Dear Life (Munro) - Book Reviews

Book Reviews
One of the great short story writers not just of our time but of any time.
New York Times Books Review

Wise and unforgettable. Dear Life is a wondrous gift; a reminder of why Munro’s work endures.
Boston Globe

Unquestionable evidence of her unfaded abilities.... Reading these stories will tell you something about Alice Munro’s life, but it will tell you more about Alice Munro’s mind—and, not entirely surprisingly, this proves to be even more compelling
New Republic
 
Alice Munro is not only revered, she is cherished.... Dear Life is as rich and astonishing as anything she has done before.
New York Review of Books

There is no writer quite as good at illustrating the foibles of love, the confusions and frustrations of life or the inner cruelty and treachery that can be revealed in the slightest gestures and changes of tone. . . . The stories of Dear Life violate a host of creative writing rules, but they establish yet again Munro’s psychological acuity, clear-eyed acceptance of frailties and mastery of the short story form.
Washington Post

Alice Munro demonstrates once again why she deserves her reputation as a master of short fiction.
O, The Oprah Magazine

Exquisite.... No other author can tell quite so much with quite so little. The modest surfaces of Munro’s lapidary sentences conceal rich veins of ore.
Chicago Tribune

Munro’s wonderfully frank and compassionate stories suggest that perseverance, the determination to keep at the work of living, can invest a life with dignity through the end of one’s days.
San Francisco Chronicle

Absorbing.... Most haunting of all are the four autobiographical sketches that end the book, which display Munro’s gift of observation and ability to trace big emotional arcs in short brushstrokes.
Entertainment Weekly

Munro’s best collection yet.
Philadelphia Inquirer

Remarkable.... Masterfully evokes the relationship between people and the places they inhabit.
Time Out New York

Munro has an uncanny knack of convincing the reader that the characters have real lives before the stories commence and continuing existences after.... This is simply a good writer doing what she loves.
Guardian (UK)

In acknowledging Alice Munro’s pre-eminence in the world of contemporary short fiction it’s become fashionable to describe her as the ‘Canadian Chekhov,’ but that title barely hints at the scope of her literary influence. Dear Life, her 13th collection, only serves to burnish her reputation for creating intelligent, sophisticated stories out of inarguably humble materials.
Minneapolis Star Tribune

Virtuosic.... Encompass a wide variety of always-unpredictable characters—young, old, middle-aged—caught in circumstances that have the bright erratic flow of life itself.
Seattle Times

Munro is who she is, and we are fortunate to have her. No other author can contain so much life, and so many lives, in such few pages.... They can be read over and over, dependably revealing more with each reading
Miami Herald

Alice Munro has long been acknowledged as one of Canada’s literary treasures. This new volume, with its historical slant, its autobiographical material, its impressionistic descriptions of scenery, its occasional nostalgia and pleasing irony, confirms her reputation.
Washington Times

How does Munro manage such great effects on a relatively small canvas? It’s a question that most anyone who has seriously attempted to write a short story in the last 20 years has pondered.... Munro has a genius, no empty word here, for selecting details that keep unfolding in the reader’s mind.
Los Angeles Times

Reading Alice Munro is like drinking water—one hardly notices the words, only the marvel at being quenched.... Behind each sentence is a world, conjured more distinctly than in many an entire novel.
Plain Dealer

Alice Munro...has earned every bit of her reputation as being one of the best living short story writers, in English if not in the entire world.... This collection represents fiction at its finest—captivating, complex, lifelike.
Richmond Times-Dispatch

These stories are perfect.... Dear Life is a collection as rich and surprising as any in Alice Munro’s deep career.
National Post

Alice Munro has always been the poet of the unexpected passion that comes seemingly out nowhere and changes a character’s life.... She is, and has been for decades, one of our most important writers, one whose work represents all the most essential and pleasurable aspects of literature, and which reminds us of what great literature is: You know it when you see it.
Globe and Mail (Toronto)


Munro can depict key moments without obscuring the reality of a life filled with countless other moments—told or untold. in her 13th collection, she....feature[s] the precision of her fiction with the added interest of revealing the development of [her] eye and her distance from her surroundings, both key, one suspects, in making her the writer she is.... [R]ead together, the stories accrete, deepen, and speak to each other.
Publishers Weekly


Every new collection from the incomparable Munro...is cause for celebration. This new volume offers all the more reason to celebrate as it ends with four stories the author claims are the most autobiographical she has written.... In every story, there is a slow revelation that changes everything we thought we understood about the characters. Verdict: Read this collection and cherish it for dear life. —Barbara Love, Kingston Frontenac P.L., ON
Library Journal


A revelation, from the most accomplished and acclaimed of contemporary short story writers. It's no surprise that every story...is rewarding and that the best are stunning. They leave the reader wondering how the writer manages to invoke the deepest, most difficult truths of human existence in the most plainspoken language.... The author knows what matters, and the stories pay attention to it.
Kirkus Reviews