Alice Munro's hired girls like to read too.In "Sunday Afternoon", Alva asks Mr. Gannett if she could borrow "King Lear" and, also, Stendhal's The Red and the Black. Mr. Gannett agrees to share his books with Alva, just as Mr. Montjoy gifts the young Alice with his copy of Seven Gothic Tales at the end of
As is fitting for the opening story of Mavis Gallant's second published collection, My Heart is Broken, many themes feel familiar. The question of what constitutes a "good" woman, particularly when she is not a wife. The dilemma of trying to live an interesting life while maintaining a sheen of
Alice Munro’s Something I’ve Been Meaning to Tell You (II) Toronto: Penguin, 1974. At some point I started to wonder if I couldn't simply fit my response to all of these stories into a single post. I mean...long and complicated books like Nicole Krauss' Great House? Classics like Thomas Hardy's Jude
Alice Munro’s Something I’ve Been Meaning to Tell You (II) Toronto: Penguin, 1974. In "Marrakesh", Dorothy wonders: "What is there here that is not being told?" She sets herself to figuring it out. "She had had a great deal of experience listening to the voices of children who were leaving things
Alice Munro’s Something I’ve Been Meaning to Tell You (II) Toronto: Penguin, 1974. I find something irresistible about a story titled “How I Met My Husband”. Not very feminist-y of me. I hope I don’t lose my secret-decoder ring for saying so.And, anyway, it’s not as though traditional readers would
