A quick word about my star-rating system or rather the 2.5 rating in particular. In shorthand it means worthy but not for me. This can be due to beautiful prose which fails to engage me. I start reading but my eyes skim the words. Before 10 pages are through, I’m longing to read something else. The good news is that I’m prepared to continue reading to the end in the hope that it picks up. In most cases, I’m reading a book by a well-established, nay a world-class author, and I’m in a state of disbelief that I’m struggling.
Such is the case right now. The book has been on my library reading group’s list for a good couple of years and I was delighted when it finally came in. Written by someone heralded as the greatest living short story writer, the first third was very interesting, with humorous cameos of famous Scottish writers, Walter Scott and James Hogg. It may just inspire me to finally pick up The Private Memoirs and Confessions of A Justified Sinner. Since the author’s ancestors landed on the shores of Canada, however, there have been occasional flashes of brilliance – a few pages here and a couple of paragraphs there – but in general this read has become a slog.
I have a hundred pages left and I reckon it will take me about 6 sittings to finish it. 6 x 15 = 90 pages. OK, 7 sittings. Fortunately my book group doesn’t meet until a week tomorrow. I’ll make it.
The book in question? The View From Castle Rock by Alice Munro, a potential Nobel laureate. Good grief, what is wrong with me?
Imperium - Christian Kracht
My Name is Lucy Barton - Elizabeth Strout
Summerhouse, Later - Judith Hermann
When the Professor Who Got Stuck in the Snow - Dan Rhodes
Passenger 23
The Book of St Andrews
Pure - Andrew Miller
The Man in the High Castle - Philipp K Dick
A Doppelganger with Aquis Submersus - Theodor Storm
Confusion - Stefan Zweig
The Rain Maiden and Other Fairy Tales - Theodor Storm
The Last Bear - Mandy Haggith
Faust - A Tragedy in Two Parts - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
The Emperor of Ice-Cream - Dan Gunn
Whispering Shadows - Jan Philipp Sendker
The Vegetarian - Han Kang
The Dancer at the Gai-Moulin - Georges Simenon
On Glasgow and Edinburgh - Robert Crawford
Jellyfish - Janice Galloway
Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
Alice In Wonderland & Through The Looking Glass - Lewis Carroll
River of Smoke - Amitav Ghosh
Sea of Poppies - Amitav Ghosh
The Dark Heart of the Night - Leonora Miano
The Luminaries - Eleanor Catton
Oryx and Crake - Margaret Atwood
The Driver's Seat - Muriel Spark
Viper Wine - Hermione Eyre
The Girl on The Train - Paula Hawkins
Wallenstein - Friedrich Schiller
In the Beginning was the Sea -Thomas Gonzalez
Munich Airport - Greg Baxter
Rise - Karen Campbell
The Lie - Helen Dunmore
Crime Novel - Petri Tamminen
A Tabby Cat's Tale - Han Dong 
Family Heirlooms - Zulmira Ribeiro Tavares 
Station Eleven - Emily St. John Mandel
The Franchise Affair - Josephine Tey 
Hedda Gabler - Henrik Ibsen 
Glass - Alex Christoffi 
The Miniaturist - Jesse Burton 
The Temporary Gentleman - Sebastian Barry 
Under The Tripoli Sky - Kamal Ben Hamada
The Blue Room - Hanne Orstavik 
Greenbanks - Dorothy Whipple 
Losing It! - Helen Lederer (2015)
The Pierced Heart - Lynn Shepherd (2014)
The Sound of Things Falling - Juan Gabriel Vásquez
Mr Mac and Me - Esther Freud
The Monogram Murders - Sophie Hannah
The Death of Lomond Friel - Sue Peebles
The Unknown Unknown - Mark Forsyth
The Bookshop Strikes Back - Ann Patchett
The Leipzig Affair - Fiona Rintoul
A Child's Garden of Verses - R L Stevenson
The Dark Meadow - Andrea Maria Schenkel
The Flying Classroom - Erich Kästner
The Case of The Black Pearl - Lin Anderson
Picnic of The Virtues - Felicitas Hoppe
Little Man, What Now? - Hans Fallada
Look Up Glasgow (Pocket edition) - Adrian Seale (2014)
Absolution - Patrick Flanery (2012)
I Murdered My Library - Linda Grant (2014)
The Yellow Dog - Georges Simenon (1931/2014)
The Carter of La Providence - Georges Simenon (1931/2014)
The Hanged Man of Saint-Pholien - Georges Simenon (1931/2014)
Fair Helen - Andrew Greig (2013)
All The Rage - A L Kennedy (2014)
The Mussel Feast - Birgit Vanderbeke (1990/2013)
I ve had hogg on tbr pile a while really want to read it this year .Not read Munro but heard other people struggle with her think shorts tend to be all or nothing you either love all they right or nothing ,no middle ground ,all the best stu
I am confused now. Are these short stories? I thought this was a novel? I read some of her short stories and liked them but never felt like picking up a novel and read quite a few reviews saying she was a drag in the longer form. I definitely don’t think anything is wrong with you, some books just don’t work for us. Good to share our opinion. Many people are so reluctant to state something negative. I see you have the same habit of finishing a book even though you might not like it…
While I loved the book (and am a Munro fan) every time I read her work I am reminded of the opinion of a friend (a well-known author herself) which is far more critical: “Reading Munro is like looking at the world through sepia-toned glasses you can never take off.” She isn’t for every one (particularly in this work) so I salute your persistence.
Caroline: The volume is linked short stories — it started out as a personal research project into Munro’s family history. The result is closer to memoir than novel, but you could apply either description as an adjective. I actually liked the stories set in Scotland somewhat better, if only because they took the author out of “Munro country”, that part of southern Ontario that she has made her own (and where the ones that are frustrating Lizzy are set).
Kevin, thanks for the clarification. I am somewhat curious now as I like short stories and memoirs. Looking at the world through sepia-toned glasses is a wonderful description.
I’m pleased to say the last 100 pages were read much quicker than anticipated and I’ve managed to put my finger on what didn’t gel.
Was this fiction or biography? Munro claims they are stories – some of it is true, some of it isn’t. But it’s feels like biography and that’s frustrating because the stories never go too deep. In one story, the 1st person narrator (Munro?) is leaving home to get married and in the next she’s returning home having lived on her own for a number of years. No glimpse into the marriage, just a hint that her heart wasn’t complete as she went into it.
The stories are episodic in nature but I found that there were simply too many years between them and the episodes chosen weren’t all that interesting. Hints of drama that come to nought. Very bland indeed.
I really liked this one (rated it a 4) but I get what you’re saying. I’m really interested in the immigrant experience in general, though.
Yes, I know the feeling. I know that Samuel Beckett is a world-class writer, so why do I struggle with his work? The same is true of the last four big novels of Henry James. I did not have much success with Nobel winners Elrede Jelinek and Daniel Fo, but in those cases I’m not sure they are world-class writers.
It’s surprising that you would have that problem with Alice Munro, because she is so accessible, but I do think that many did not like ”The View from Castle Rock’.