Alice Munro: Meneseteung
In her introduction to Best American Short Stories, 1989, Margaret Atwood mentions this one is, in her opinion, “one of Alice Munro’s best and, in the manner of its telling, quirkiest stories yet.” As of today, I haven’t read enough of Munro’s stories to say if I agree or disagree in this being one of her best, but I do agree that it a very good, and its manner of telling is very unusual. The nameless narrator, in the end, is the one, who builds up the story — a good one, by the way, and not quite what could be expected — surrounding this “poetess” it tells about, making assumptions based, partly on poems left behind, partly on a gossipy local newspaper, partly based on the narrator’s own experiences — and the end is really telling; “They will out things together, knowing all along that they may be mistaken.” I will print out the whole paragraph and put it on my study wall, next to my writing guides.