Critical Context
When Alice Munro’s work was beginning to be published, many of the critics did not think that she would be very successful. The critics of Munro’s early days as a writer viewed her as just another angry feminist out to change the world. The public however, was much more receptive to Munro’s earlier work. Since Munro wrote about common people and common occurances, her readers felt as though they could relate to her stories.
By the time Open Secrets was published, Munro already had a solid following of readers. The majority of the readers responded positively to Open Secrets because Munro was able to maintain her eloquent writing style and still portray strong positive messages. Some of the critics however, were not as receptive to Open Secrets. This collection dealt with more fantastic subject matter such as aliens and ghosts.
Over the past few decades Munro has been able to change the critics perceptions of her and her stories. It can be assumed that Munro will continue to push the literary envelope, but no matter what her subject matter, she will always be able to relate to an audience who admires her and her work.
Dubus III, Andre. “Book Reviews.” America (173.1) (1995) : (27-28).
“But this is no one-layer metaphor, and Munro never forces any of her characters to make a larger point; she seems to respect them and the inherent complexity of their story far too much for that.”
This article is a favorable review of Munro’s book Open Secrets. Dubus explains that Munro uses her female characters in order to show how women can be strong and independent human beings filled with morality and are not just weak emotional beings. Dubus concludes the article explaining the importance of the right of passage experienced by the female protagonists in Munro’s stories to show how women are and should be seen as strong people who are not entirely ruled by their emotions.
Gorjup, Branko. “World Literature in Review: English.” World Literature Today
(69.2) (1995) : (363).
“Open Secrets is Munro's finest achievement yet. It offers an accurate image of a journeying psyche as it registers all the unexpected shifts caused by destiny's whimsical manipulation. Every stone that is overturned along the road will reveal another life, a life of secrets. Munro's stories show us that in life as in fiction--after all, is not every story, every good story, a secret revealed?--there are no major or minor points of orientation, no more or less significant stories, confessions, or revelations. Ultimately, there are no great epiphanies--only a mirage of insights and, as Munro tells us, one's own "peculiar story," a life claimed by fiction.”
Gorjup presents a positive depiction of Munro’s Open Secrets. Munro’s use of characterization is examined. Gorjup explains that Munro depicts her characters as she does in order to for the reader to see the change that they undergo in each of the short stories.
Jones Jr., Malcolm. “Ordinary People: In Alice Munro’s Tales, Drab is Mesmerizing.”
Newsweek (124.13) (1994) : (63).
Jones focuses on the characters that Munro creates and how she uses them to write such great works. Jones writes of how Munro is able to write about common women in a common way yet show a complex idea and change of character though allowing readers to see the character’s inner thoughts.
Lesser, Wendy. “The Munro Doctrine.” New Republic (211.18) (1994) : (51-53).
Lesser presents an unfavorable view of Munro’s Open Secrets. In this collection, Munro writes on newer more fantastic material. Lesser explains how regular followers of Munro will not like the change of direction that Munro is making in writing this book. Lesser believes that Munro has gone more towards writing for entertainments sake rather than writing for meaning in publishing Open Secrets.
London, Joan. “Never Ending Story.” Meanjin (54.2) (1995) : (233-240).
London presents a mixed opinion of Open Secrets. London explains how she is unsure of how readers will react to Munro’s extraordinary subject matter, but she believes that Munro has not become any less of a great author in writing her book. It is explained in this article that Munro, in writing Open Secrets, is continuing to push the literary envelope in writing on more fictional content, but she is able to remain a great author in writing in a way that follows the direction of many other literary authors such as O’Connor and Welty.
McCarthy, Joanne. “Open Secrets Alice Munro 1994 Short Stories.” Magill Book
Reviews (1994) : (1).
“Most of [Open Secret’s] stories carry within them a glimmer of evil submerged in the ordinary. Although Munro is not a writer of horror fiction in the usual sense, though her stories ring absolutely true, the darkness within them is enough to chill the bones.”
In her article, McCarthy writes a favorable review of Munro’s Open Secrets. McCarthy explains how Munro is able to write about common people in common places facing common trials and tribulations yet is able to write in a manner that captures readers’ attention by using detailed descriptions of people and events. The article is concluded by McCarthy writing how Munro is able to present a harsh realization of life through the every day actions and change in a perception of reality of her characters.
Ware, Tracy. “Reviews.” Studies in Short Fiction (33.1) (1996) : 123-124.
“A striking aspect of this collection is that most of the stories involve the same places (Carstairs and Walley, Ontario) and some of the same characters (the Douds family). The continuities are most noticeable in the opening and closing stories, which suggests that Munro might be ready to move to the book-length story sequence, as she did earlier in her career. In any case, she is one of the best writers around, and therefore she deserves a more attractive dust jacket than that on the American edition of Open Secrets. But then no one would judge a Munro book by its cover.”
Ware examines the use of comedy in the writing of Open Secrets. This article focuses mainly on “The Jack Randa Hotel” and “A Wilderness Station.” Ware explains how Munro is a great writer because she is able to write short stories like a novel and establish connections between setting and characters.
Précis
Précis 1
Kustec, Aleksander. “Unraveling the Mystery of Reality: Typical Canadian Elements in
the Short Stories of Alice Munro.” Acta Neophilologia (31) (1998) : 105- 114.
In the article “ Unraveling the Mystery of Reality: Typical Canadian Elements in the Short Stories of Alice Munro,” Aleksander Kustec explores the aspects of characterization, reaction of critics and who her characters are to show how Munro’s stories push the literary envelope.
Kustec begins by explaining how Munro is not considered to be a traditional writer, but rather pushes the literary envelope and breaking away from the traditional short story plot. What makes Munro stand out is her ability to focus on the characterization of her protagonists. Kustek writes that Munro does not want to write about the important events in people’s lives, but rather build “on unimportant events and [teach the reader] why and how certain forces form [their] lives” (109). Kustec stresses the importance of characterization in Munro’s writing citing that “Munro shows [the readers] the complexity of [the characters’] inner lives – the emotional, the intellectual and moral of human personality” (109). Kustec concludes that by Munro using the same common Canadian setting and reflecting on similar social events in each story, the reader is able to focus on the character and how she develops throughout the story and breaks away from typical female roles.
Kustec also looks at how Munro was first looked at when she first became a well known author. Many critics predicted that she would not sell well because she was just another feminist writing to complain about women’s status. Kustec then creates three main reasons for why Munro has proven her early critics wrong and became one of the greatest North American writers: “she is a writer with knowledge of the human heart…, of human understanding…, and is a writer of sound judgment” (106). By following this format, Munro is able to force her readers to experience the lives of the characters and place their opinions of reality in comparison to their own.
Kustec also focuses a great deal of his article on the development of Munro’s characters. All of Munro’s protagonists are women who experience a major change in their lives. Munro, according to Kustec, tries to make sure that her characters are realistic as they “embody a complex mixture of positive and negative qualities, very much in the way their real life counterparts do” (109). Kustec explains how the majority of Munro’s characters are vibrant and have the ability to go through the change in perception that Munro wants them to go through. Kustec states that “the central characters in the stories are all women, who undergo a significant character change…The protagonist is always, in a typical way, set between the devil and the deep blue sea, which sets off dramatic complications and creates crisis situations” (109). It is also explained in this article that the secondary characters do not experience the same amount of change, if any, that the protagonist does. Kustec never deliberately states a reason for why this is, but based on other comments that he makes, it could be reasoned that since Munro bases her characters on real life, she is only trying to portray the idea that not everyone has the capacity to change.
Précis 2
Martin, W.R. and Ober, Warren U. “The Comic Spirit in Alice Munro’s Open Secrets:
“A Real Life” and “The Jack Randa Hotel.”” Short Studies in Fiction (35.1)
(1998) : 41-47.
Martin and Ober examine Munro’s use of comedy in Open Secrets to show how characters in her stories perceive life.
In the article, Martin and Ober state that Munro writes of the reality of life in two extremes in Open Secrets: neo-tragedy and comedy. The authors explain how there are four types of responses that characters in the story can have towards the actions of others in the story in order to comprehend life. These responses include “satire, irony, humor, and pure comedy” (41). Martin and Ober tell how high comedy is not as sharp as satire, is not as harsh as irony, and is not as comforting as humor (41).
When looking at “A Real Life,” the authors tell how there are elements of satire, irony and humor in the short story. The humor is seen in the social critique and appearance of the characters that Munro portrays. The writers tell how “the satire is not caustic but exuberant, high spirited, and at times almost farcical, most of it directed at Muriel and thus indirectly at and in a muted form at Millicent, a comic figure distinctly different I kind from Muriel and treated by Munro in the ironic mode” (42). The humor comes in Munro’s criticism of Millicent’s and Muriel’s need to climb the social ladder and appear as being greater than they really are. Martin and Ober explain how Munro use of irony and the self-confidence of Dorrie versus the unsure perception of Millicant portrays the happiness that an individual can experience in life. The writers show that Millicent and Muriel try so hard to get Dorrie to fit the social mold and have the perfect wedding to be accepted by society. Dorrie’s happiness comes in being self-confident in her own life rather than her marriage whereas the only happiness Millicent and Muriel experience is being accepted by other people in society.
In “The Jack Randa Hotel” the comic spirit that is seen is high comedy. Martin and Obel write how this story is “ostensibly farcical, but it operates at a deeper level, leading [the reader] to subtle and moving perceptions of volitions and dilemmas in human life” (44). The comedy lies in the game that Gail plays with Will and chasing him all over the world. The extremes that Gail goes to in order to find out what her husband is doing, changing her appearance, going to Australia, taking on another person’s identity is what makes the stories humorous. The authors explain how the relationship between Will and his mother and the letters that Gail writes are also examples of high comedy in the story. Martin and Obel also depict that high comedy is seen in the misconceptions that Gail makes in the story, confusing elements of the Bible and the name of the hotel. This usage of comedy shows how characters such as Gail do not see life as having an individual meaning for each person, but rather needing to fit into the designated social norm.
Précis 3
London, Joan. "Never Ending Story." Meanjin. 54.2 (1995) 233-241.
The article “Never Ending Story” by Joan London concentrates on Munro’s career as a short story writer. The short story has always been the beginning step for a writer or a piece to allow them to take time away from a longer piece of fiction. With Munro, though, she has perfected the art of the short story and concentrates solely on it. Munro has established her own form of the short story through integrating her own experiences into her work which helps it to “come alive, continually expanding its possibilities and range” (233).
Munro’s work centralizes on rural life in Ontario, but her work has come represent the experiences of women. The issues that she raised in her earlier work about women, such as “the desire for escape and fulfillment” (233) coincide with the women’s movement of the seventies. She also portrays what women have to fight against such as the Scottish/Irish conservatism in order to reach their goals. Munro is able to discuss sexuality and desire of women in a way that no other author has been able to do.
Munro’s newest book, Open Secrets has caused some of her fans to question which direction her work is going. Here she has integrated ghosts and spaceships into her writing that was once completely grounded in reality. According to London, Munro has been taking steps toward the true rawness of life for some time now and these stories are not that out of place. Munro’s scope of time has also increased in this collection of stories dealing with 150 years instead of just a generation or two. While Munro’s earlier work concentrated on dislocation and freeing the mundane life her new stories concentrate on a return to the old town. All but one of these stories deals with Carstairs which is a version of Munro’s home town.There is a new concentration on the dark that arises in Open Secrets. This is often linked to a death or act of violence that can not be explained. In this book, Munro is willing to make the leap to leaving loose ends to her stories which all turn out to be well orchestrated.
Sex and death seem linked in very specific ways in this collection which leads to many of the sources of drama. “The Albanian Virgin” appears to read as an allegory for the women who are trying to free entrapment, but must do this by being virgin. The need for a disguise in search of love is another theme that has fascinated Munro. “Jack Randa Hotel” Gail needs the disguise of hair dye in order to win back Will. It is only once he comes to her that she gives up chasing him and leaves it up to Will to follow her.
Now in her late sixties Munro is still disregarding convention and willing to take risks. Munro suggests that people can think fictionally and in doing so is able to resist self-consciousness and orthodoxy. Collections of short stories are more difficult to grasp than novels because the short stories are constantly beginning and ending. There is an intensity in the short story that does not exist in a long narrative.
Précis 4
“Relating (to) the Spec(tac)ular Other: Alice Munro’s ‘The Albanian Virgin’” Commonwealth. 21.1 (1998): 83-91.
This article “Relating (to) the Spec(tac)ular Other: Alice Munro’s ‘The Albanian Virgin’” discusses “The Albanian Virgin” by Alice Munro which was originally a novella titled “Lottar” which was published in The new Yorker. This story is really the combination of two stories, the one of Lottar and the other of the narrator, Claire. There are nine sequences to the story, five dealing with Lottar and four of Claire interspersed between those of Lottar. It is never quite known through the story if the tale of Lottar is really the earlier life of Charlotte or just something she pulled from her imagination.
It initially appears the Lottar would be the central figure of the story, but as the novella progresses her sections shorten while Claire’s lengthens. By the end of the story when Claire introduces herself it becomes completely about her until the last page. The last section of Claire’s take up a third of the novella and this is where she introduces her failed marriage and affair. Claire also announces the topic of Mary Shelley as her thesis which leads the writer to believe that she was so involved with her research that she tried to recreate the same scenario that Shelley had with her husband and the couple she rented the basement to.
Smell becomes a major part of the story, especially the Lottar sections. She describes much of her experience by the smells around her. While the other senses are prevalent it is “the sexual effect on a woman of organic and especially bodily smells” (89) that is used to bring about shock in the reader. Lottar uses smell to describe everything around her, and the fragrance of the Franciscan becomes his trademark for the story. Smell also links the two stories together. The food that Charlotte served could be compared by smell to that which Lottar ate at the kula.
This story is really three stories that come together. There are the tales of Claire, Charlotte, and Lottar, three women looking to leave behind their own imprisonment and become free. “The Albanian Virgin” takes many different twists but it comes together in the end making it a spectacular story.
Précis 5
Turbide, Diane. "The Incomparable Storyteller." MaCleans. (107.42). 17 Oct. 1994: 46-50.
In the article, “The Incomparable Storyteller” by Diane Turbide, Alice Munro’s Open Secrets is being picked apart from her other collections of stories because of the new structure and themes that make it different from her previous collections. Munro has been described as “not only a good writer, but a great one, the first Canada has produced,” and as Canada’s “own Chekhov.”
Her previous stories usually focus around the themes of women living in Ontario in the time of the Depression. Much of what was written in her first collections was based on the hard life she had as a child and the relationship she had with her mother. She also brought up the idea that sex could ruin women’s lives. Open Secrets takes a different approach by exploring “character circumstance, landscape, fate and time, and the interplay among them to new levels. Now you have a story with troubled and questioning souls with intricate structure and development.” Even though both works have been contrasted with each other, one of the same things that occur in the all of her collections is the fact that she makes ordinary people greater and more impressive.
Munro has taken tidbits of detail from previous stories and expands on them more in Open Secrets. An example that was used, was her first story called “The Stone in the Field” has been compared to “A Wilderness Station.” While the first story is much more family orientated and more accidental, Munro adds more of a twist into the second story. In “The Stone in the Field,” Munro has a character is accidentally killed by a falling tree in the wilderness, while in “A Wilderness Station,” a man was murdered by one of his own family members. She adds more of a suspenseful twist to the new story that wasn’t there in the original story.
Even though Munro has changed the themes to many of the new short stories that she has written, the idea of sex and women still reoccurs in some of her stories. In the story “The Albanian Virgin,” a woman can be equal to men if she just refuses to have sex with them. She can own land, carry a weapon, and be served food by other women if she does this.
Alice Munro’s collections of short stories have changed throughout the years, but her fame and importance to Canada have not. She is still critically acclaimed and considers herself nothing less than ordinary.
Précis 6
Lesser, Wendy. "The Munro Doctrine." New Republic. (211.18) 31 Oct. 1994: 51-53.
Much like the article “The Incomparable Storyteller,” the article “The Munro Doctrine” by Wendy Lesser presents the same argument. She makes a statement the Open Secrets enters a new world that Munro has never attempted to write yet. Her earlier works used to focus on the elements of ordinary life, while Open Secrets incorporates such ideas as the fantastical and the psychological.
Lesser uses the example of “Friend of My Youth, which was the title of her collection in 1990, and says that “she takes elements of ordinary life, the rebellious idealism of adolescence, the intensity of sexual love, the guilt of family betrayal, and the resentment of youth toward age.” Lesser talks of how a “Friend of My Youth” is one of the best short stories written in the last fifty years, and raves about Munro’s ability to add layers to a story to make it have a life of its own. Munro comments on her new collection saying that, “some stories are lighter than others and I don’t feel a big commitment to them. I think I sometimes write stories with the intention to entertain.”
With Open Secrets, Lesser describes this collection as “venturing into a new territory of the fantastical, the psychologically introverted, and the purely suppositional.” Munro is no loner picking apart her life and memory to add depth to characters, but guessing and supposing the personality of the characters she thinks up in Open Secrets. Lesser says that, “Munro’s material, now, tends to be the history of others or stories that she has overheard, rather than racking her memory for her real life situations.” In the story “Carried Away,” the main character Louisa is described to the reader and her actual love life is described. The story then makes a transition to the fantasy life of Louisa and her inability to let go of a young love that was lost to death. But in her previous stories, it was clear when a transition such as this one would have been made, but in “Carried Away,” the reader is never sure when this fantastical transition actually occurs.
While reading many of the stories that are in Open Secrets, the reader starts to question himself/herself. The story “Open Secrets,” we ask ourselves, can we trust the characters? Is there something we should know that we don’t? But while we do ask ourselves these questions at the start, the story falls back into the old Munro and old themes, which according to Lesser, make this story below par compared to the other stories. When compared to stories such as “Vandals” and “A Wilderness Station,” the new qualities that Munro possesses become more apparent. She shows her mature side and “takes the bond between reader and author and makes it resemble that of an estranged love between uncertain lovers” by using light entertainment.
Munro, while not losing all of her old qualities, has become a more mature writer by making the reader more in tuned with the author and not spelling things out anymore. She has become more fantasy and psychological in her collection “Open Secrets.” She strays from her usual themes and approaches to add guess work and imagination into the layers she includes in her stories.