Alice Munro, página 3 de 7

Ranging from the 1850s through two world wars to the present, and from Canada to Brisbane, the Balkans and the Somme, these dazzling stories reveal the secrets of unconventional women who refuse to b

"Histories de la Flo i la Rose", diu el subtítol d'aquest volum de contes publicat per l'autora el 1978 sota el títol "The Beggar Maid". De totes les seves obres es la que mes s'acosta a una novel·la ja que cada conte narra un nou episodi de la vida de la Rose i la seva madrastra Flo. Un trajecte de la infancia a la maduresa d'una dona que es forma, se'n va, s'emancipa i torna -com totes les herones d'Alice Munro.

Alice Munro, die groe Dame der kanadischen Literatur, ist eine der wenigen Autorinnen, deren Weltruhm sich fast ausschlielich der Kunstform der Short Story verdankt. Imponierend bekraftigen auch die acht Erzahlungen ihrer jungsten Sammlung Tricks wieder Munros geradezu legendaren Ruf als Meisterin der subtilen Erkundung weiblicher Seelenregungen. Dabei erweist sich die besondere Subtilitat der Autorin vor allem bei der Annaherung an den geheimen, unerschliebaren Wesenskern ihrer Figuren, jenen ratselhaft-dunklen Bereich, wo Selbstbetrug und Lebenslugen, gefahrliche Illusionen, aber auch die Moglichkeit zu triumphalem Eigensinn ihren Ausgang nehmen und wo all jenes seinen Grund in uns hat, das starker ist als der eigene Wille. "Alice Munro wird einfach immer besser. Ihre Erzahlungen reichen hinab in die tiefsten Schichten menschlichen Erlebens ... Sie verfugt uber eine solche Meisterschaft, da ich ihr selbst dann noch glauben wurde, wenn sie sich einfallen liee, in der Ich-Form vom Leben nach dem Tode zu berichten." Polly Shulman, Newsday

Contains stories about Svengali men, and radical women who outmanoeuvre them, about destructive marriages and curdled friendships, about mothers and sons, and about moments which change or haunt a li

La dirección del hotel la instaló en una de las habitaciones para clientes permanentes, en el tercer piso. Desde allí veía las montañas cubiertas de nieve por encima de los tejados. El pueblo de Carstairs estaba en el valle de un río. Tenía unos tres o cuatro mil habitantes y una calle mayor que iba cuesta abajo, junto al río, y después seguía cuesta arriba. Había una fábrica de órganos y pianos. Las casas estaban construidas para durar toda una vida, los patios eran amplios y las calles estaban flanqueadas por arces y olmos antiguos. Nunca había estado allí cuando había hojas en los árboles. Se alegró de poder empezar desde cero; se sentía tranquila, agradecida.

From the winner of the 2013 Nobel Prize in Literatureand one of our most beloved writersa new selection of her peerless short fiction, gathered from the collections of the last two decades, a companion volume to Selected Stories (1968-1994).Family Furnishings brings us twenty-four of Alice Munros most accomplished, most powerfully affecting stories, many of them set in the territory she has so brilliantly made her own: the small towns and flatlands of southwestern Ontario. Subtly honed with her hallmark precision, grace, and compassion, these stories illuminate the quotidian yet extraordinary particularity in the lives of men and women, parents and children, friends and lovers as they discover sex, fall in love, part, quarrel, suffer defeat, set off into the unknown, or find a way to be in the world.Peopled with characters as real to us as we are to ourselves, Munros stories encompass the fullness of human experiencefrom the wild exhilaration of first love, in Passion, to the lengths a once-straying husband will go to make his wife happy as her memory fades, in The Bear Came Over the Mountain. Other stories suggest the punishing consequences of leaving home (Runaway) or leaving a marriage (The Children Stay). The part romantic love plays in ones existence is explored in Too Much Happiness, based on the life of the noted nineteenth-century mathematician, Sophia Kovalevsky. And in stories that Munro has described as closer to the truth than usualDear Life, Working for a Living, and Home among themwe glimpse the authors own life.As the Nobel Prize presentation speech says in part: Reading one of Alice Munros texts is like watching a cat walk across a laid dinner table. A brief short story can often cover decades, summarizing a life, as she moves deftly between different periods. No wonder Alice Munro is often able to say more in thirty pages than an ordinary novelist is capable of in three hundred. She is a virtuoso of the elliptical and the master of the contemporary short story.

Le protagoniste di "Le lune di Giove" sono donne a una svolta: una svolta dell'eta o del gusto, della rabbia o della passione, una delle piccole o grandi svolte quotidiane che plasmano le vite e i caratteri, e che potrebbero forse passare inavvertite non fosse per l'intelligenza vivida e acuminata che le individua e le svela. Per molte di loro la svolta e amorosa, e in qualche raro caso la reazione rabbiosamente solutiva. La protagonista di "Agganci" replica al commento sarcastico del marito su una zia che solo lei si sente in diritto di disprezzare con il lancio stupefacente di una torta al limone nel suo piatto di pirex. Piu spesso il verdetto e meno teatrale ma ugualmente definitivo. La rinuncia di Valerie al gioco della seduzione viene cosi commentata in "Festa di fine estate": "II suo modo di vivere, la sua persona, ricordano all'interlocutore come l'amore non sia ne buono ne onesto e come non contribuisca alla felicita della gente in maniera affidabile". Ma non c'e alcuna autocommiserazione nella rinuncia; semmai una buona dose di pragmatismo. E l'imperativo categorico di non voltarsi mai indietro: "Quanto alla vita che e sepolta qui, meglio pensarci su due volte, prima di rimpiangerla".

Le temps n'efface rien. Marlene et Charlene restent hantées par un terrible secret d'enfance, Sally tremble de revoir son fils après des années de silence et Doree a changé d'identité pour oublier le

Alice Munro, who received the National Book Critics Circle Award for her latest collection of stories, The Love of a Good Woman, is widely acknowledged as a modern master of the short story. In this earlier collection, she demonstrates all of those strengths that have won her so many literary accolades. A divorced woman returns to her childhood home where she confronts the memory of her parents' confounding yet deep bond. The accidental near-drowning of a child exposes the fragility of the trust between children and parents. A young man, remembering a terrifying childhood incident, wrestles with the responsibility he has always felt for his younger brother. In these and other stories Alice Munro proves once again a sensitive and compassionate chronicler of our times. Drawing us into the most intimate corners of ordinary lives, she reveals much about ourselves, our choices, and our experiences of love.

"A estas alturas es innecesario decir que Munro es una gran escritora de relatos. Se halla además entre los dos o tres mejores escritores contemporáneos de ficción. El relato que da título a esta coleccion es una de sus obras maestrasEstamos ante una brillante pieza narrativa, de perfecta estructura y delicado equilibrio". Sunday Times"La profundidad de estos relatos reside en los sutiles e inesperados matices con que Munro acrecienta la complejidad de sus personajes. Estos relatos resultan magnificos la primera vez que se leen y, aun mas, en posteriores lecturas". Denver Post"Munro es una indiscutible maestra del generola riqueza de sus relatos es inigualable y su imaginacion intrepidaSus historias son como un prisma que al girar a la luz desprende diferentes coloresEs dificil imaginar una mejor coleccion de relatos". Washington Post"La estrella de esta coleccion de relatos es el que da titulo al libro. uno de los mejores que yo he leido jamas. Munro demuestra a lo largo del libro una comprension de la naturaleza humana que supera con creces lo que el resto de nosotros somos capaces de aprehender". BookmarksAlice Munro ha dedicado toda su carrera al genero lite-rario del relato y son muchos quienes la consideran como la mejor autora de relatos en lengua inglesa.Como es habitual en su obra, la mayoria de los relatos de esta coleccion se desarrollan en pequeñas localidades de Ontario, la provincia canadiense en la que ella misma vive. Mujeres de todas las edades protagonizan estas historias y, aunque los detalles varien, todas comparten la necesidad de experimentar la pasion y alcanzar la libertad. Alice Munro escribe sobre la ansiedad de la adolescencia; sobre la dificil relacion entre padres e hijos; sobre todas las dimensiones del amor filial y romantico y los cambios que estos sufren con la edad; sobre la enfermedad y la muerte.Los relatos de Alice Munro condensan vidas enteras en varias paginas y, sin embargo, consiguen mayor profundidad y riqueza de detalles que muchas novelas. Utilizando una prosa directa y engañosamente simple, construye estructuras narrativas de gran complejidad.

Alice Munro's territory is the farms and semi-rural towns of south- western Ontario. Described by one of her peers as going around with a 'delicate, rueful smile and a wicked pen', she says of herself: 'I guess that maybe as a writer I'm kind of an anachronism...because I write about places where your roots are and most people don't live that kind of life anymore at all. Most writers, probably, the writers who are most in tune with our time, write about places that have no texture because this is where most of us live.' In these powerful tales she brings the landscape of her childhood back to life as she deals with the self-discovery and guilt of those caught in a narrow existence. And in sensitively exploring the lives of ordinary men and women, she makes us aware of the universal nature of their fears, sorrows and aspirations.

Alice Munro's mastery of the short story, which has earned her worldwide acclaim and numerous awards, is revealed in stories from throughout her career, including "The Moons of Jupiter," "The Progress of Love," "Differently," "Carried Away," and "Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, and Marriage."