Hiya!
While looking up last year's Nobel Prize winner Alice
Munro, I came across an article that mentioned that two of her
"short" stories had been made into "full
length" films. That really aroused my curiosity....and the
collection of short stories under the name Hateship, Friendship,
Courtship, Loveship, Marriage...was what I chose to read.
Unlike most impact-causing books set in
high-flying locations that shock us to the core, this book
has its stories set in small town Canada. The characters
are, without exception, ordinary people doing stock, mundane,
run-of-the-mill stuff. Yet, you find yourself
spellbound, watching Ms Munro unmasking the personae in each
story. The irony here being how the ordinary could possibly grip one
so!
Her unblinking observations catalogue details with an
unbiased precision that seems to border on the cold. These
penetrating descriptions find parallels in what could so easily
be our own lives. The myriad of thoughts and
feelings coursing through us while we hold an urn of a loved
one's ashes, an unexpected happy ending to a seemingly far
fetched relationship, a relative with an air of superiority paying a
condescending visit to the family, catching up with an old friend and
wishing circumstances were different. We use relationships
as stepping stones in pretty much the same way as Queenie does, we've
lost friends our age unexpectedly and we'd dread having to look after
a partner whose mind is drifting further and further
away from reality.
We too, often relate our everyday stories but tend to let
our bias guide our listener, Alice Munro doesn't. This master
storyteller, simply....tells the story!!!
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| The Fellowship of APAVAC Reading Club |
With our next book, Love in a Headscarf, a chick lit novel, we
accompany the author Shelina Zahra Janmohamed, in her quest for a
husband.
See you then
Michelle Ann Prabhu
