Day 191.1: Second Read, The Beggar Maid
Nov. 24th, 2024 05:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sunshowerdandelionI read this previously as Who Do You Think You Are? and it had a slightly creepy cover featuring a very thin woman.Reading it for the second time, I think this is the work where Munro's class observations stand out the starkest: Rose is a class traveler, and she goes from being very visibly working-class to very visibly middle class, and all of her friends see the world in such terms. I guess this was what was happening in the 1970s? Desperate Characters was also rather full of this class-thinking, and I do prefer it a lot more over the weird neoliberalism that's so common now.
My favorite story so far is... most of them, other than Mischief, which I thought was overlong. I loved the titular story, of course, but I think I connected most with Royal Beatings. There's more told nuance in these stories, and a bit less of the Munroesque time-hopping, which I thought worked in this short story collection's favor. I'm not sure why this isn't seen as a novel like Lives of Girls and Women, as the structure I think is very similar (although this one tracks Rose through adulthood, whereas Del's terminated when she entered it).
And obviously Wild Swans is getting a lot of attention in the wake of Munro's letting her daughter get abused. That one's less subtle but I thought really got the job done, and like Lives of Girls and Women (the story), is rather challenging to read. But we must remember there are no perfect victims, and that lack of perfection is no reason to withdraw compassion.
Again, I love the told nuance, the theatricality and the effort we put in our emotions. Nothing is pure here, which fits Flaubert's maxim that drama must be cut with humor and artifice. I think Munro's stuff is absolutely the best here.
My favorite story so far is... most of them, other than Mischief, which I thought was overlong. I loved the titular story, of course, but I think I connected most with Royal Beatings. There's more told nuance in these stories, and a bit less of the Munroesque time-hopping, which I thought worked in this short story collection's favor. I'm not sure why this isn't seen as a novel like Lives of Girls and Women, as the structure I think is very similar (although this one tracks Rose through adulthood, whereas Del's terminated when she entered it).
And obviously Wild Swans is getting a lot of attention in the wake of Munro's letting her daughter get abused. That one's less subtle but I thought really got the job done, and like Lives of Girls and Women (the story), is rather challenging to read. But we must remember there are no perfect victims, and that lack of perfection is no reason to withdraw compassion.
Again, I love the told nuance, the theatricality and the effort we put in our emotions. Nothing is pure here, which fits Flaubert's maxim that drama must be cut with humor and artifice. I think Munro's stuff is absolutely the best here.
