Whether and how a girl rode a bicycle mattered a great deal in the 1950s in southwestern Ontario, for the young Alice Munro. 2006; Vintage, 2007 "We lived just beyond the town limits, so if I showed up riding a bicycle—and particularly this bicycle—it would put me in
For readers familiar with Alice Munro's most recent collection, Dear Life, the title of this story will immediately recall "Night", which she described as being "not quite" a story about her relationship with her father. Vintage, 2006 "Night" is part of a group of four tales, which she feels are
Many of the themes which resurface in Alice Munro's fiction play an important role in "Working for a Living". 2006; Vintage, 2008 One of the first which strikes readers is the question of town versus country, which plays such a predominant role in both Lives of Girls and
The Laidlaws have left the Ettrick Valley in Scotland behind, that parish with "no advantages", but the family members also have left behind "long, outspoken, sometimes outrageous letters, and detailed recollections" which have inspired Alice Munro to narrate the experiences of her ancestors. McClelland & Stewart, 2006 But
The title story in this collection follows "No Advantages" closely. It presents Old James the father, Andrew, Walter, and their sister Mary, Andrew’s wife Agnes, and Agnes and Andrew’s son James,"under two years old", and recounts their experiences from "the harbor of Leith, on the 4th of June, 1818, [when] they set
