I’d like to share some of the praise-filled reviews for Alice Munro’s short story collection, Too Much Happiness, which have piled up on my desk in an imposing tower of tribute.
First, this beautiful appreciation of Munro from The New York Times:
“One of the pleasures of reading Alice Munro derives from her ability to impart the sensation [of being] drawn so deftly into another world that you’re breathing with someone else’s rhythms, seeing someone else’s visions as your own…Munro’s inclination to regard fiction as a dynamic creation and the reader as a mutable participant suggests something provocative about the uses of fiction, about its moral purpose as well as its potential to have an impact on our lives…It has become practically de rigueur for reviewers to refer to Munro as “our Chekhov,”…And at this point in Munro’s career, how much can it add? What is certain is this: She is our Munro. And how fortunate we are to call her that.”
The San Francisco Chronicle declares “Alice Munro has done it again. Now nearing 80, the Canadian author – winner of the 2009 Man Booker International Prize – keeps getting better…Her canvas may be small, but her brush strokes are fine, her vision encompasses humanity from its most generous to its most corrupt, and the effect is nothing short of masterful. Let’s hope she has many more stories in her.”
“If there’s a better short story writer working today than Alice Munro, I haven’t read her,” asserts The Christian Science Monitor. The Minneapolis Star Tribune is at a similar loss of words: “When reviewing a new book of stories by Alice Munro, it’s tempting to simply say: Readers, here it is.”
So readers, there it is. If you need any more convincing, read an excerpt from the title story of Too Much Happiness.