For readers familiar with Alice Munro's most recent collection, Dear Life, the title of this story will immediately recall "Night", which she described as being "not quite" a story about her relationship with her father. Vintage, 2006 "Night" is part of a group of four tales, which she feels are
Many of the themes which resurface in Alice Munro's fiction play an important role in "Working for a Living". 2006; Vintage, 2008 One of the first which strikes readers is the question of town versus country, which plays such a predominant role in both Lives of Girls and
This Alice Munro story might serve as a sixteen-page synposis for why some high-school students came to hate the idea of reading Canadian authors. McClelland & Stewart, 2006 If you weren't raised on Laura Ingalls Wilder's books? If you weren't an obsessive listener to weekly episodes of Winter Without Salt read aloud
The Laidlaws have left the Ettrick Valley in Scotland behind, that parish with "no advantages", but the family members also have left behind "long, outspoken, sometimes outrageous letters, and detailed recollections" which have inspired Alice Munro to narrate the experiences of her ancestors. McClelland & Stewart, 2006 But
I first read Joan Bodger's How the Heather Looks: A Joyous Journey to the British Sources of Children's Books (1959) about twenty years ago, and I recall liking it well enough, but wishing that there was a little more about their bookishness and a little less about England. Now I think it's a perfect blend.
