source: wikipedia,
Alice Munro
who breathed her Monday night was 92. In her career
spanning for more than half a century, she did an incredible job with the
genre- short story. Called by the Swedish Academy as ‘master of the
contemporary short story’, Munro revolutionized the short story by integrating
short fiction cycles along with shifting back and forth in time. The short fiction
cycle is interrelated as well as independent. To give you a clearer picture,
consider any popular sitcom which has a series of episodes in a particular
season. Each episode is short and complete in itself while the entire season
represents a fiction cycle. It is this method of writing that Munroe is
credited for; a legacy to be cherished.
Munro’s
stories are, mostly, set in Huron County, Ontario. Her works evoke a regional
sensibility. The local color in her works has made her literary genius equal to
that of Anton Chekhov. Her female characters are unique in their perspective
when pitted against the simpleton men folks. Margaret Atwood, a Canadian of no
less literary repertoire has high regard for Monroe, considering her “pioneer
for women…” Her appeal made her entire corpus of work nominated for the Man Booker
International Prize in 2009. ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’ with its international
title ‘The Beggar Maid’ was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. ‘Dance of the Happy
Shades’ (1968) won her one of the Governor General’s Awards. She has won three
in her lifetime. Her 14 remarkable short story collections including
‘Dear Life’ (2012) reveal the extraordinary in the ordinary. ‘Dear Life’, largely
autobiographical, is considered a swan song as she mostly stopped writing around
2013. Some of the film adaptations of Munro’s works are Martha, Ruth and Edie
(1988), Away from Her (2006), Julieta (2016), and others.
Careful
attention and precision are insignia of Munro’s short stories with a novelistic
bent. Making the lives of ordinary women rich and as important as men, her imagination
when woven with language has produced great literature.