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| Alice Munro | |
Alice Munro, the Nobel Prize-winning author beloved for her brilliant short stories, died on Monday at age 92.
The New York Times called Munro "a member of the rare breed of writer, like Katherine Anne Porter and Raymond Carver, who made their reputations in the notoriously difficult literary arena of the short story, and did so with great success. Her tales--many of them focused on women at different stages of their lives coping with complex desires--were so eagerly received and gratefully read that she attracted a whole new generation of readers.
"Ms. Munro's stories were widely considered to be without equal, a mixture of ordinary people and extraordinary themes. She portrayed small-town folks, often in rural southwestern Ontario, facing situations that made the fantastic seem an everyday occurrence. Some of her characters were fleshed out so completely through generations and across continents that readers reached a level of intimacy with them that usually comes only with a full-length novel.
"She achieved such compactness through exquisite craftsmanship and a degree of precision that did not waste words. Other writers declared some of her stories to be near-perfect--a heavy burden for a writer of modest personal character who had struggled to overcome a lack of self-confidence at the beginning of her career, when she left the protective embrace of her quiet hometown and ventured into the competitive literary scene."
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wrote on X: "The world has lost one of its greatest storytellers. Alice Munro was captivated with everyday life in small-town Canada. Her many, many readers are, too. She will be dearly missed."
Kristin Cochrane, CEO of her longtime publisher, McClelland & Stewart, said, "Alice Munro is a national treasure--a writer of enormous depth, empathy, and humanity whose work is read, admired, and cherished by readers throughout Canada and around the world. Alice's writing inspired countless writers too, and her work leaves an indelible mark on our literary landscape."
Munro won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2013 and was cited as "master of the contemporary short story" who was able "to accommodate the entire epic complexity of the novel in just a few short pages." In 1986, she won the Governor General Literary Award for her first collection, Dance of the Happy Shades, and went on to win two more Governor General awards. She also won two Giller Prizes as well as the Man Booker International Prize, whose judges called her "practically perfect," adding that "she brings as much depth, wisdom and precision to every story as most novelists bring to a lifetime of novels. To read Alice Munro is to learn something every time that you never thought of before."
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| Alice Munro at the original Munro's Books (photo courtesy Munro's Books) |
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Munro was also a bookseller. She and her first husband, James Munro, opened Munro's Books in Victoria, B.C., in 1963. CBC quoted Munro as saying the store helped her overcome writer's block. "The writing ceased to be this all-important thing that I had to prove myself with. The pressure came off."
Munro's Books said on Facebook: "Today we say goodbye to Alice Munro, a Canadian icon whose legacy lives on within our walls.
"Long before she went on to change the landscape of fiction at large, a young Alice was planting the seeds of literature here in Victoria. In 1951, she married Jim Munro, gaining the surname that would follow her into fame. Twelve years later, Munro's Books opened at its original location on Yates Street. A photo from that period shows a young clerk looking up from a cluttered front desk to chat with an elderly customer. Her smile is warm, her gaze alert despite the trifecta of childcare, writing, and store duties that flooded her daily life. She is Alice in her element: a writer among books.
"Just as she would shape Munro's, so would Munro's shape Alice. Jim enjoyed recounting his wife's urge to write something better than the 'crappy books' that sold alongside the store's more palatable titles. Yet the pleasures of bookselling found their way into Alice's fiction, too; one story even casts a neighbourhood bookshop as 'what a cabin in the woods might be to somebody else--a refuge and a justification.' What greater gift than to see our 'cabin in the woods' thus described by the words of the writer who helped lay its groundwork?
"One morning 50 years after Munro's first opened, staff arrived to find news outlets camped outside. Jim Munro was celebrating his 84th birthday, but reporters were seeking the other Munro: yes, that one. Overnight, Alice had been admitted into the annals of legend, her life's work awarded The Nobel Prize in Literature. At the time, 'Canada's Chekhov' was 82 years old, the thirteenth woman and only citizen of her country to have ever received the honour. Cheerful chaos swirled through the store as customers clamoured for Alice's books and staff scrambled to meet demand. Here was the culmination of a life devoted to writing, celebrated by the readers who had believed in her from the start.
"Over the years, Alice's writing would leave its mark on countless other literary greats, from Margaret Atwood to Julian Barnes to the store's own former bookseller Deborah Willis, whose debut story collection earned a generous endorsement from Alice herself on its cover. Despite the lofty honours bestowed upon her, she never stopped championing the ordinary lives of girls and women--or the undersung form of the short story, whose depths she plumbed again and again to astonishing effect. No matter how many writers we continue to champion in her name, Alice will always hold a special place on our shelves and in our hearts.
"Along with readers around the world, we send our deepest condolences to the Munro family."