I didn't realize this was a book of short stories when I bought it. It's my first book of short stories. I've decided that I don't care much for short stories. The characters and stories aren't developed enough. Her stories were a bit bizarre, mostly with endings I didn't like. Parts of the stories are interesting and I kept expecting them to get better and then I'd get disappointed. The only one I liked was the second to the last story. I think it was called Tricks. The last story I didn't unde...

Not, who has read more Alice Munro that I have, wants to know why she doesn't write novels. Her uncharitable hypothesis is that Munro is too lazy to do the necessary work; she'd rather just scribble down each idea in short story form and then move on to the next one. Other people criticize her for being "cerebral" or "contrived". I don't agree with any of this, but I can see where the accusations are coming from. After some thought, I find a metaphor which sums up my own feelings. It's true that...

Runaway: Noun or Verb?As a noun, “runaway” conjures a fairly specific character and situation.Image: Runaway child with backpack But as a phrasal verb, running away is often much broader and more metaphorical.Right now, writing this, while sitting at my laptop, I’m running away from planning a conference presentation. In the past, I have run away from physical fear (trying to climb a net); a job I hated so much it was making me ill; and from potential rejection (and thus from possible acceptance...

Runaway: Stories, Alice MunroRunaway is a book of short stories by Alice Munro. First published in 2004 by McClelland and Stewart, it was awarded that year's Giller Prize and Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize.There are eight short stories in the book. Three of the stories ("Chance", "Soon", and "Silence") are about a single character named "Juliet Henderson"."Runaway" – a woman is trapped in a bad marriage."Chance" – Juliet takes a train trip which leads to an affair."Soon" – Juliet visits her...

Another superb collection of stories by Alice Munro. The stories in this collection are longer and often make giant leaps forward in time so we get a sense of the entire life of her characters. She also uses the same character in three stories. As usual, her main theme is the lives of women who can't quite find an inspiring home in the world in which they're forced to live. Dysfunctional relationships, especially with men but sometimes with daughters, abound. She's so good at evoking the settlin...

in 1997, the reigning king of redonda, a tiny island & micronation in the bahamas, was so moved by superstar spanish writer javier marias's novel todas las almas that he abdicated the throne and handed it to marias. weird shit. so marias confers the title of 'duke' and 'duchess' to certain people, amongst them: john ashbery (duke of convexo)pedro almodovar (duke of trémula)frank gehry (duke of nervión)w.g. sebald (duke of vértigo)guillermo cabrera infante (duke of tigres)every year all the dukes...

I agree with those that claim Alice Munro stories are like novels, in that they are expansive. You're left feeling you've departed a journey with these characters that you've come to like, detest and feel disappointed in. Also, they're longer than the average short story. But Munro, in sweeping wonderful prose writes such striking characters in mostly small ordinary Canadian towns.

Runaway is another wonderful collection of short stories from the masterful Alice Munro. This is the second book of hers that I've read and I'm starting to see a common theme emerge. The protagonists are usually women, and the stories usually revolve around a crucial moment in their lives. They often look back on the decisions they have made with a mixture of regret and remorse.Three of the stories focus on Juliet, a teacher, at different stages of her life. In Chance, she meets her future husba...

As seen on The ReadventurerLike many readers, I claim quite often that I am not really a fan of short stories, that is, I claim that until I come across the next good short story collection, like Alice Munro's Runaway. My imaginary dislike for shorts can surely be traced to reading too many poorly assembled multi-author anthologies. There are maybe two of them in existence that I can honestly call good. From my experience, single-author collections are much, much more satisfying.Once again, I ha...

3.5★“In the brief note she left, she had used the word “authentic.” I have always felt the need of a more authentic kind of life. I know I cannot expect you to understand this.”That was Carla's note to her parents when she ran away with Clark, a no-good drifter, as her stepfather called him. She says he saved up the money for a farm, so he can’t be all bad. But he IS temperamental.“Clark often had fights, and not just with the people he owed money to. His friendliness, compelling at first, could...

Here's what Jonathan Franzen said about this book in the NY Times Book Review:Basically, Runaway is so good that I don't want to talk about it here. Quotation can't do the book justice, and neither can synopsis. The way to do it justice is to read it.But here's what Michiko Kakutani says about it in the NY Times:Instead of assuming the organic, musical form of real life, they feel like self-conscious, overworked tales, relying on awkwardly withheld secrets and O'Henryesque twists to create narra...

Short stories can be deeply unsatisfying. Too often the nuance overshadows character and plot development, as if the author is cruelly trying to offer the reader a tiny taste of a story before yanking it away again. No so with Alice Munro. She writes with such simplicity and economy and mystery. The mystery arises from the way that she presents each story--just a few words at the outset, perfectly descriptive, but never overly so. And then the rest of it is just like (**alert**be prepared for ti...

One of Munro's best books, Runaway is also one of her most thematically consistent collections. The idea of "running away" or "escape" permeates each tale. And what to make of the fact that the book consists of clipped, one-word titles? Intriguing.I love the linked sequence of three narratives ("Chance," "Soon," and "Silence"), and if you read carefully you'll see each of those words is repeated significantly in other stories, especially "chance." (Think of the chain of events in "Tricks," the s...

I do not usually prefer short stories, but Alice Munro's "Runaway" is an exception. Munro's work as a whole, in fact. Everybody knows that short stories are more difficult to perfect than the novel, thus the lack of well-written ones. What makes her sorry stories stand out? One notable difference is that Munro's short stories are actually not that short. Strictly in words, many lean towards the lengthier "definition". (Short stories are not defined by length as much as structure. Although there'...

Alice Munro - you can't just read her once. You've got to read her again, and again, and again. Her stories written about women and men who live lives like you and I - quietly going about their days, wondering if they missed out on that great big love, or that great big chance; arguing with their children, or their parents, or both; pretending that life is grand, pretending that life isn't pointless.She writes lush, beautiful tales which are long and enjoyable to read. I'm reading her again, soo...

My Creative Writing professor was very much a fan of Alice Munro's Runaway, and hearing about its basic premise, I couldn't figure out what all the fuss was about. Like many Canadian short story anthologies though, Runaway is deceptively mediocre in title and design, making what is a truly excellent collection look like one of those cheap romance novels you'd see in the 50% off bin at the thrift store. Munro captures the wistfulness of being a woman in a lonely environment in ways that few other...

Runaway is one of the short story collections of 2013 Nobel Prize winner, Canadian Alice Munro. I listened to the book, and really liked it, though I am a white middle-class, late-middle-aged man, and this book features white middle-class Canadian (particularly from Ontario) women, many of them late-middle aged. The focus is on stories of women and girls, on relationships, sometimes with men, and the every day, in every day language. They are unfussy, unpretentious, realistic literary fiction. I...

Carla is a young woman who eloped with Clark, his former horse-riding teacher, to live her farm dream. As it usually happens in real life, the dream turns out to be a rather gloomy nightmare. Clark has fits of moodiness and treats her with despise and coldness. Carla's neighbor Sylvie hires her to take care of the house while she tends to her moribund husband. A strong bond develops between the two women, and for a moment, the reader has high hopes for Carla: will she be resilient enough to esca...

There are some very powerful short stories in this book, some gorgeous writing and sadness too. One of my Goodreads friends said in his review that one of these stories will leave you with a hole in your heart. I felt that way about 2 of them. I won't forget this book anytime soon. "The trees of the hardwood forest laced their branches overhead. The leaves were late to turn this year because of the strangely warm weather, so these branches were still green, except for the odd one here and there

My first Alice Munro collection of short stories, which sadly I had to take it back to the library before I was finished. I had alternately tried and resisted reading her for years, as her stories are about small town life and unremarkable people, but looking for something to listen to on walks, I took this out on audio from the library and I am so grateful that chance sent it my way. Ihe four or five stories I did read--and they are very long stories, you could see various places where another