The writing was good but the stories were too dull for me. I think they'd have been better if you had an emotional attachment to the characters, like if the stories were about MY family for example. I'm just not into it unfortunately and I probably wouldn't have finished the book if it wasn't our book club pick next month.

I have recently realised that one of my favourite types of literature is exceptional writing about totally unextraordinary people. I really appreciate authors who believe that ordinary people are also worthy of being written about or heard. Alice Munro is a master of this genre and I did not just enjoy this book, I savoured it.

I love the premise for this book. Munro is not just attempting to capture family histories for posterity, but also earnestly trying to understand totally normal, unexceptional people and what they were thinking. What motivated them to struggle on through the often mundane repetitiveness of their harsh every lives?

I remember having a discussion in a class once about people who emigrated from Scotland, giving rise to the Scottish diaspora of today. Someone commented that they must have been so courageous to undertake such perilous journeys, but I mused that the terrible living conditions of the day might have encouraged them to take a risk on a journey for the promise of a better life.

I often think of that saying, the past is a foreign country. Life was different "back in the day" and it's extremely challenging to authentically write from the perspective of someone who lived in the past. I have read many novels set in the past which superimpose completely modern thoughts and opinions onto their characters, creating something more akin to a fantasy than a historical novel. I have seen some criticism of this book for having simple, dull characters, but I think that's part of Munro's genius. I don't think that simple farming people or crofters did have the same concerns as people now or from other environments. Their existential concerns revolved around raising large families through subsistence farming.

Alice Munro has really nailed giving historical characters - both real and fictional - authentic and compelling voices. I was totally engrossed in the details of their mostly mundane everyday lives. It really brought the past to life, creating real people out of names from the past. If you are interested in historical fiction or the Scottish diaspora, I would definitely recommend this book. If you like plot driven angst-ridden modern philosophising, this probably won't appeal.

Um conjunto de contos que resultam da busca da escritora pelas sua raízes familiares que emergem da Escócia rural.
Um conjunto de textos simples que numa narrativa cuidada que confirmou que Alice Munro é escritora a ler atentamente.

Don't get me wrong. I love Alice Munro and this is one of her best. Her final 2 collections (Dear Life and Too Much Happiness) seemed to be retreads of her prior works. They didn't have the element of surprise that she is so good at. What I found somewhat tired was the voice. When I first read her, the elliptical quality of her writing seemed the personification of her characters, women from rural Canada who were taught to bite their tongues, act the dutiful wife, not aspire for anything beyond their station. The reticence in the voice reflected the character's guilt in leaving her family behind for the city, her inability to keep one foot home and the other in the city. That quality of deeply held feelings that had to be kept at bay is what makes me swoon about her writing. Yet now, it feels like just a wall. There's so much behind that wall and the characters know it, they're smart people, but they won't say it. It's actually a perfect reflection of the WASPiness of the characters. But I read to get into the minds of people. I've been reading James where you just know everything that's going inside the minds of the characters. I've just read a memoir where it's everything Paul Theroux was doing and thinking. And here with Munro, you have an omniscient narrator or a first person narrator and even with that, you're being held at arm's length. I am definitely not a millennial who wants my writers to barf out their thoughts in blogs and instagram posts, but there's a curious unsatisfied quality about Munro that I'm only now experiencing.

Alice Munro quiso homenajear a su familia con este libro, desde sus ancestros en Escocia allá por el siglo XVIII, hasta sus padres y su madurez como mujer casada, por medio de unas pocas y escogidas escenas, entre la realidad y lo imaginado, que funcionan como cuentos de un mismo relato.

Lo que más me ha llamado la atención es una ausencia, su madre, lo poco que habla de ella, y me da la impresión de que, de haber alcanzado esta un mayor protagonismo en la historia, la novela habría sido otra cosa y quizás hubiera llegado a disfrutarla (qué le vamos a hacer, me gustan los conflictos). Lo terminé porque es Munro, porque se lee muy bien y porque, a pesar de todo, siempre se encuentra alguna perlita por el camino. Definitivamente, el que menos me ha gustado de la autora… con diferencia. Tres estrellas, una por cada uno de los capítulos que gusté.

Oh, what a gem. It is not a page-turning novel nor a collection of separate stories. Rather, it is a meandering journey through a family’s history. Told more like a conversation that takes twists and turns as memories are jogged, it pulled me in, and I appreciated the gentle story-telling and frank assessment of life over two continents and over nearly two centuries. The prologue and epilogue seemed to me to be key in understanding our author’s drive in creating this book. Fiction or not, it is a beautiful family narrative.

The last part reminds me of a recent trip to New England where my husband and I explored the area shared by both of our ancestors as early as the 1600s: Intersection of places and people, exploration of decrepit cemeteries, hanging out in areas named after our kin. I felt this book deeply.

Title Story Only

"America. . . There is where every man is sitting in the midst of his own properties and even the beggers is riding around in carriages. So there you are, my lad, and God grant that one day you will see it closer, and I will myself, if I live."

"The View From Castle Rock" shows the excitement and hardship of a family leaving their home in Scotland to search for better opportunities in Canada, and fulfill a father's dream. Eventually, the family crossed the Atlantic to Nova Scotia. The father, James, was homesick for Scotland, and spent the whole trip telling tales about his home in Ettrick to the other passengers.

Alice Munro imagines how her ancestors reacted to the Atlantic crossing. The story is partly about new life as baby Isabel was born at sea, and the pending deaths of other passengers on the ship. Andrew was a family man who intended to farm in Canada, and his brother was looking for adventure. There was a sense of excitement mixed with apprehension as the ship approached Nova Scotia. I enjoyed this immigration story, and was left wanting to follow the family's journey into Canada.

最初の移民物語は読んでて面白かったけど途中から若干退屈に。学生時代この作家の本があまり好きでなかった理由を思い出した。物語を無理やり作り出そうとして失敗している感じ。同じ作家なら他の本の方が好き。

I haven't read Alice Munro in years, so am really happy to have stumbled across this book at the library. I've just started it but it has a really different structure then her usual writing. She is incredible at turning what seems to be an ordinary scenario onto its head. She is dark, and sincere and wonderfully observant. It has a feeling of being consistently pulled deeper in, she lets you glide along and then pulls, then repeats.

OK I finished this book now, the library wanted it back. I have to say this wasn't one of my favorite books of hers, but it reminded me how much I love the way she uses language.

I'm very sorry to be giving this such a low rating, but it completely missed the mark for me. Mostly, I failed to see the point of each story, and what ties them together. To me it felt like random recollections that were headed nowhere, not even gripping enough to keep me engaged/interested. I did appreciate the concept of mixing fiction and biography, though.

Interesting, semi-fictional account of Munro's ancestors and of Munro herself (or her narrator-persona). Many of the stories (chapters?) are as good as anything I've read by her.

Ontariocore, and clearly a book for the Munro-heads which I'm not (yet)! This was what my grandma had on her shelf, so its what I read. Will read more (from my moms shelf) and report back. Obviously she's a fantastic writer but this didnt feel as much like getting my heart cored out by small moments as Lives of Girls and women, and kind of felt like she wrote it for herself, which again is not bad, just for people who are devotees