Quick Summary: I enjoyed the short stories in this book, but I don't think I exactly "got" all of them.

Title: The Love of a Good Woman

Author: Munro, Alice

Imprint: Douglas Gibson (M&S)

Date of Publication: 1998

I really enjoyed the short stories in this book, but I don't think I exactly "got" them. I loved them while I was reading them - especially the amazing descriptions. Munro puts in so much sensory information - colours and scents and the feel of fabric under your fingertips - that the reader seems to inhabit the characters, in every way experiencing what they are experiencing. The writing is excellent, immediate, and compelling. The characters are extremely real - some you love, some you hate. Plot-wise, though, I kept getting to the end of each story and wondering, "what on earth just happened?"

The eight stories in this book have as a common thread the theme of adultery. This theme is handled differently in each story. Sometimes the reader sympathizes with the adulterers; sometimes you hate them. Sometimes the adulterers are punished, other times they appear to be rewarded despite their transgressions. In some of the stories, the adultery is central to the plot; in others, peripheral. In each case, though, the adultery is the result of a character never truly having examined his or her own beliefs and desires before meeting the paramour. In this respect, the stories can be viewed as cautionary tales about not rushing into marriage.

On the whole I recommend the book. I particularly enjoyed the first story in the collection, which includes a murder, a bunch of extremely real school boys, and a lonely nurse. I also enjoyed the final story, about a baby, and the aunt who believes her to be dead when she isn't. Of course, as I said above, I don't think I totally understood the stories, so you may get something from them that is completely different from what I experienced.

Originally Written: November 20, 2010