- Paperback: 224 pages
- Publisher: Vintage Books (1991)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0679732713
- ISBN-13: 978-0679732716
- Product Dimensions: 13.2 x 1.2 x 20.3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 227 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Major Work in a Minor Key,
By James Paris "Tarnmoor" (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Beggar Maid - Stories of Flo And Rose (Paperback)
I had read a review in the ATLANTIC MONTHLY extolling Alice Munro to the skies, so I decided to give her a try by reading this novel.Without a doubt, the praise is well deserved. If one just looks at a summary of the story by itself, it's another typical women's novel about relationships. What makes it so much more is the fineness and fitness of Munro's perceptions about the way real people think, feel, and express themselves. On the second page, Rose's biological mother says that she feels as if there were "a boiled egg in my chest, with the shell left on." She then proceeds to die of a blood clot on her lung. An image like that sticks in one's craw for many pages. Later, Rose takes a train trip through heavy snow to Banff: "The train crept along slowly, fearful of avalanches. Rose ... liked the idea of their being shut up in this dark cubicle, under the rough train blankets, borne through such implacable landscape. She always felt that the progress of trains, however perilous, was safe and proper. She felt that planes, on the other hand, might at any moment be appalled by what they were doing, and sink through the air without a whisper of protest." As we see Rose grow up, get married, get divorced, try as a single mother to hook up with skittish males, and make her way through a middling, muddling life path, we experience a rising crescendo of minor epiphanies. Munro's language always gives dignity to moments of embarrassment, frustration, and minor-key elation. After having second thoughts about her marriage to Patrick, she falls in love with him again as she sees the vulnerable nape of his neck as he, unknowing, studies in a library carrel. In the end, it turns out to be a bad move as Patrick gives up everything he held dear to become a carbon copy of his obnoxious suburbanite father. What saves the moment is that I can feel each such objective correlative deeply because I've made major decisions on equally shaky grounds. Munro knows the language of the heart in all its minuteness and treats every step and misstep with the same respect and even love. She is a superb writer, and I eagerly look forward to reading her other works.
2.0 out of 5 stars
The waste of a skilled writer,
By
This review is from: The Beggar Maid - Stories of Flo And Rose (Paperback)
Nobody can deny that Alice Munro is a very skilled author. You can see all her experience at The New Yorker. Nonetheless, this book's lack of an interest story just throws that away. The most interesting character, Flo, appears in few occasions, while Rose is sometimes a very flat character. Probably the book doesn't deepen much in her other than her relationships with men. It serves the feminist purpose but not quite the literary. It should be considered as a possible weekend entertainment, just like reading magazine fiction.
3.0 out of 5 stars
Dry and undistinguished....a rather shapeless affair,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Beggar Maid - Stories of Flo And Rose (Paperback)
Alice Munro's "The Beggar Maid" received so many accolades including a Booker Prize nomination I plunged into it expecting a tapestry of riches only to discover a disappointing assemblage of vignettes that don't quite hold together. Sure, they're at least chronologically arranged to reflect Rose's personal development from a child growing up on the poor side of town to an adult pursuing a career in acting, and it's only this progressive timeline that gives these short stories a momentum they fundamentally lack. Munro seems to suggest that Rose never quite got over being poor and an unattractive child/teenager, hence her serial like entanglement with men whose natures are totally incompatible with hers. The quality of the chapters/short stories also vary quite a bit. Some like "Royal Beatings", "Half A Grapefruit", "The Beggar Maid", and "Mischief" are quite fun and even compelling. Others like "White Swan" and the last three stories are plain boring, which I could have done without. Contary to the blurb, the stories aren't really about Flo and Rose. Sure, Flo's parenting method influenced Rose's development as an individual but it is Rose who takes centrestage. The worst part is feeling that Rose may not be a heroine worth spilling so many words on. I'm not sure if I'll read another one of Munro's after this. Perhaps I picked one that didn't suit me. Depends.
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