Alice Munro Is DEAD TO ME

RIP to one of the world's greatest short story writers. Is that still even a thing?

[quote] elseafanhefe

Is that a character in Wicked?

One of the times the Nobel committee got it right! She was a wonder!

Compelling, amusing, and hard to put down once one starts reading. Brilliant storyteller. No one else like her. Didn't she win a Nobel?

A true loss to the world of contemporary literature.

R4:

[quote] Didn't she win a Nobel?

R3:

[quote] One of the times the Nobel committee got it right!

Sorry for not being perfect r5.

Damn, I was waiting for (and dreading) this. Wonderful stories that experiment with time and emotions in such a unique way. At least she was able to enjoy her Nobel for a decade, you can tell she got a real kick out of it.

She was over 90. It would have been nice to expect more but...

[quote]who wrote one of the best stories about Alzheimer

I did?

She never did get that novel published.

[quote] Sorry for not being perfect

It was not you who was not being perfect, r3.

R10, maybe it was for the best. Her stories her perfection, though, and much better than many novels.

R12, agreed.

Overrated.

I’ll start, R14. It’s not like me to say such things but you are very simply wrong. Wrong. Just plain wrong. Munro’s stories are sublime, insightful, a comfort, alarming, and attuned to the perfect nuance. If readers don’t like her writing, I’m certain the fault lies with them.

[quote] If readers don’t like her writing, I’m certain the fault lies with them.

R15 has stated his Munro doctrine.

R14, fair enough. But which contemporary short story writers do you prefer?

She was an excellent, fabulous and sharp writer. One of my very favorite authors. Loved her.

R17, I am a huge admirer of William Trevor, whose stories are extraordinarily odd and psychologically penetrating. His prose is peerless, too.

I loved "Open Secrets."

Has Jill or Kelly commented?

R17, I also should have thanked you for your very civil and reasonable response, with inquiry. Thank you.

R17, Rachel Kushner is also a first-rate fiction writer (including short stories). She's much younger than Munro was--only in her 50s, I believe, but her work is more compelling and beautifully crafted than just about anything I've read. She deserves wider exposure.

R22, thanks. I like Munro. But I'm always looking for someone new to read!

Great writer. RIP.

She enabled and choose her pedophilic husband over her own daughter.

Wow, that's a sad story at R26.

I still enjoyed Munro's stories, but I 100% believe her daughter.

In fairness, it appears that the daughter didn't report the sexual assault to Munro until many years had passed. I do think Munro would still have chosen her husband over her daughter.

[quote]OP: Heartbreaking that she, who wrote one of the best stories about Alzheimer, was suffering from dementia for so long. I love her work. Anyone elseafanhefe?

We can see why it's affected you so much, dear. They do keep the doors locked where you are, right?

I miss the short story genre. I used to borrow those "Best Short Stories of __X__ [Year]" anthologies and read them on long plane rides.

That's so sad what she did to her daughter

Oh no, not Alice Munro! This is awful, how did she die?

Shocking news. One of her later collections, Too Much Happiness, featured some stories that were uncharacteristically dark compared to her earlier work. I wonder what impact this news had on it.

Munro is a completely overrated writer, and her vast cuntiness is readily apparent in her work to any attentive reader.

Munro idolators will stay faithful to their god and spit out a lot of silliness about the complexity of artistic talent and its necessary separation from personal flaws of characteŕ and decency. In some cases, that explanation is valid, but not with Munro. Overrated bitch.

R33 here again. What kills me is that Munro has quite a few women peers whose fiction is so much more interesting and reflective of unique talent, but less celebrated and unquestioningly revered, such as Jane Smiley, Joy Williams, and Lucia Berlin. In today's literary world, we have Rachel Kushner, Jennifer Egan, Dana Spiotta, Elzabeth Strout, and more. All of them immeasurably more in command of the art of fiction, and often with a sense of humor Munro lacked.

Munro was prolific.

Fighting an oil rig fire in the Gulf of Mexico R31.

SHE WAS 92!

How is Ralph taking it? Will she wear black coveralls?

Opened this thread in the middle of re-reading a collection of Munro’s stories. That article by her daughter is heartbreaking - and infuriating.

Given her awareness of her husband’s predilection for young girls (even though Andrea disclosed the truth to her mother years later), it just seems beyond disingenuous that she (mother) accepted the preposterous notion that the daughter “wasn’t the husband’s type.” I mean a woman like Alice Munro - literate, beloved, famous, seen by some as an icon of feminism in her time - could actually think like that.

No, I have no way of knowing for sure. But the daughter’s article was 100% convincing to me. I believe every word.

I know it may sound ridiculous but having Alice Munro’s book next to me in bed now just feels icky to me.

Then for God's sake: don't read it, r38. But stop using this as an excuse for public pearl-clutching.

Cunt.

I sort of agree with you r33. Her cuntiness drips off every page. She hates hates loathes and hates the rural white Canadian hillbilly society she was born into and yet has a baffling superiority complex (which comes out in her work) about how they’re the most moral, strong brave women in the world.

I can only read her for so long before I get irritated and have to stop. This news about her daughter is disgusting and now I have a legit excuse not to worship at her altar and her oeuvre of white, Canadian hickdom.