Zsuzsi Gartner’s Better Living through Plastic Explosives Penguin, 2011 I was stunned by All the Anxious Girls on Earth when it was published in 1999 (tell me: how has it happened that a dozen years have passed since then?). Partly because I read it all-in-a-rush. Partly because the stories are
Maybe the Giller Prize longlist is occupying your every reading moment. But maybe not. If you're looking for something different, check out the ReLit Awards (Sound familiar? I just mentioned them the other day too.) Not just novels, but short stories, even poetry. For a month of Sundays (at least),
Alice Munro’s Something I’ve Been Meaning to Tell You (II) Toronto: Penguin, 1974. At some point I started to wonder if I couldn't simply fit my response to all of these stories into a single post. I mean...long and complicated books like Nicole Krauss' Great House? Classics like Thomas Hardy's Jude
Alice Munro’s Something I’ve Been Meaning to Tell You (II) Toronto: Penguin, 1974. In "Marrakesh", Dorothy wonders: "What is there here that is not being told?" She sets herself to figuring it out. "She had had a great deal of experience listening to the voices of children who were leaving things
Alice Munro’s Something I’ve Been Meaning to Tell You (II) Toronto: Penguin, 1974. I find something irresistible about a story titled “How I Met My Husband”. Not very feminist-y of me. I hope I don’t lose my secret-decoder ring for saying so.And, anyway, it’s not as though traditional readers would
