A collection of short stories including one called Something I’ve Been Meaning To Tell You.
Something I’ve Been Meaning – the blurb
In the thirteen stories in her remarkable second collection, Alice Munro demonstrates the precise observation, straightforward prose style, and masterful technique that led no less a critic than John Updike to compare her to Chekhov. The sisters, mothers and daughters, aunts, grandmothers, and friends in these stories shimmer with hope and love, anger and reconciliation, as they contend with their histories and their present, and what they can see of the future.
Unlucky for some
First published in 1974 the book of thirteen short stories doesn’t feel that old. Most if not all of the stories feature women as lead characters and examine life events such as marriage, childhood and divorce. Shorts are not usually my cup of tea but I read Runaway by Munro a while back and loved it.
I found each story in this book however had a lot of blanks. There seemed to be hidden meanings behind the well constructed sentences that I failed to grasp which left me frustrated. There is no doubt it is well written. There are also twists here and there to keep you entertained but I felt like I finished it under a sense of requirement rather than want. Munro went on to become a Nobel prize winner for literature but unfortunately Something I’ve Been Meaning To Tell You is not one of my favorite pieces of work by her.