Lives of Girls and Women: A Novel: Amazon.ca: Books

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Customer Reviews

10 Reviews

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4 star:		(2)
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Average Customer Review

3.7 out of 5 stars (10 customer reviews)

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars REALISTIC AND BRILLIANT, Sep 21 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Lives of Girls and Women (Mass Market Paperback)

I was forced to read this book during the final exams for my H.S.C. but actually found that it was very enjoyable. It is the touching story of a young girl growing up in Canada in the 40s, who yearns to be an artist, and her journey towards womanhood. The format of the story is unique and the characters are likeable and real enough to believe in. This is a well-told semi-autobiographical novel which stays in the memory long after it's has been read.

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great literature - Munro is a master structuralist, May 20 2002

By

Jay Stevens (Missoula, MT) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lives of Girls and Women: A Novel (Paperback)

What an amazing book! This not merely a good book for middle-aged women, or good instruction for girls, or any such claptrap. To label Munro as good "women's lit" is demeaning to women and demeaning to "The Lives of Girls and Women." (Plus it makes men who enjoy reading her a bit funny.) It's a great book! In any category!

Munro is a master of characterization and narrative structure. Del's description of her mother, for example, reveals: (1) Del's feeling of discomfort at her own place within Jubilee's hierarchy and environment; Del wants to fit in, and her mother embodies the eccentric within her own self. (2) Del's mother's strengths, pulling herself from abject poverty, putting herself through school, starting her own business in conservative postwar rural Canada - this woman evokes our admiration, despite the disgust of our narrator. It's these multidimensional portraits that makes Munro so great - yes, a character (Del's mother) can earn our admiration, disgust, and pity all at once...

Then in the building of conflict, Munro ALWAYS surprises us. Every scene is fresh, new, interesting, every culmination of conflict resolves in ways we would never expect. Take the time when Del was being molested by her mother's boarder's boyfriend. One day she goes off with him in his car out to the country, and we're expecting some "Bastard Out of Carolina" child-raping exploitation and subsequent weepy victim hood. But Munro makes a left at the light, has the man simply masturbate in front of the child, who for her part is excited, charmed, and repelled by the sight and is grateful to be introduced to the mystery of the penis.

And lastly, Munro refuses to depict her women in the same, old tired way. Her women are not dragged around by the hand by handsome strangers, as they so often are in movies. Her women are not victims of rape, incest, or peer pressure, as in way too many contemporary novels. No, Munro's women are real. They have drive, ambition, and a deep desire to be seen as people.

Definitely one of my favorite books, ever.

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars My favorite book, Oct 23 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Lives of Girls and Women: A Novel (Paperback)

I couldn't possibly say all I want to say about how good this book is. I am Alice Munro's biggest fan and this is my favorite of her books. Many of her later stories are larger in scope, more ambitious in their reach, but this book is truly a gem. Get lost in Del's world. Munro creates a lush, astounding, painfully, gorgeously real world. Read this book and then read it again. And give it to every one of your friends.

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Most recent customer reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars What a load of crap
Typical anti-male diatribe disguised as a work of literature. This was assigned reading for one of my college literature courses over twenty years ago, and the memory of the... Read more

Published on July 14 2004

1.0 out of 5 stars I hated this novel!
Maybe it was because this book was assigned to me to read by a college professor. Or maybe it was becasue I like more of an intreging story. I hated reading this book. Read more

Published on May 2 2002 by Richard K. Stewart III