Something I’ve Been Meaning to Tell You by Alice Munro
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I’m slowly buying all the Alice Munro collections that I haven’t got on my shelf (except for the collected works, as I reckon all those stories will be in the other books). I started with this one, and I started reading it and knew that I had read it before, but long ago. So, it was interesting to think of how little I would have understood of the world at the time compared to decades later, and how I would have missed the complexities of the infidelities, untruths, withholding information and betrayals. I also think it’s interesting how Munro’s work is so loved that it can change the way you read it. Online, there are blogs (very good ones) that discuss EVERY story, and I found it useful and pleasurable to read a story and then read others’ interpretation. This also taught me that it’s not a great idea to read them before going to bed and to not read a complete story in a single sitting! With one of the stories with a very unreliable narrator, I knew that something was wonky in the telling of the story but didn’t realise it was mostly in her mind, until it was pointed out to me by the blog (mookse and gripes, it’s very good). Anyways, now to start the next!