybe a better way to put it would be imperfect and thus realistic people, and these are the characters that are most likely to lead me to the reflections above. It's funny, but I don't think there were as many of these characters in my favorite books from before (they sort of still are favorites, though I have to admit I haven't felt the need to re-read them recently the way I have in previous years), Wuthering Heights and Pride and Prejudice. Wuthering Heights is full of grotesquely flawed people. Now that I think about it, Pride and Prejudice has many characters that come close to being caricatures; even ostensibly normal people like Elizabeth and Darcy are too perfect for me, I don't find either to be very relatable. Maybe that's why Wuthering Heights always edged out Pride and Prejudice as my favorite--the choices of imperfect (even if grotesque) characters seemed more consequential and compelling. I suppose I had my moments of wanting to be like witty and charming Lizzie, but I pretty much had to acknowledge that I probably had more in common with the much less likeable Fanny in Mansfield Park (which is my dark horse Austen favorite).

Anyway, Alice Munro is apparently vastly underappreciated, the reasons for which are explored in Jonathan Franzen's review (quoted above). I think the only reason I had even heard of her is that I read a review of one of her collections and thought it sounded intriguing, but then I didn't actually go out of my way to read her; instead, I was browsing through my favorite used bookstore some time later and found a copy of that collection, and decided to buy it. I'm not even sure how many of my friends know/read her (aside from the Canadians anyway). I'm trying to think about whether I could recommend her to everybody, but then it's not like all her stories are so character-driven as to be devoid of plot. Actually, some have fantastic plot twists (which to me are great because they arise organically from the characters as well as from the situation), and I think I wrote before that the movie Away from Her was based on one of these stories. So maybe people who care less about characters than I do would still enjoy her as much as I do.