In "Providence", Rose and her husband separate, and at first -- with her new job and apartment and her casual lover -- Rose is all about the possibilities and promise. (Note: There are events in this story which reveal the outcomes of earlier stories; if you plan to discover the
In which I chat about reading Dr. Brinkley's Tower in a single day. (You can't build a tower that quickly, but you can read about it.) Admittedly, I shuffled this volume amongst my stack of current reads for weeks before I started reading. (There is always a book in there that
I've been wanting to holiday in Newford for more than ten years; finally, this spring, I spent time in Dreams Underfoot. "In Newford, creation is the supreme act of magic, whether that creation be a painting, a fiddle tune or a poem, an AIDS clinic or battered children's shelter, or
Like "The Beggar Maid", this is one of the longer stories in Who Do You Think You Are? by Alice Munro. With these two long stories, the thematic strength of the collection takes root. Rose continues to struggle with the shame and complications that she perceives as arising from class
"The Beggar Maid" was originally published in "The New Yorker" in June 1977. It's hard to imagine that chunk of glossy pages, for it's one of the longer stories (with "Mischief") in the collection. It's also hard to imagine reading "The Beggar Maid" without knowing everything about Rose
