Alice Munro's Too Much Happiness
Though Alice Munro hinted that her 2006 story collection The View from Castle Rock would be her last, she’s back at age 78 with Too Much Happiness. Leah Hagen Cohen of the New York Times writes, “From the beginning, Munro has staked her claim on rocky, rough terrain,” and Too Much Happiness is no exception. In the collection, Munro returns to her familiar Canadian settings but branches out to include episodes of extreme violence, including suicide and murder. Like Thomas Pynchon and Inherent Vice, Munro seems to be dabbling with the devices of pulp fiction, though her narratives are still distinctive in their non-formulaic, unpredictable plot structures. Critics note that most of the stories in the collection deal with mortality to some extent, but that seems to be the indicator of Munro’s age–her writing is as sharp as ever.
“[Munro] doesn’t traffic in the artful, the lyrical or the euphonious. When she savages your heart, it’s with language almost ostentatious in its refusal to be pretty.” – Leah Hager Cohen, The New York Times
“Even in handling more familiar subjects [...] Munro offers something slightly different from her earlier work, especially in her increased use of an almost melodramatic violence.” – Michael Gorra, The Times
“Although we live in distracting times, reading Munro is an intensely personal experience. Her focus is so clear and her style so precise.” – Betsy Willeford, The Miami Herald
“Reading an Alice Munro short story is like sinking into a reverie. She expertly captures the shadings and byways of associative thought.” – Jeffrey Ann Goudie, The Kansas City Star
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