Open Secrets by Alice Munro

Alice Munro

Every so often, the CBC Radio gives rave reviews to Alice Munro's work, so I knew when I found Open Secrets at my local book supplier, I had to spend a little time with it. In reality, I have some vague recollection of reading a collection of her short stories in university, but that time in my life is a bit fuzzy...(strictly because I did lots of reading in the library ;-)

The Globe and Mail's review says that Open Secrets is: "...Too good to be called merely brilliant: It is a marvel." 

Ok. When I read comments like that, my palms start to sweat and I get really nervous. For one, that's a pretty huge compliment. How could any book live up to that claim? And second, if I don`t agree with the reviewer`s opinion, I feel I have to figure out why it`s NOT a marvel.

Alice Munro is a
Canadian Treasure

Munro`s stories are entertaining. They are mysterious, and they are quite exciting at times. There is quite a bit of vagueness, that keeps the reader guessing. But I have to admit that I got lost amongst the stories several times, and had a tough time keeping track of all the characters and story lines (Am I the only one who takes notes on a recipe card to keep characters straight? Let me know how to do it otherwise...)

After doing a little research on Munro's collection, this British review explains my confusion: "Alice Munro's stories are lucid and compelling. They are also extremely mysterious. They demand close attention -a word skipped or a line skimmed can be the difference between bafflement and illumination..." Ah-ha. That`s EXACTLY it. I read at night before going to sleep. Sometimes I miss a few words here and there...Sometimes I miss sentences, and maybe even skip a paragraph or two when I want to go to sleep but have to finish the page. Maybe that`s why I couldn`t keep it straight and make sense of it all.

So here is a link to a conversation with Alice Munro and CBC`s Peter Gzowski in 1994:

 Click to listen to Full Interview

And there you have it. I'm not attentive enough to follow Munro's subtle prose. I better `dumb it down`a bit for my next couple of novels. I don`t want to feel like silly for long. Basically, I`ll have to save Alice Munro and Mordecai Richler for when I`m fully alert and prepared to take notes.