Although it played a vital role in establishing the author’s reputation for story-crafting, The Bingo Palace feels like a single dish, served without accompaniments, on what has become, in the years since, a rich and varied menu. The emphasis on story-telling was there in the beginning, however, in a
"But you better not cross him or he’ll skin you alive....Like he does with his other stuff." 1994; Penguin, 2007 Liza's father warned her about Ladner, who made his living as a taxidermist, working for museums. It wasn't meant to be taken seriously. Indeed, after that, Liza and
In searching for an image for the last story discussed here, "A Wilderness Station", I came upon a wonderfully long and chatty Paris Review interview with Alice Munro.* Something she says about her reading came to mind when I had finished "Spaceships Have Landed". "Reading was my life really until
What a complicated tale. Though perhaps less so than "Open Secrets" and "The Albanian Virgin", for readers have a much broader sense of understanding what "really happened". The possibility of honest understanding, in this case, settles in the last letter that Annie wrote to Sadie. [NOTE: There are some spoilers
Even if you don't subscribe to the digital version of the New Yorker, you can peek at the first two pages of "The Jack Randa Hotel" as it originally appeared in 1993's July 19th glossy pages. 1994; Penguin Modern Classics, 2007 There, readers first met Gail, who "usually
