Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Collection
Publication
Penguin Canada (PB) (2005), Paperback, 256 pages
Description
Fiction. Literature. Short Stories. HTML:WINNER OF THE NOBEL PRIZE® IN LITERATURE 2013 The only novel from Alice Munro-award-winning author of The Love of a Good Woman�??is an insightful, honest book, "autobiographical in form but not in fact," that chronicles a young girl's growing up in rural Ontario in the 1940's. Del Jordan lives out at the end of the Flats Road on her father's fox farm, where her most frequent companions are an eccentric bachelor family friend and her rough younger brother. When she begins spending more time in town, she is surrounded by women-her mother, an agnostic, opinionted woman who sells encyclopedias to local farmers; her mother's boarder, the lusty Fern Dogherty; and her best friend, Naomi, with whom she shares the frustrations and unbridled glee of adolescence. Through these unwitting mentors and in her own encounters with sex, birth, and death, Del explores the dark and bright sides of womanhood. All along she remains a wise, wit… (more)
Media reviews
Geweldige dialogen, psychologische finesse, intensiteit, filosofische diepgang: het zijn de superieure ingrediënten van deze bijzondere collectie.
New York Times
.Munro's women...often find themselves caught on the margins of shifting cultural mores and pulled between conflicting imperatives--between rootedness and escape, domesticity and freedom, between tending to familial responsibilities or following the urgent promptings of their own hearts.
A very likable book -- a very real book -- virtues not to be underestimated or overlooked.
User reviews
LibraryThing member Nickelini
Lives of Girls and Women is a bildungsroman of Del, growing up in a small town in Ontario in the 1940s. Her family lives on the outskirts of the town, so she is never really one of them, but not really a country person either. The book is made up of a series of linked stories, that I suppose could
This the third Munro book I've read, and although I really like her as a person (she's very well known here in Canada), I haven't loved her books. I've appreciated them, I've seen their merit, but there was something that didn't quite click with me. One reason is that I've had trouble identifying with her characters, and the other is that at times she writes about some very uncomfortable material in a very stark manner. I've been heard to say that I feel like taking a shower after reading some of her stories.
I can confidently say that I've turned a corner her. On the surface I don't have much in common with her characters, but she writes about such very human experiences and emotions that I can't imagine anyone not identifying on some level if they're being honest. There were so many fabulous characters in Lives of Girls and Women--I especially had a soft spot for her odd, hopeful, encyclopedia-selling mother.
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stand separately, although it really wouldn't make sense to read them out of order.This the third Munro book I've read, and although I really like her as a person (she's very well known here in Canada), I haven't loved her books. I've appreciated them, I've seen their merit, but there was something that didn't quite click with me. One reason is that I've had trouble identifying with her characters, and the other is that at times she writes about some very uncomfortable material in a very stark manner. I've been heard to say that I feel like taking a shower after reading some of her stories.
I can confidently say that I've turned a corner her. On the surface I don't have much in common with her characters, but she writes about such very human experiences and emotions that I can't imagine anyone not identifying on some level if they're being honest. There were so many fabulous characters in Lives of Girls and Women--I especially had a soft spot for her odd, hopeful, encyclopedia-selling mother.
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LibraryThing member lamour
One of the great coming of age novels that every teenage girl should read. Munro is better known for her short stories, the genre of which she is one of the great masters and in some ways this novel is a series of short stories tied together by the teenage protagonist.
LibraryThing member lukeasrodgers
Lives of Girls and Women is not a page-turner. At times it felt slow, lacking direction, perhaps in a gesture of narrative sympathy with the lives of its main character. This is not a criticism. Munro has a gift for tersely articulating profound insight into the subtleties of human character. The
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occasional glimpses we get into the deeper recesses of her characters' mental and emotional lives can be breathtaking--all the more so given the way that they take the reader by surprise, appearing like islands emerging suddenly from a fog. The ending to this book is case in point. Show Less
LibraryThing member japaul22
I picked this book up when I heard that Munro had won the Nobel Prize for Literature. Munro is mainly known for her short stories and I think this is considered her only novel, though some of her short story collections are linked stories and might be considered a novel. This is a coming of age
People's lives, in Jubilee as elsewhere, were dull, simple, amazing, and unfathomable - deep caves paved with kitchen linoleum.
If you change "people's lives" to "Munro's writing", that sentence pretty much sums up how I feel about Munro's writing in her own words.
I'm not generally a short story fan, but I'd consider making an exception to read more Munro.
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story about Del, a girl living in the small town of Jubilee, Canada. Each chapter has an episodic feel and I liked some sections more than others. Munro is great at tricking you into thinking a story is straightforward and simple and all of a sudden you realize that dark, depressing, or deep events are being revealed. I appreciate her writing a lot, but it isn't always comfortable.People's lives, in Jubilee as elsewhere, were dull, simple, amazing, and unfathomable - deep caves paved with kitchen linoleum.
If you change "people's lives" to "Munro's writing", that sentence pretty much sums up how I feel about Munro's writing in her own words.
I'm not generally a short story fan, but I'd consider making an exception to read more Munro.
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LibraryThing member bragan
I thought when I picked this up that it was a collection of short stories. It's not. It's a novel, albeit one that seems at first to be fairly loosely structured, about a girl coming of age in a small town in Ontario during and after World War II. It's the first thing of Munro's I've read aside
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from a couple of stories I encountered in anthologies, but based on those -- and, I guess, on the fact that she has a Nobel Prize to her name -- I expected to be impressed by this one, and I was not disappointed. Munro's writing is, well, impressive. She has a great talent for describing things -- people, places, emotions, experiences -- in perfectly apt, subtly insightful ways, and the result here simultaneously feels like one woman's very specific, personal story and like a broad, deep, realistic reflection on the lives of girls and women in general. Show Less
LibraryThing member phoebe55
By page 3 I am beaming, jealous of this gentle apocathary. Perfect for the middle of a life in the first days of summer.
LibraryThing member ilovecookies
I read this book in high school? or university? and I liked it from the get go!!! A good example of Alice Munro's talents.
LibraryThing member autumnc
Munro is writing from the perspective of a young woman growing up in a small town, Jubilee (Ontario), the daughter of an atheist mother and a farmer father. It is a great reflection on what it means to be the child of a "black-listed" parent (due to her atheism), while also thinking through it as
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an adult with adult ideals. It creates a great space for thinking through the consequences of our actions, and how we are not the only ones living in the space we occupy. The discussion on the idea of God is intriguing, as well, especially coming from a child. Could there be a God not contained in the churches, not made manageable by any crosses, God real and really in the world? Could there be God amazing, indifferent, beyond faith? Show Less
LibraryThing member briannad84
First time reading Alice Munro and I liked her. She has a quiet, beautiful way of writing. Was a bit confused with the characters/setting in the first and second chapters though. Couldn't figure out at first if the plot shifted or what, so that confused me a bit.
LibraryThing member Kristelh
Canadian author. I found it to be kind of like reading an English novel, a little hard. It was actually a pretty good book. Too much sex but more realistic on how it impacts females.
LibraryThing member jmoncton
This book is billed as a novel, but really it feels like a set of short stories all featuring the same main character Del Jordan. Each chapter chronicles an episode in Del's life growing up in a very small town in Ontario, Canada. Although the chapters fall in chronological order, from when Del is
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a young girl to a woman about to leave home to go to college, the individual chapters felt like short stories. Although I loved some of the chapters, each one felt like I was starting over with the same characters, but a new scenario. Maybe if I had thought of it as a set of short stories, I would have loved this more. Still, very well written and enjoyable. Show Less
LibraryThing member phoebe55
By page 3 I am beaming, jealous of this gentle apocathary. Perfect for the middle of a life in the first days of summer.
LibraryThing member bucketofrhymes
There's something magical about how Alice Munro depicts transition and this sense of being on the cusp of something. This is a compelling exploration of what womanhood means to the main character, and I'd be lying if I didn't say that so much of the book hit home.
LibraryThing member Rascalstar
Simply marvelous! Love the writing and insight in this book. Del, at 12 years old and growing up in a small Canadian town, has a best friend, Naomi. This is the exquisitely-told story of a young lady making her way toward adulthood, the family and people in her life, things she learns and yearns
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for, and the everyday events that inform Del's choices. Art is what the mundane becomes under the direction of a master author. The big events in Del's life are folded gently into daily happenings in such a way that one is not more than the other. Del is ordinary, extraordinary, and curious. She explores her world and the people in it, unafraid. Show Less
LibraryThing member sweetiegherkin
Lives of Girls and Women is the only novel by a primarily short story author, and that is somewhat evident in the style of the book. While the book is all told in the perspective of the same narrator and proceeds largely in a chronological fashion, the chapters themselves are fairly self-contained
That being said, it's not a criticism of the book, just an explanation. The book itself is very well written and I thoroughly enjoyed Munro's lyrical and evocative style. Her characterizations are vivid and believable; Munro is clearly very observant about every small detail of a person's visage and demeanor and is able to then articulate these into a character of her own making. For what it's worth, in an author's note, Munro describes this book as "autobiographical in form but not in fact. My family, neighbors and friends did not serve as models."
In terms of plot, there isn't much of one in Lives of Girls and Women. The story follows the life of narrator Del Jordan as she grows up in a small rural town in Ontario, Canada, beginning with her elementary school years (which correspond roughly with the World War II years) through to the end of her high school days. We see through her eyes as she narrates about her early years on a farm just outside of town and then when she moves into the small town and becomes accustomed to life there as well.
Although it is the name of one of the chapters, it feels like a bit of a misnomer for this book to be called Lives of Girls and Women as it's about all the people in Del's life, which ends up being pretty equally male and female. These people include family members, friends, lovers, neighbors, and so on. Throughout the book, we watch Del grow and hear her thoughts as she struggles with her issues in life, which largely stem from being the daughter of a fairly conservative, don't-rock-the-boat type of father and a very liberal, wants-to-get-out-of-this-small town kind of mother. Del is often torn from trying to fit in with her father's traditional family and longing for more, just like her mother.
Even though some references are clearly dated, it was interesting to see how a lot of the struggles surrounding growing up are still the same. Del tries out different religious, explores sexual relationships, tries to find her place among the other kids at school, etc. - all identity roles that we most of us probably grappled with at some point in our own childhoods and adolescences.
The book ends on a hopeful but vague note, which may bother some who like a more tied-up ending. The epilogue seemed like a bit of an odd fit to me, as it went backwards in time and left the book with even more of a 'huh' kind of ending. Nevertheless, overall I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it for those who read more based on character and writing style than strictly for plot.
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and could be read like short stories. Knowing some of the characterizations from previous chapters helps in some cases (particularly the narrator's mother), but in other cases you don't see the characters from the previous chapter return in the next chapter.That being said, it's not a criticism of the book, just an explanation. The book itself is very well written and I thoroughly enjoyed Munro's lyrical and evocative style. Her characterizations are vivid and believable; Munro is clearly very observant about every small detail of a person's visage and demeanor and is able to then articulate these into a character of her own making. For what it's worth, in an author's note, Munro describes this book as "autobiographical in form but not in fact. My family, neighbors and friends did not serve as models."
In terms of plot, there isn't much of one in Lives of Girls and Women. The story follows the life of narrator Del Jordan as she grows up in a small rural town in Ontario, Canada, beginning with her elementary school years (which correspond roughly with the World War II years) through to the end of her high school days. We see through her eyes as she narrates about her early years on a farm just outside of town and then when she moves into the small town and becomes accustomed to life there as well.
Although it is the name of one of the chapters, it feels like a bit of a misnomer for this book to be called Lives of Girls and Women as it's about all the people in Del's life, which ends up being pretty equally male and female. These people include family members, friends, lovers, neighbors, and so on. Throughout the book, we watch Del grow and hear her thoughts as she struggles with her issues in life, which largely stem from being the daughter of a fairly conservative, don't-rock-the-boat type of father and a very liberal, wants-to-get-out-of-this-small town kind of mother. Del is often torn from trying to fit in with her father's traditional family and longing for more, just like her mother.
Even though some references are clearly dated, it was interesting to see how a lot of the struggles surrounding growing up are still the same. Del tries out different religious, explores sexual relationships, tries to find her place among the other kids at school, etc. - all identity roles that we most of us probably grappled with at some point in our own childhoods and adolescences.
The book ends on a hopeful but vague note, which may bother some who like a more tied-up ending. The epilogue seemed like a bit of an odd fit to me, as it went backwards in time and left the book with even more of a 'huh' kind of ending. Nevertheless, overall I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it for those who read more based on character and writing style than strictly for plot.
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LibraryThing member sprainedbrain
Lives of Girls and Women is a really quiet, beautifully written, very quotable book. Some of my favorites highlighted as I went along are above. I love Munro’s subtlety in presenting Del’s coming of age in a small town. All of the other people in her life, especially the women, and richly drawn
Another 1001books success.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
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and complex. Another 1001books success.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
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LibraryThing member owen1218
Yikes, not sure how to review this one. As others have suggested, it's beautifully written and a powerful description of girlhood. But it can be meandering and it's easy to see why Munro has generally preferred to write in the short form.
LibraryThing member DeltaQueen50
Lives of Girls and Women by Alice Munro is a collection of inter-woven short stories that chronicle the coming-of-age of Del Jordan and her relationships with various characters in the small Ontario town of Jubilee. Some classify this work as a novel but however one defines the book, the author’s
The author captures many of the thoughts and feelings that females go through as they grow from little girls to young women. The uncertainty of maturing at different rates from one’s friends, the feelings of being left behind by one’s peers, the curiosity about life in general and sex in particular are told with humour, pathos, and drama. In writing about everyday events, Munro’s talent for remarkable and relatable prose is highlighted.
Lives of Girls and Women was my introduction to Alice Munro and this empathetic story about one young girl’s rites of passage was a pleasure to read.
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gift of capturing human emotions through her beautiful and understated writing shines through. The author captures many of the thoughts and feelings that females go through as they grow from little girls to young women. The uncertainty of maturing at different rates from one’s friends, the feelings of being left behind by one’s peers, the curiosity about life in general and sex in particular are told with humour, pathos, and drama. In writing about everyday events, Munro’s talent for remarkable and relatable prose is highlighted.
Lives of Girls and Women was my introduction to Alice Munro and this empathetic story about one young girl’s rites of passage was a pleasure to read.
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LibraryThing member steller0707
The title of this novel by short story writer Alice Munro comes from the chapter of the same name in which Del Jordan's mother says to her "there is a change coming I think in the lives of girls and women. Yes. But it is up to us to make it all come. . . ". Published in 1972 during the rise of
Like Munro's "The Beggar Maid," published later, this book consists of interconnected stories. However, the time frame here is much shorter than the later one and, therefore with fewer gaps in time, reads more like a novel.
It is the coming-of-age story of Del Jordan, from her early years at home on the farm, through her school days in town and, finally, graduation from high school. We learn of her early interest in reading and writing, and see her shaping her spiritual beliefs, sharing tittilating secrets with her best friend, her first crushes and first loves. Vignettes of people and events give a nostalgic and often very funny view of small town life.
The characters in the story are so carefully drawn with Munro's characteristic turn of phrase that they are brought vividly to life. None is more alive than Del's mother and her relationship with Del. While often disparaging of the remarks and advice of her mother, Del grows up with her own version of her mother's worldview.
An epilogue, a story in itself, describes Del's imagining her first short story, how it would be about her small town, and how she would change names and places to create something new, but based on truth. I suspect it is how this novel was constructed.
This early book is one in an oeuvre of work worthy of the Nobel Prize for literature, which Munro won in 2013.
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modern feminism its main characters are girls and women and their "making sense" of their world.Like Munro's "The Beggar Maid," published later, this book consists of interconnected stories. However, the time frame here is much shorter than the later one and, therefore with fewer gaps in time, reads more like a novel.
It is the coming-of-age story of Del Jordan, from her early years at home on the farm, through her school days in town and, finally, graduation from high school. We learn of her early interest in reading and writing, and see her shaping her spiritual beliefs, sharing tittilating secrets with her best friend, her first crushes and first loves. Vignettes of people and events give a nostalgic and often very funny view of small town life.
The characters in the story are so carefully drawn with Munro's characteristic turn of phrase that they are brought vividly to life. None is more alive than Del's mother and her relationship with Del. While often disparaging of the remarks and advice of her mother, Del grows up with her own version of her mother's worldview.
An epilogue, a story in itself, describes Del's imagining her first short story, how it would be about her small town, and how she would change names and places to create something new, but based on truth. I suspect it is how this novel was constructed.
This early book is one in an oeuvre of work worthy of the Nobel Prize for literature, which Munro won in 2013.
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LibraryThing member icolford
A masterful and seminal work of prose fiction, Alice Munro’s Lives of Girls and Women explores the place of women in mid-20th-century society and pivots on the gradual awakening of narrator Del Jorden to the realization that there is more to being female than catering to the needs of men.
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Resembling a collection of linked stories more so than a standard novel, Munro’s deeply felt, minutely observed narrative describes Del’s pre-teen and teenage years growing up in Jubilee, a small town in rural Ontario, in the years before, during and immediately following World War II. On the surface, Del’s upbringing does not challenge the boundaries of convention. Her father is an unassertive man who supports his family by raising foxes for pelts. Her mother is a housewife who has known hardship. But there is nothing conventional about Del’s approach to life, which is skeptical and outward-looking. Del’s intrepid, tireless curiosity is driven primarily by her vivacious, opinionated mother, who harbours lofty ambitions for her brainy daughter. (Indeed, as presented to the reader, Del’s father is little more than a cipher and plays a minimal role in her childhood.) In the opening story, “The Flats Road,” Del is living with her mother, father and younger brother Owen outside Jubilee on a shabby property where her father keeps his foxes and a few other animals. It is a neighbourhood populated by misfits and eccentrics where everyone is poor. Later on, Del has moved into Jubilee with her mother where they live in a rented house on River Street. Her mother takes in boarders, and, in “Princess Ida,” has embarked on a career selling encyclopedias. For Del on the cusp of womanhood, her mother—who does not attend church and expresses an acute disdain bordering on hostility for organized religion—who loves opera and pushes her daughter to excel at school—is a source of pride, embarrassment and inspiration. The novel chronicles the growth of Del’s complex interior life along with her occasionally reckless forays in the external world, and depicts her sexual awakening, her evolving attitude toward boys and love and the mysterious world beyond Jubilee that, she comes to realize, will nurture her but also try to crush her. The novel shows us Del’s struggles with her maturing body and the triumphs and misadventures that shape her into a self-aware young woman with a loving heart who values knowledge and independence. Lives of Girls and Women is a truthful, candid, supremely intelligent novel. Sometimes shocking, it is elegantly written with humour and irony. This is a novel that confronts human desire and depravity head on. It is not Alice Munro’s style to cushion the blow, to spare her characters suffering. Del Jordan often fails, sometimes in spectacular fashion. Her struggles are universal and sear themselves on the reader’s memory. Del Jordan is one of the most authentically human fictional characters you will ever encounter. Once you’ve read her story you will not forget her. Show Less
LibraryThing member LibraryCin
Del is a young girl growing up in small town Ontario. This follows her from a girl through high school. It’s set around WWII and a bit after.
There really wasn’t much to this book. I’ve been wanting to try Alice Munro for a while, but am not a fan of short stories, so that pretty much left me
There really wasn’t much to this book. I’ve been wanting to try Alice Munro for a while, but am not a fan of short stories, so that pretty much left me
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with this book. It was ok, but really nothing happened, so for anyone looking for some kind of plot, this won’t provide it. Show Less
LibraryThing member rampaginglibrarian
I stumbled upon this book one of the many times i was wandering somewhat lost, confused, and frustrated in one of the libraries in grad school. Picked it up took it home and read it instead of doing whatever homework i was looking for--wonderful novel. Another story of an outsider growing up and
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finding her own way (wonder why i can relate to that?) Show Less
LibraryThing member arubabookwoman
Alice Munro is known as a master of the short story, but in a note at the beginning of this book she called it a novel, "autobiographical in form but not in fact." Structurally, it consists of what appear to be short stories, roughly in chronologically order, narrated by Del, telling the story of
Briefly, as follows, the stories are:
THE FLATS ROAD--Del and family are living out of town on a fox farm This story focuses on Uncle Benny's disastrous marriage.
HEIRS OF THE LIVING BODY--Del's mother's failure to be accepted by her father's family: "My mother went along straight lines. Aunt Elspeth and Auntie Grace wove in and out around her, retreating and disappearing, and coming back...."
PRINCESS IDA--Again the focus is on Del's mother, who becomes an encyclopedia salesperson. "I felt the weight of my mother's eccentricities as something absurd and embarrassing about her--the aunties would just show me a little at a time." Del, her mother, and her brother are now living in town while her father is out at the fox farm.
AGE OF FAITH--Del wants to know if there is a god. "Sometimes I thought of the population of Jubilee as nothing but a large audience for me...."
CHANGES AND CEREMONIES--Del and her friend Naomi are becoming interested in boys and the mysteries of sex. In Jubilee, "reading books was something like chewing gum, a habit to be abandoned when the seriousness and satisfactions of adult life took over. It persisted mostly in unmarried ladies, would have been shameful in a man."
LIVES OF GIRLS AND WOMEN--As a teenager Del is sexually molested by the boyfriend of her mother's boarder.
BAPTIZING--In high school, Del has boyfriends; loses her virginity.
EPILOGUE: THE PHOTOGRAPHER--A story imagined by Del, who has failed her college scholarship exams, but who wants to be a writer. "And no list could hold what I wanted, for what I wanted was every last thing, every layer of speech and thought, stroke of light on bark or walls, every smell, pothole, pain, crack, delusion, held still and held together--radiant, everlasting."
4 stars
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her life, her family, and her town. Briefly, as follows, the stories are:
THE FLATS ROAD--Del and family are living out of town on a fox farm This story focuses on Uncle Benny's disastrous marriage.
HEIRS OF THE LIVING BODY--Del's mother's failure to be accepted by her father's family: "My mother went along straight lines. Aunt Elspeth and Auntie Grace wove in and out around her, retreating and disappearing, and coming back...."
PRINCESS IDA--Again the focus is on Del's mother, who becomes an encyclopedia salesperson. "I felt the weight of my mother's eccentricities as something absurd and embarrassing about her--the aunties would just show me a little at a time." Del, her mother, and her brother are now living in town while her father is out at the fox farm.
AGE OF FAITH--Del wants to know if there is a god. "Sometimes I thought of the population of Jubilee as nothing but a large audience for me...."
CHANGES AND CEREMONIES--Del and her friend Naomi are becoming interested in boys and the mysteries of sex. In Jubilee, "reading books was something like chewing gum, a habit to be abandoned when the seriousness and satisfactions of adult life took over. It persisted mostly in unmarried ladies, would have been shameful in a man."
LIVES OF GIRLS AND WOMEN--As a teenager Del is sexually molested by the boyfriend of her mother's boarder.
BAPTIZING--In high school, Del has boyfriends; loses her virginity.
EPILOGUE: THE PHOTOGRAPHER--A story imagined by Del, who has failed her college scholarship exams, but who wants to be a writer. "And no list could hold what I wanted, for what I wanted was every last thing, every layer of speech and thought, stroke of light on bark or walls, every smell, pothole, pain, crack, delusion, held still and held together--radiant, everlasting."
4 stars
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Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1971
Physical description
256 p.; 7.7 inches
ISBN
014305144X / 9780143051442