Billed as a collection of stories, spanning the centuries, connecting storytellers to writers, The View from Castle Rock is, as one reviewer stated, "a delightful fraud." It's a memoir, fleshed out with fiction but based heavily on Alice Munro's family stories, starting with Will O'Phaup, star of rumor and myth and proceeding with his descendents as a character study of all the family members who came across the ocean. Those Laidlaws and O'Phaups who wrote and were written about. The Ettick Valley from whence her Scots ancestors came is described it with the ease of those who did live there, as though all these things are as familiar to her as the bush at the back of her family's farm. Though she has been there, walking the wet midlands while it rained on and off, she maintains that these are all just stories. The emphasis of her Forward is more on the flow of these tales from an original source which is never obscured with her liberties.

I read slowly at first, dubiously seeing the connections of past leading to stories she may have heard at the fireplace. Themes and hand-me-downs began to quietly appear, family lines branched, yet always returned to Huron County, and to point toward Munro's own life. Once I reached my last possible return date for this library book, I began to rip through it, and found the effect not at all negative. Nearing the last half of the book the stories become even more personal, dealing with people that Munro has observed in her own life, briefly, like her grandparents, or more closely, like her own parents. This does not mean she does not illustrate their lives as she did with Will O'Phaup, or the little-known-of William Laidlaw, in fact she may be more willing to illuminate them since she can better see what would or could have been.

But I had meant, didn't he think of himself, of the boy who had trapped along the Blyth Creek, and who went into the store and asked for Signs Snow Paper, didn't he struggle for his own self? I meant, was his life now something only other people had a use for? (p166)

She takes advantage of knowing these people and conjuring bits of fancy to tie to her memories, the details of her childhood impressions filling in the gaps of old memories; reflective commentary solidifies them.

It must have meant something, though, that at this turn of my life I grabbed up a book. Because it was in books that I would find, for the next few years, my lovers. They were men, not boys. They were self-possessed and sardonic, with a ferocious streak in them, reserves of gloom. Not Edgar Linton, not Ashley Wilkes. Not one of them companionable or kind. (p226)

My favorite thing about The View from Castle Rock was being reminded that this was a collection of people who could be traced from generation to generation, and Munro's reception of this legacy; her family's affection for books, for reading, for writing, for storytelling. It's thrilling to read about readers and writers because it's a bond that we and the author share implicitly, and perhaps connects us in a way books about no other occupation can. With this, the symbols and connections come with almost no effort, occurring to me in a pleasant and gentle manner. I liked finding myself and the things I know easily reflected in several moments across the years, on both sides of the ocean.

Read my review on 'aurora lector.'

Family sagas, door stoppers of a novel in the vein of Michener, are few and far between in this day and age, with Edward Rutherfurd being a sort of land of the lost dinosaur still roaming the writer’s earth (and thank goodness for that — where, Mr. Rutherfurd, is China: The Novel?). A sort of amuse bouche for lovers of the family saga waiting for the next big brick might be this novel by Alice Munro. It’s actually a novel of sorts, because it’s short stories connected together. Munro takes her own family history, immigrants to Canada from Scotland, and tells a quasi-fictional story of each generation’s physical and emotional journeys, ending with that of her own. Munro is a nonesuch among writers of short stories, and she’s magnificent. I don’t think you can tell that most (all?) of these short stories were published elsewhere before (did Munro revise to make them fit? If the did, I could not see the seams). Each story is a sort of block of beautifully grained marble that, in the hands of Munro, is carved into a pulchritudinous chapter, with memorial event characters and a strong sense of time and place. As with all encounters with great art, much reverence.

When I asked a colleague which Alice Munro book I should read first, he recommended this one to me. I started reading it two months ago, but it took me such a long time because of the dense style of the beginning of the novel, about the settlers who went to North America. When Munro gets around to the 20th century however, I was intrigued and I quickly finished the rest of the book. I love her style in the modern part of the novel. She writes subtly, vividly, letting you look closely at the main character, but not showing you everything, so you have to make up your own mind about her. For some reason I was reminded of The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields. They both describe the consciousness of (young) women in a completely beautiful way - relatable yet distanced and completely enticing. I long to read more by Alice Munro.

The first half of the book was absolutely marvelous. In this part Munro tells the story of her families history in Scotland, their emigration to America and settlement in Canada. These stories are partly fictional but are based on actual facts and occurrences and combined with Munro's amazing writing made incredible reading. While reading this part I was thinking to myself I've misjudged her and I'm going to have to read more of her work because up to then I was not a big fan of Munro and had been avoiding her books. Unfortunately, the second half of the book began to slowly start looking more like what I was familiar with in her work. In this part her stories where based on more modern times and much more fictional. There is no question that she is an exceptional writer it's just that her usual stories just don't interest me.

Narrar las vivencias familiares es una empresa difícil y satisfactoria a la vez. Uno se enfrenta a violar la intimidad de las personas más cercanas a nosotros, en la búsqueda de descubrir con los demás una revisión de las experiencias que marcan gran parte de nuestras vidas. Munro lo hace con una sencillez y tranquilidad narrativa que simplemente queda agradecerle el habernos compartido página a página un mundo diferente pero cercano a la vez. La travesía de una familia en varios relatos que al final son uno solo. Merecidísimo premio Nobel.

I read another story by Alice Munro recently and really enjoyed it. But this story could not have been more different! The writing was still excellent but the historical context and the style of the story was very different. I couldn’t believe what interesting, well rounded characters could be created in such a short amount of time. I really felt like I knew some of these people. The story ended a bit abruptly for me but I still really liked it. I will continue thinking about it as the day goes on. And I will definitely seek out more stories by Munro.

There is a picture on the wall,
Dipped in a colorful pall,
Drop of smoke drips about
And the canvas speaks aloud.

Bunch of heads, small and big,
Bodies, bountiful and frail;
Walk into the others' world
Lighting up a shiny trail.

Days lived in the sunny cavern,
Nights held in the dreams, forlorn,
Flossed emotions in the heart,
Family that grows never apart;

Strangers sparkle at the eyes’ edge,
Enlivening the mighty illusions,
Which is the bliss of nostalgia
And the unformed reunions.

All words that explain the walk,
Get fused into the grave at last,
And the picture on the wall
Turns silent at one life, past.

آلیس مونرو –نویسنده ی کانادایی- از بهترین نویسندگان داستانهای کوتاه است.داستانهای او بر شرایط و روابط روزمره ی زندگی انسانی متمرکز است.او علاوه بر پرداختن به مفاهیم کلی,به جزئیات رفتارهای متقابل بین شخصیتهای داستان را نیز بصورت قابل تعمق و هنرمندانه می پردازد.طرح داستان برای مونرو در درجه ی دوم اهمیت قرار دارد و رویدادهای داستان اندک هستند.آنچه برای او مهم است,موقعیتهای احساسی آنی شخصیتهای داستانهایش هستند و هم از این نظر و هم از نظر شخصیت پردازی کم نظیرش در مورد هر یک از شخصیتهای داستان ,به "آنتون چخوف " شبیه است.

If I had not read Runaway by Munro a month ago this may have been a 4 star for me, but the stories in The View from Castle Rock did not hold my attention the way Runaway’s did.
I do appreciate the concept and how the stories start with Munro’s ancestors in Scotland, their voyage to Canada, and then eventually play into Munro’s own childhood, adolescence and adulthood. I really enjoyed the discourse towards the end of the book about Munro’s piqued interest in her family history as she had grown older.

Ancestory.com meets Nobel lit.

Increíble. Como siempre. Son cuentos escritos a partir de su historia personal y familiar. La primera parte cuenta relatos de la migración de sus antepasados escoceses a Canadá y sobre el proceso de colonización. La segunda, historias más próximas, sobre su juventud.
"El plan" fue el cuento que más me gustó. Sutil y terrible. Sobre el matrimonio.

ho acquistato questo libro in un megastore feltrinelli poco prima di Natale, non riuscivo a trovarlo in mezzo a tutte quelle agendine e quei calendari con i gatti, allora spazientito ho chiesto aiuto a un commesso, lui, con modi gentili, mi ha domandato se dovevo regalarlo a una donna, dato che -a parere del commesso o dell'ufficio marketing della Feltrinelli non so- è il libro di un'autrice indicata per una donna. Signori dell'accademia delle lettere di stoccolma o come diavolo si chiama, se proprio non volete dare il Nobel alla Munro almeno datelo ai commessi della Feltrinelli.