Nobels: 2013: Alice Munro

Picture by J Munro

My exploration of Nobel prize winners will obviously present me with some writers I've never heard of, and some I have heard of but had no idea of how good they were. Alice Munro is one of those.

(If you want to go off short stories, take a creative writing class. For practical reasons, short stories are all anyone ever does and for the most part, they all, including the ones you write, are terrible. At least half the people on the course, including you probably, are doing it for therapy and while that's great, it's something you ought to and get out of the way before you start expecting other people to read what you've written. And of course you have to be nice about them, and in return other people are nice about your stories and inevitably a low standard becomes the norm. You forget what a good short story is like.)

These stories (I'm reading Selected Stories which covers Munro's early years, from 1968 - 1994) are just brilliant. I've been reading them slowly because they are packed solid with observation and nuance. She is a very kind writer, although it's a kindness based on knowledge: her characters' thoughts and feelings are coolly examined, in all their complexity and contrariness, and, if not fully understood, fully accepted. The longer stories approach the scope of novels: an entire life portrayed in 30 pages. Of course the stories are mostly female-centred, but no apology is needed for this. They also focus on people from disadvantaged communities and the conflicts they face in their life between their past and their future. So, unless you are Jacob Rees Mogg, you can relate to them.

I strongly recommend these stories. And with a run of male authors coming up - Mario Vargas Llosa and Orham Pamuk to start with - I'll be saving some to read in between.

In researching this post I've found that the Royal Canadian Mint commemorated Munro's award with a coin. It's a pretty naff design (in my opinion) but contrasts sadly with Britain's recognition of its writers: the most modern writer to figure on English currency is Jane Austen. Again, how many times do we need to say, one thing that Britain does well is writing: why don't we celebrate this?  

And I also found this: a contentious but provoking defence of women novelists.

As if they needed one.