In the story, it is Joan who prolongs the name "with a certain tone of celebration". Penelope. But it's easy to imagine that it is actually Alice Munro who is savouring every syllable as she draws it out in ink. Pen-ell-oh-pee. You can imagine her there, à la Winslet and DiCaprio, at the
Readers who were left with an abundance of questions after reading "Chance" might turn to "Soon" believing that some will be answered. McClelland & Stewart, 2004 But Juliet's reappearance holds no promises of resolution; there are just as many new musings unaddressed. Most prominent are the questions outwardly posed at
A woman travelling to meet her lover. As I begin reading this story, my thoughts wander to this occurrence in other Munro stories. McClelland & Stewart, 2004 Was it “Providence” in which Rose plans to travel south, after her marriage breaks down, to meet her lover? Certainly in
In collection reading, since Quarterly Stories: Winter 2013 I've read Susie Moloney's Things Withered, the latest installment of the Alice Munro reading project, B.J. Novak's One More Thing, and the most recent volume of Journey Prize stories. But mostly I've been dipping into single stories in recent months. Partly this was inspired by random samplings of the latest ReLit
With book in hand, readers will know this is a collection of short fiction marketed as horror stories. But that's a broad stroke; Dracula and The Stand are both frightening tales. In the hands of Susie Moloney, a horror story sometimes means gruesome and moist: "Brains and cranial fluid seeped
