Friday, December 16, 2005

dec 5 issue: alice munro, wenlock edge

I liked it because it was so suspenseful, yet familiar. But I found this odd:

"The trouble was, as I saw it, that she had no pegs to hang anything on. She did not know what Victorian meant, or Romantic, or Pre-Columbian." (84)

"Mrs. Winner waved me ahead of her through one fo the doors that opened off this hallway, into a windowless room with a bench and hooks around the walls. It was just like a school cloakroom [...]" (85)

"When I went into the bathroom and caught the flutter of Nina's kimono on its hook on the door, I finally felt what I had been suppressing - a true fear for Nina." (88)

Maybe this is par for the course in a 10 page story with a lot of taking off and on of clothing, what with the plot and the Canadian winter weather . . . There's also attention to clothes on the floor, a jacket on the bannister and a scarf left behind. I liked the image, but the recurring use seemed . . .

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2 Comments:

Blogger femme feral said...

I wanna read that story now. I haven't been reading the NYer since our sub. ran out. Anyway, the hook imagery seems sort of violent to me. And the idea of "hanging oneself" or "hanging on" or being "hung up" . . .

it reminds me of that margaret atwood (another canadian) poem: you fit into me / like a hook into an eye // a fish hook/ an open eye

3:41 AM  
Blogger zoe p. said...

I'm glad you liked my excerpts. With this and The Squid, you make me feel like I could sell snowballs to the Pittsburghers . . . I know SO LITTLE about contemporary literature.

And I just sold my book of Munro short stories because when I read them a few years back they seemed repetitive - in plot, language, use of language . . . the same tricks over and over. Not within the stories, as here, which was creepy and good, but from story to story.

11:50 AM  

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