Just how old are they, these women in Alice Munro's stories, these women in "Hard-Luck Stories" in particular. "Over the past couple of years I have experienced moments of disbelief when I meet my friends in public. They look older than I think they should." These stories still feel current
Just when I was thinking that I've been talking a lot about theme and structure with these stories, and not so much about characterization, along comes a story like "Mrs. Cross and Mrs. Kidd" to make the point. "Mrs. Cross and Mrs. Kidd have known each other eighty years, ever
Reflecting a fictional timeline into the reader's world adds another layer of credibility to the tale. It's that much easier to imagine the characters in "Labor Day Dinner" taking shape, when you're reading it as Labour Day weekend approaches. Structurally, the story is complex, although at first glance it is
I wish that I could introduce the narrator of the last story, "Bardon Bus", to Prue. I like to imagine them sitting together in a cozy neighbourhood bar -- nothing fancy, rather the sort of bar to which people go to be heard rather than to be seen -- in
"I come of straightened people, madly secretive, tenacious, economical." The first segment of the story introduces the reader to the narrator of "Bardon Bus" in a way which recalls other heroines in other stories. "Like them, I could make a little go a long way." (If you've recently read Who
