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    SarahEmCeeErin Gloria Ryan
    10/10/13 10:24am

    What collection or individual story do y'all most recommend to someone who's not familiar with her work? /shame

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      Gonzo the SomethingSarahEmCee
      10/10/13 10:42am

      Lives Of Girls And Women is the most famous.

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      FieryAntidoteSarahEmCee
      10/10/13 10:43am

      They are all marvelous, honestly. But I'd recommend Hateship, Friendship, Loveship, Courtship, Marriage. Or, maybe Open Secrets.

      Don't start with her latest two, Dear Life or Too Much Happiness (or her memoir The View from Castle Rock). They are brilliant too, but I think you appreciate them more if you read the work at the apex of her career.

      You cannot go wrong if you select a first volume from the 80s through early 2000s.

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    ImGoingHomeErin Gloria Ryan
    10/10/13 9:44am

    I like to write short stories. It's always been a just for fun thing but recently I was thinking of trying to get a collection of them published but I always felt inferior to novel writers in my mind. This gives me a new outlook :)

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      Gonzo the SomethingImGoingHome
      10/10/13 10:42am

      I feel the same way about my poetry, which is mostly haiku. I know haiku is considered "easy" or even a "grade school" format, but I like it and people tell me I'm good at it, so :P to them.

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      FieryAntidoteImGoingHome
      10/10/13 10:45am

      Personally, I think it is harder to write an excellent story than a novel. With a story, every word counts and the pacing must be impeccable. Plus, you do not follow a traditional story arc. Munro's genius is how her stories somehow start in the middle and then veer in unexpected directions. She never ends with either pure tragedy or "happily ever after." I have never been able to anticipate the ending.

      Good luck on your short story writing!

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    SleepyJeanErin Gloria Ryan
    10/10/13 11:04am

    Two thoughts:

    1. CAN-CON!!!

    2. Do you think David Gilmour will be willing to add her to his syllabus now?

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      SamBargeSleepyJean
      10/10/13 11:23am

      Well, she has a Pulitzer but not a penis so... I'm thinking no.

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      katgyrlSleepyJean
      10/10/13 11:41am

      i believe she's the one female author he allowed on his list

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    Wandering WombatErin Gloria Ryan
    10/10/13 9:54am

    So exciting! She is a Canadian treasure. We always discussed in school how Canadian literature tends to be so rooted in the Garrison mentality, and Canadian experience that is hard to relate to for people of other nationalities. I would say international recognition like this greatly disproves that.

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      I'd eat a spiderWandering Wombat
      10/10/13 12:49pm

      Haha, I just finished reading Survival for a class. I'm all garrison'd out for the moment.

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    lethekkErin Gloria Ryan
    10/10/13 9:40am

    I excitedly announced her win to my (fellow Canadian) coworkers this morning as soon as I got in, and was greeted with a bunch of blank looks. It made me sad for the state of society.

    Oh the plus side- Yay Alice Munro! She and Margaret Atwood are two of my favourite authors. Her collection "Too Much Happiness" literally had me in tears many times, and after I finished it I couldn't stop thinking about some of the stories for weeks.

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      mrsfinchlethekk
      10/10/13 10:43am

      Don't worry, my friend Simon called me at 7 am gibbering about how wonderful this was. So other Canadians are picking up the slack!

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      thomaspynchonlethekk
      10/10/13 2:47pm

      Too Much Happiness is amazing. My favorite story in there (and favorite overall Munro story) is Free Radicals. It's so creeptastic.

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    jomarchErin Gloria Ryan
    10/10/13 9:54am
    GIF

    I absolutely adore her work, this is so exciting!

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      stagewhisperjomarch
      10/10/13 11:53am

      I kind of adore you now - Merida is always yes, and two of my major Master's degree essays were on Alice Munro's "Runaway" (as compared to Browning's "My Last Duchess") and diagnosing Jo March's possible trans/queerness.
      Please accept this gif and my humble esteem ^_^

      GIF
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    YoanaErin Gloria Ryan
    10/10/13 1:23pm

    The short story is my favourite genre. Also, her late start gives me hope!

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      AnnArborvitaeYoana
      10/10/13 2:55pm

      The contemporary short story is probably my least favorite form. Their brevity pretty much prevents subtlety, since there's so little space to work through an arc to a conclusion. (That's also why they're so teachable.) I especially dislike New Yorker short stories; I find so many of them precious, perhaps because so many writers of them like to cram in the irony. (Yeah, surprise, I'm old. I went to grad school in the 80s. Surviving Barthelme, McGuane, and Coover does stuff to you that the rise of Cormac McCarthy only compounds.)

      That said, I both enjoy and admire Munro, whose oeuvre I've been reading through over the last couple of months. I'm also super relieved the award didn't go to JC Oates, who I thought was a shoo-in for the next female English-language slot.

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      YoanaAnnArborvitae
      10/10/13 3:01pm

      I've found the opposite is true. There's so much meaning crammed into the limited space, you can take away limitless meanings from a story. That's the reason I like it so much. It seems to embody what literature is all about, to me. I'm thinking of Salinger's stories right now, but I also love Chekhov and some Bulgarian authors I'm fond of, a collection of stories from Indian authors, and even Roald Dahl.

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    TabithaErin Gloria Ryan
    10/10/13 10:55am

    When they give out Nobels for Literature, is the prize meant to honor her overall body of work, or is it for just that one specific book released the year the prize is awarded? I've always wondered about this.

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      Gonzo the SomethingTabitha
      10/10/13 10:59am

      I believe it's the body of work, although sometimes there's a partiular work that throws them over the top.

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      thomaspynchonTabitha
      10/10/13 2:46pm

      It's defined as a body of work, although (like with Hemingway) a specific book is sometimes mentioned as the one that got their attention the most. It works a bit like the Oscars, in that a hugely popular film can make a little-known talent blow up. That is not the case with Munro, however. She's been a favorite for this award since the 90s.

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    Gonzo the SomethingErin Gloria Ryan
    10/10/13 10:41am

    "

    According to the New York Times, Munro was indisposed when the committee called her house,"

    Translation:.

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      ostrichskinbootsErin Gloria Ryan
      10/10/13 11:12am

      I had tears in my eyes this morning when I heard that she won. She's the one who got me into reading short stories in the first place. In my Canadian High School, we read one of her stories almost every single year. What an amazing woman.

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