Dear Life: Stories, A.Munroe, A Master Story Teller

Alice Munroe is a Canadian writer & one of the most honored contemporary writer of fiction.  She has received the U.S. Nat'l  Book Critics Circle Award, the Man Booker Int'l Prize for her body of work and ha been a perennial contender for the Nobel Prize.  Ms. Munroe is also one of my most beloved authors whose luminous & deceptively simplistic writing style set a benchmark for excellence.  The collection of stories in Dear Life: Stories, contain themes of social boundaries, urban sophistication vs. rural farmlife, missed opportunities in love & life and life's disappointments.  Munroe's descriptive prose depict Canadian landscapes, particularily the fringes bordering cities.  Many metaphors are incorporated in her stories to infer life's transitions: trains, freeways, rivers, changing seasons.  Her somber & resonating stories are filled with life profundities.  "People have thoughts they'd sooner not have.  It happens in life."  "We say somethings that can't be forgiven.  But we do - we do it all the time."  Ms. Munroe turned 81 this summer & graciously requested not to be considered in contention for any further literary awards.  She has produced a seminal body of work.  There is an added bonus to Munroe's latest work.  The last 4 vignettes in this collection are autobiographical.  "I believe that they are the 1st and the last - the closest things I have to say about my own life."  I hope there will continue to be more stories to come from Ms. Munroe.