/lit/ - Literature

>>21312640

>>21312640

>>21312644
>>21312660
Thanks for replying to my thread anons ^.^

>>21312640
Those are short stories, sweetie. Come back when you start reading novels, k?

>>21312640
What is the book about?

>>21312792
It's a collection of short stories so it's about lots of things! Unlike a (((novel))) which is pointlessly long and usually about one gay thing the author decided needed to be 600 pages (it didn't) and is just a waste of time. >>21312787

I dont want to tell you the plots of the stories because they contain a lot of shocking emotional twists, rendered masterfully by the world's best writer.

>>21312792
>>21312787
W-whats the point of novels anyway who who ever wanted to write one? Look how happy I... she is! This is the face of someone who's super beautiful and cool and didn't need to waste a lot of readers time on something as pointless as a "novel."

I like her stories when they're about people having affairs, or reminiscing about an erotic encounter, but I don't like them when they're about abusive relationships, or terminal illness, because they bum me out. It's always a coin flip which one you'll get.

>>21312640
Her stories remind me of crossword puzzles.

>>21312824
I feel that. I had to read the one about the guy's wife having alzheimer's for english class and it really was depressing.

>>21312798
>>21312803
>sassy seethe
I was fucking with you. Mavis Gallant > Alice Munro.

>>21312837
I'll check her out anon! Thanks!
>>21312824
>stories about adultery > stories about terminal illness
Well why not just both!
>>21312835
It's because her mom developed Parkinson's disease when she was young and she felt she abandoned her by leaving her home to go to university and also holding a lot of very negative judgements about her.

>>21312824
>alice munro protagonist
>has a husband
>gentle gust of wind
>*immediately prompts an affair*
Many such cases.

>>21312660
post that photo of dasha

>>21312640
The title story is very good just in terms of craft there is a lot to learn from it.

>>21312824
that's just vaginal stories

>>21313079
The title story is one of her best. For me though, it's Trespasses *sips*

Why did her husband kill the goat?
What the FUCK happened to Penelope?
>ywn meet Munro and ask her these things

>>21312640
Read Raymond Carver instead.

>>21312981
Here

>>21313093
Sell me on him

>>21314207
Greatest short story writer of all time if you consider Joyce's The Dead as above the canon, which it is.
Carver's had a Chekhov like simplicity of subject, heart and clarity of form that will make you feel more empathetic and perceptive. After The Dead, I consider A Small, Good Thing the most beautiful short story ever written.
Start with Cathedral or What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, both great collections.

>>21312981

>>21314295
Thanks

>>21313115
>>21314295
Uncanny

>>21314265
>Greatest short story writer of all time
I love him, but Chekhov is superior. He's bolder, more varied, has a much wider range of characters, often allows himself to write longer, more poetic dialogue (as in The Duel), and some of his later short stories are among the most tragic, dark and infinitely sad ones I've read anywhere (In The Ravine, Peasants, On Official Duty, The Murder). Honestly, Shakespeare's tragedies are more poetic and grandiose, but they feel more solar when compared to Chekhov's worlds in these later works.

I have never met an author who was so wise, so human, and at the same time so ambitious in the poetry of his craft and in the desire to encompass the whole world. Carver is as human as Chekhov, as understanding and compassionate as Chekhov, but he's not as ambitious and his short stories don't have the same grandeur.

>>21314314
Carver outdid Chekhov (his obvious inspiration and predecesor) by doing LESS.

>>21314319
I don't agree.

>>21314295
Beautiful

>>21312640
>This is the best book ever written
This is a retarded exaggeration.

>>21313083
That's Alice Munro. All she does is write collections of extremely well constructed vaginal stories. She did it for 60 solid years. OP could have picked up any of her books and had the same reaction.

>>21314265
>Greatest short story writer of all time
lmao

>>21314349
After you ofc anon, as your irrefutable, pithy counterargument abundantly shows

>>21314614
You provided no argument to begin with, so there can't be a counterargument. You provided an opinion (a delusional one at that).

>>21314342
I think Runaway is the best collection though. I heard someone say her later work wasn't her favourite because it was too grim. Every story in Runaway is pretty shocking.
>>21314314
>>21314265
I only read Chekhov and Dubliners a long time ago so I can't really compare them but neither hooked me like Munro and I really liked both of them. Dubliners is a book I recommend to literally because I recall thinking how good it was when I read it. I should definitely reread but I don't own it :(

>>21314340
As far as I can tell it's true. I think if you compiled all of her stories it'd be the best book, the most enjoyable and interesting, could be reread forever.

>>21314725
>I should definitely reread but I don't own it :(
Come to my house, I have a copy :)

>>21314314
From what I've heard Chekhov had an almost saintly reputation as a person too.

>>21314730
You have to be 18+ to post here.

>>21314725
Since you enjoy short stories, give The Best American Short Stories and American Short Story Masterpieces (both edited by Carver) a try, great anthologies with an excellent selection of works

>>21314741
Tell me an author you'd rather be trapped with the complete works of through eternity.

Maybe I could find another if I read more but Munro wrote a lot and it's almost all of the highest quality, it's so engaging, and the way she introduces events and people dispersed through time makes the stories almost impossible to remember specifically and so you'll be rereading it and go "ah right this is *that* one" but might not quite remember what happens. Actually the fact that so many of her stories are so similar they're like variations on a theme adds to this quality too.
>>21314735
Okay no homo

>>21314745
You know what anon, I think I will. Thanks for the recommendations. I hope I like them as much as you do.

>>21314745
Also you ever read this guy? I picked up this book because he's actually Munro's favourite writer. I read a story and wasn't immediately wowed so I haven't finished it or really gotten into it yet.

>>21314772
Carver? Sure, I'm the one hyping him above. A great great genius. Try to listen for the hushed tones of empathy, humanity and unassuming prose in his stories. His poetry is great too

>>21314772
>>21314794
Oops, I forgot image

>>21312834
How?

>>21314798
Don't recall ever reading him unless he's in one of the above anthologies or something

>>21314892
Do you love Alice Munro anon? I do... In fact she's practically all I read
https://youtu.be/kg6IXzPmuHA

>>21314906
Pizza Rolls is my favorite Munro story!

>>21314295
how does she do it

>>21314921
Silence is pretty damn good

>>21314935
By remaining unrefuted.

>>21314963
Hack

>>21312640
Should I read every individual collection or is pic rel a good starting point? 17 stories from her 40-year career chosen by the author(ess) herself (600 pages).

>>21315908
It's a good collection and it's arranged from oldest to newest apparently.

Who Do You Think You Are (The Beggar Maid in America) would probably be the best to start with IMO.

>>21315908
>>21315952
I'd maybe recommend Runaway first too over the collection just for the reason that I could understand someone not liking some of her earlier stories even though I do and starting there could be a turnoff, whereas with Runaway the first story is very interesting all the way through and the rest of them are just as good (Trespasses is maybe my favourite story by her). It's probably the most interesting collection. You could also just read summaries and pick one. The View From Castle Rock is a very good book, it's autobiographical directly in parts since she's writing about her ancestors departure from Scotland to Canada and the title story is also possibly her best ever it's incredible. It transitions into her usual style of fiction and that makes up most of the book though I don't think the stories there are my very favourite but it's a great collection.

>>21316016
Alright, I'll try Runaway first (bummer because I had found a sweet deal for a second-hand copy of Carried Away). The first time I knew of her was in The Skin I Live In by Pedro Almodovar (a Spanish version can be seen in one scene).

>>21316050
Wow that's really cool. Is the movie very good?

>>21316100
It’s one of the best movies ever

>>21316104
I'll watch it. Is there any context to the munro book or is it just a little shoutout?

What about a Wario-type evil Alice Munro counterpart called Malice Unro

>>21316100
It's pretty good. I remember liking it.
>>21316111
Just a little shoutout, I believe. The director likes her work.

>>21314319
You mean Gordon lish

>>21312640
i got it ten years ago. it was too boring to finish

>>21316466
It's not boring. You're just an idiot. It should be impossible to be bored by these stories.

>>21312787
Short stories can be just as amazing - even better if the whole collection is amazing.

>>21316473
im not an idiot just because i found some woman writer a bore.

>>21316561
You are because she's the opposite of boring

>>21316561
>feels the need to point out her sex for some reason
Yea, you're a filtered idiot.

>>21316566
>>21316567
literally nothing you dumb feminist shills have described in this thread sounds remotely interesting or exciting. the best thing from it i can remember is some droning on about a goat.

>>21316594
>being a plotfag

>with an introduction by franzen

>>21316594
WHY DID HER HUSBAND KILL THE GOAT?
Anyway alice munro hits like
>>21316608
Who?

>>21316466
The stories typically start slow but stick with it and you will be rewarded

>>21316594
Also
>I didn't finish this book
It sounds like you only read part of the first story
>the story is just a monologue about raising foxes and slaughtering them
Kino

>>21312640
Okay.

If its not about sex or abuse in any way I'll read it. Not because I mind those topics, but because I don't debase women by reading literature that their least talented writers produce. If they had talent, they'd make something other than high-brow smut.

>>21312848
Sad!

>>21312640
I fucking adore Lucia Berlin, also a short story champion, so I should check Munro out..