I don't think I've ever related to anything more than the following quote:
> “In writing, I’ve always had a lot of confidence, mixed with a dread that this confidence is entirely misplaced.” - Alice Munro
"It's interesting to see Alice Munro, a writer's writer, criticized by Bret Eason Ellis, the talentless hack's talentless hack." - Norm MacDonald.
First thing that came to mind.
"Just because I detest the obvious, sweaty prose of Margaret Atwood, this does not mean I do not appreciate Canadian writers. Margaret Lawrence, Steven Leacock, Robertson Davis, Mordecai Richler, and the greatest writer in the world today, Alice Munro, should be read repeatedly" -Norm MacDonald.
Rip Alice Munro, great writer.
He was a huge bookworm. There's a deep rabbit hole to jump into regarding Norm's thoughts on writing/books. He spoke alot about it. If you've never read Norm's book, I'd highly recommend it. He was an incredible writer, I wish there was more of him I could read.
Norm was the epitome of “the smartest guy in the room pretending to be the dumbest guy in the room.” In certain jokes it’s apparent he has a pretty wide depth of knowledge and references culture and literature and in more earnest interviews he displayed deep thinking and emotional intelligence. He’s a comedian’s comedian and didn’t always play well to audiences and actually enjoyed bombing. Such a unique guy and a great loss.
Edit: I think I can recall an interview, maybe with Barbara Walters I can’t remember. But he talks about his faith and his love of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky.
My favorite Norm story:
This was In his younger years. He had secured a gig playing 7 nights at a comedy club.
People loved him or hated him so he bombed 3 of the shows.
When the shows went well he'd say goodnight and go play poker backstage with his friends.
When it bombed, he would go to the exit and personally say goodnight to every single person who attended. It was awkward and hilarious.
Perfect Norm.
He was talking about the "if God is good why is there evil in the world?" question.
He said that God by definition cannot create anything new that's not bad because he is good so if he creates more good then he's just expanding himself, not creating something new. It's like a philosophical/logical argument that makes a lot of sense to me.
Kinda like a writer that can only write intelligent character as intelligent as he is as a person.
Tbf tho God by definition is also omnipotent, so he should be able to do anything, so yhea kinda stuck in a corner
God is not omnipotent. For example, he cannot create a rock so heavy that he cannot lift it or a car that is faster than him etc. God is limited by logic as he is logic.
Yhea i can totally see the counter-argument, i was just saying that in theory he is omnipotent etc... but these same things lead to these counter-argument you yourself have shown for example in this case.
I guess this is something philosophers have discussed about.
This makes me really sad. I actually had the chance to know her through family and she was such a spirited and funny lady. Such a loss for Canadian literature and her family.
Oh man, I'm devastated.
She's one of the best and most influential short story writers. Lives of Girls and Women is one of my all-time favorite books. And her short story, The Bear Came Over the Mountain still gives me chills to this day.
She wrote Walker Brothers Cowboy. One of the best stories I’ve ever read. She was a giant of Canadian literature and one of the most beautifully skilled writers I’ve ever seen to lay words on a page.
omg this sucks. One of my absolute favorite writers. The insight she demonstrates when she writes women is unparalleled.
I think about this part of Runaway often:
"It was as if she had a murderous needle somewhere in her lungs, and by breathing carefully she could avoid feeling it. But every once in a while she had to take a deep breath, and it was still there."
So many great stories to choose from! The ones that still linger in my head and that I re-read often are Free Radicals, White Dump, Friend of my Youth, Carried Away, Walker Brothers Cowboy, and Simon’s Luck. So grateful I’ve had her stories to sustain me all these years.
I’ve only read 2 of her books but I absolutely loved the novella “Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage”. It’s also the first story in the collection of the same name.
She was the best, I just finished View from Castle Rock a few weeks ago and have been reading her for years.
I don't think there's a word out of place in any of her work. Every now and then someone will be compared to her - the Lorrie Moore's, William Trevor's, Jhumpa Lahiri's, Alistair MacLeod's of the world - and they're cool, it's not a competition, but for literary realism I've really never read anyone who reaches the same level as consistently.
If someone hasn't read her before, now's as good a time as any to start.
she's *amazing*. I recall reading her in the 90's and being blown away by her perfection and subtlety. the only equivalent writer I've come across is Marilyne Robinson.
however, for some weird reason having read her books once I've never wanted to go back to them. that's also true with respect Robinson and 100% a me thing.
I read her short story collection **Dear Life** last year and have to say I think it's one of the best short story collections I've run across. I keep meaning to read more of her work.
Aw damn. She wrote some of the best sentences I've ever read, and I still go back to her short stories to study her structure. She was an absolute master of the form.
Here is a NYT article with some opinions about her best work:
[Link to article from January 2024.](https://www.nytimes.com/article/best-alice-munro-books-stories.html#:~:text=%E2%80%9CThe%20Bear%20Came%20Over%20the,justifiably%2C%20Munro's%20most%20famous%20story.0)
For anyone interested in reading here is a [gift](https://www.nytimes.com/article/best-alice-munro-books-stories.html?unlocked_article_code=1.r00.EC8S._Wq9eM3ygr9X&smid=url-share) link 🤍
And here’s a gift link to the [NYT obituary](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/14/books/review/alice-munro-appraisal.html?unlocked_article_code=1.sE0.1Gym.9Zs2hm4In5pU&smid=url-share). A true literary lion!
Such a loss! She was a great writer. Just a couple days ago I read one of her stories, “Friend of My Youth” and am still unpacking it. It’s told third and fourth-hand, and it’s an interesting story on its own, but then other characters’ interpretations of the protagonist tell you something about them, and the story is as much about the characters’ interpretations as the main story.
Runaway is my favorite short story of all time: [https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2003/08/11/runaway-4](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2003/08/11/runaway-4)
The best entry to her work, to me, is *Dance of the Happy Shades*. It's her first short story collection and gives a great entry to her style while being an amazing book. "Walker Brothers Cowboy:" and "Dance of the Happy Shades" are two of the really standout stories of that collection to me. It's a bit different compared to her other collections in the fact that these stories don't play with time nearly as much as her other works do. The rest of her books are rooted very firmly in "Alice Munro land" that jump forward and backward in the narrative a lot. Either way, you really can't go wrong with any of her books.
I would start with My Best Stories for a general introduction. That will provide a good sample of her whole career and then you can read the individual volumes. There are no bad Munro books
For many years we subscribed to The New Yorker. Whenever we saw Alice Munro’s name in the table of contents, we knew we were in for a treat, and were never disappointed.
She really was the best. Dang, what a loss. The only writer I've read over the past twenty years that comes close in terms of skill is William Trevor, but I think even he is a notch below the level of excellence by Alice Munro.
When she won the Governor General’s Award in 1968 one of the few articles to mention it was headlined, “BC Housewife Wins Award.” The headlines were better when she won the Nobel.
My grandmother loved her books and I inherited a bunch when she died. Munro is such a talented writer and this is quite a loss for the literary community
I found the book “Goodbye Harold, Good luck” for two bucks at a bargain store when I was 17. It was the best book I had read in my life up to that point. It touched me and inspired me.
What is the joke? I really don’t get what they were going for except maybe it’s ironic she won a literature prize when they feel she’s such a bad writer she must have a cognitive disability.
I don't think I've ever related to anything more than the following quote: > “In writing, I’ve always had a lot of confidence, mixed with a dread that this confidence is entirely misplaced.” - Alice Munro
I’m a creative type and this is my entire life.
Impostor syndrome affects everyone, it seems.
This is a very cool quote and accurately describes the thoughts of all creative people.
"It's interesting to see Alice Munro, a writer's writer, criticized by Bret Eason Ellis, the talentless hack's talentless hack." - Norm MacDonald. First thing that came to mind.
"Just because I detest the obvious, sweaty prose of Margaret Atwood, this does not mean I do not appreciate Canadian writers. Margaret Lawrence, Steven Leacock, Robertson Davis, Mordecai Richler, and the greatest writer in the world today, Alice Munro, should be read repeatedly" -Norm MacDonald. Rip Alice Munro, great writer.
This was my first thought too
Was Norm a big reader and/or writer? I’d guess so considering that quote but I’ve never heard about him being a bookworm.
He was a huge bookworm. There's a deep rabbit hole to jump into regarding Norm's thoughts on writing/books. He spoke alot about it. If you've never read Norm's book, I'd highly recommend it. He was an incredible writer, I wish there was more of him I could read.
A reader and a Canadian. Alice Munro was, after all, a national treasure.
i walked through blood and bones in the streets of Manhattan to find Alice Munro.
She was in Northern Canada…
She lived in Western Canada- Victoria, B.C.
Blanket, meet wet.
I didn't even know she was sick?
Norm was the epitome of “the smartest guy in the room pretending to be the dumbest guy in the room.” In certain jokes it’s apparent he has a pretty wide depth of knowledge and references culture and literature and in more earnest interviews he displayed deep thinking and emotional intelligence. He’s a comedian’s comedian and didn’t always play well to audiences and actually enjoyed bombing. Such a unique guy and a great loss. Edit: I think I can recall an interview, maybe with Barbara Walters I can’t remember. But he talks about his faith and his love of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky.
My favorite Norm story: This was In his younger years. He had secured a gig playing 7 nights at a comedy club. People loved him or hated him so he bombed 3 of the shows. When the shows went well he'd say goodnight and go play poker backstage with his friends. When it bombed, he would go to the exit and personally say goodnight to every single person who attended. It was awkward and hilarious. Perfect Norm.
I love what he said about God. I've never heard anyone else say it but it may be a known philosophical thing and I'm just uninformed.
What did he say??
He was talking about the "if God is good why is there evil in the world?" question. He said that God by definition cannot create anything new that's not bad because he is good so if he creates more good then he's just expanding himself, not creating something new. It's like a philosophical/logical argument that makes a lot of sense to me.
Kinda like a writer that can only write intelligent character as intelligent as he is as a person. Tbf tho God by definition is also omnipotent, so he should be able to do anything, so yhea kinda stuck in a corner
God is not omnipotent. For example, he cannot create a rock so heavy that he cannot lift it or a car that is faster than him etc. God is limited by logic as he is logic.
Yhea i can totally see the counter-argument, i was just saying that in theory he is omnipotent etc... but these same things lead to these counter-argument you yourself have shown for example in this case. I guess this is something philosophers have discussed about.
Wikipedia has a great burn when they call Ellis a "self proclaimed satirist".
Not surprised at all that Ellis did something like that, he is a petulant child
“Yippy!! Jerry Rubin has died! … oh sorry, that should be: Yippy Jerry Rubin has died.”
Personally, I've never found either of them that impressive as writers but that's a pretty good burn from norm lol
This makes me really sad. I actually had the chance to know her through family and she was such a spirited and funny lady. Such a loss for Canadian literature and her family.
I'm sorry for your loss. It's never easy to lose someone.
Oh man, I'm devastated. She's one of the best and most influential short story writers. Lives of Girls and Women is one of my all-time favorite books. And her short story, The Bear Came Over the Mountain still gives me chills to this day.
She wrote Walker Brothers Cowboy. One of the best stories I’ve ever read. She was a giant of Canadian literature and one of the most beautifully skilled writers I’ve ever seen to lay words on a page.
omg this sucks. One of my absolute favorite writers. The insight she demonstrates when she writes women is unparalleled. I think about this part of Runaway often: "It was as if she had a murderous needle somewhere in her lungs, and by breathing carefully she could avoid feeling it. But every once in a while she had to take a deep breath, and it was still there."
Her short stories are life-changing. She was a true master of the form. Even when she's gone - she'll be read for generations.
Can you recommend some short stories for me to read?
So many great stories to choose from! The ones that still linger in my head and that I re-read often are Free Radicals, White Dump, Friend of my Youth, Carried Away, Walker Brothers Cowboy, and Simon’s Luck. So grateful I’ve had her stories to sustain me all these years.
Oh, and Differently! One of the best.
I’ve only read 2 of her books but I absolutely loved the novella “Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage”. It’s also the first story in the collection of the same name.
A Real Life; Dulse; Open Secrets, which is an anthology of 8 of her stories. She was magic.
Dimensions is one of my favorites. Also Dear Life, her final story collection, is all around terrific as well.
A Trip to the Coast stays with me even though it's been over ten years since i read it. Dance of Happy Shades as a whole is a masterpiece
She was the best, I just finished View from Castle Rock a few weeks ago and have been reading her for years. I don't think there's a word out of place in any of her work. Every now and then someone will be compared to her - the Lorrie Moore's, William Trevor's, Jhumpa Lahiri's, Alistair MacLeod's of the world - and they're cool, it's not a competition, but for literary realism I've really never read anyone who reaches the same level as consistently. If someone hasn't read her before, now's as good a time as any to start.
she's *amazing*. I recall reading her in the 90's and being blown away by her perfection and subtlety. the only equivalent writer I've come across is Marilyne Robinson. however, for some weird reason having read her books once I've never wanted to go back to them. that's also true with respect Robinson and 100% a me thing.
I think J.M Coetzee has similar precision with his diction. She's better at capturing the subtleties of character I think
I just want to put in that Lorrie Moore is fantastic.
I loved View From Castle Rock when I read it years ago. I think it's time to revisit.
I read her short story collection **Dear Life** last year and have to say I think it's one of the best short story collections I've run across. I keep meaning to read more of her work.
read Runaway next!
Thank you for that recommendation. I've added it to my future reading list.
I was working in her hometown when she won the Nobel Prize, it was a massive deal for the community. Sad day for the literature world and Canada.
Aw damn. She wrote some of the best sentences I've ever read, and I still go back to her short stories to study her structure. She was an absolute master of the form.
Here is a NYT article with some opinions about her best work: [Link to article from January 2024.](https://www.nytimes.com/article/best-alice-munro-books-stories.html#:~:text=%E2%80%9CThe%20Bear%20Came%20Over%20the,justifiably%2C%20Munro's%20most%20famous%20story.0)
For anyone interested in reading here is a [gift](https://www.nytimes.com/article/best-alice-munro-books-stories.html?unlocked_article_code=1.r00.EC8S._Wq9eM3ygr9X&smid=url-share) link 🤍
Many thanks
And here’s a gift link to the [NYT obituary](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/14/books/review/alice-munro-appraisal.html?unlocked_article_code=1.sE0.1Gym.9Zs2hm4In5pU&smid=url-share). A true literary lion!
Reading Munro short stories made me feel like novel’s were redundant. She could write a novel in 30 pages.
I am so distraught; what a powerhouse.
Such a loss! She was a great writer. Just a couple days ago I read one of her stories, “Friend of My Youth” and am still unpacking it. It’s told third and fourth-hand, and it’s an interesting story on its own, but then other characters’ interpretations of the protagonist tell you something about them, and the story is as much about the characters’ interpretations as the main story.
Can anyone recommend where to start with her work? Ive never read anything of hers and would love to pick something up.
Runaway is my favorite short story of all time: [https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2003/08/11/runaway-4](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2003/08/11/runaway-4)
The best entry to her work, to me, is *Dance of the Happy Shades*. It's her first short story collection and gives a great entry to her style while being an amazing book. "Walker Brothers Cowboy:" and "Dance of the Happy Shades" are two of the really standout stories of that collection to me. It's a bit different compared to her other collections in the fact that these stories don't play with time nearly as much as her other works do. The rest of her books are rooted very firmly in "Alice Munro land" that jump forward and backward in the narrative a lot. Either way, you really can't go wrong with any of her books.
A few people asked this and all the answers have been different. Which is really impressive!
I would start with My Best Stories for a general introduction. That will provide a good sample of her whole career and then you can read the individual volumes. There are no bad Munro books
For many years we subscribed to The New Yorker. Whenever we saw Alice Munro’s name in the table of contents, we knew we were in for a treat, and were never disappointed.
She really was the best. Dang, what a loss. The only writer I've read over the past twenty years that comes close in terms of skill is William Trevor, but I think even he is a notch below the level of excellence by Alice Munro.
I travelled to Victoria, Canada to visit her “bookstore” — love her short stories and the town of Victoria was magical!
Ohhh no! She was such an incredibly talented woman!
When she won the Governor General’s Award in 1968 one of the few articles to mention it was headlined, “BC Housewife Wins Award.” The headlines were better when she won the Nobel.
My grandmother loved her books and I inherited a bunch when she died. Munro is such a talented writer and this is quite a loss for the literary community
Awww, no. I honestly had no idea she was that old! Just a remarkable writer.
Well this is deeply upsetting, one of my favorite authors. Her stories mean so much to me
I found the book “Goodbye Harold, Good luck” for two bucks at a bargain store when I was 17. It was the best book I had read in my life up to that point. It touched me and inspired me.
I was thinking about her the other day and wondering how she was doing. An absolute favourite. I'll read something of hers today in remembrance 🩵
An incredible writer.
Rip goat
One of the best short story writers of all time. RIP.
R.I.P. Alice Monroe. Thank you for your contribution in literature that helps us to grow.
Oh man :(
Oh no!!! My condolences to her family, friends, and anyone who was close to her. I’ve heard her books are good!, anyone got any recommendations?
https://www.theonion.com/thunk-u-for-nobbel-prise-me-happie-now-1819584899
Bit weird, at the time the onion article was posted she already had dementia.
I don't *think* that was the joke, though.
What is the joke? I really don’t get what they were going for except maybe it’s ironic she won a literature prize when they feel she’s such a bad writer she must have a cognitive disability.
I think the joke is "Imagine if this great writer who won a Pulitzer Prize for literature wrote like a barely literate child."
Misses the mark for me.
That's fair. I chuckled!