We have reached another milestone with our literary class: completed reading Alice Munro's short stories in "Dear Life."
Here is what the students have to say about this project:
It was a challenging project. We went deeply into Alice Munro`s stories and engaged ourselves in discussions about different meanings and different possible endings of the stories, about different kinds of life.
For me, Alice Munro`s stories awoke a lot of memories of my own life. I liked the project!
I never thought I’d love short stories so much. Alice Munro has opened a new literary world for me.
In an uncomplicated prose style her stories explore human complexity.
I like Alice Munro’s spelling style. She describes what people are doing, what they say but there are never any moral judgements.
In a psycholocical meaning a lot happens, but the reader is free to interpret the character of her protagonists.
Through this book I was introduced to Canadian literature, till last year completely unknown to me. It was a great discovery: new characters, new landscapes, new ways of feeling and thinking...
I loved reading short stories instead of a novel: focusing on a theme is easier and discussions are deeper and richer. I also found the Author fascinating, and I enjoyed lots of videos on the web.
As far as my literary taste is concerned, I could not entirely connect with Munro's way of describing personal feelings and of developing plots, but I am sure there is a lack in my perception due to an insufficient knowledge (a Nobel Prize is not given so easily) and I took this reading as an opportunity to challenge myself toward new horizons.
It was so intensive, inspiring and interesting. Yana made us pay attention to all the hidden thoughts and little remarks in the stories. The open ends were really thought-provoking and led to fascinating discussions in our group of five. Each one interpreted the episodes differently. I was very motivated to write a revision of the stories. It would have been a pity to lay aside this profound book after a quick reading.
Reading Alice Munro's "Dear Life" was puzzling, challenging, at times too thought-provoking and still so true to life. My favourite story was "The Eye," which I could relate to some of my life experiences. I felt suddenly so free and independent, just like Sadie in this story. All in all, this was a compelling reading astonishingly many-sided and never obvious.
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