Away from Her

By Alice Munro

WINNER OF THE NOBEL PRIZE® IN LITERATURE 2013

Alice Munro has long been heralded for her penetrating, lyrical prose, and in “The Bear Came Over the Mountain” – the basis for Sarah Polley’s film Away From Her — her prodigious talents are once again on display. As she follows Grant, a retired professor whose wife Fiona begins gradually to lose her memory and drift away from him, we slowly see how a lifetime of intimate details can create a marriage, and how mysterious the bonds of love really are.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Nov 26, 2008
• ISBN: 9780307481818

Reviews for Away from Her

[m.belljackson · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Mostly gentle renderings of unusual and often melancholy tales revealed through intriguing dialogue and unexpected personality changes."Nettles" unfortunately delivers a gruesome horse slaughtering which is completely irrelevant to the plot and will stop me from readingany more Alice Munro for fear of more hidden animal cruelty.

[sometimeunderwater · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Wonderful, as always with Munro. Each story has a unique melancholy beauty, and they grow with their proximity to one another, so it's hard to pick a favourite. The title story and the closer (The Bear Came Over the Mountain) are perhaps the most obviously brilliant. Also highlight: 'Comfort', 'Family Furnishings', and 'Post and Beam'.

[sriddell_8 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I love Alice Munro's short stories.

I always have a hard time summarizing short story collections, since (obviously) there are multiple story lines/plots/characters.

But like many of her collections, this one left me feeling like I'd met people at a crossroads in their lives, that I was able to share in the significant moments or the one moment that changed the course of their entire life.

[seriousgrace · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Munro has a way with words, as everyone knows. Here are four words I never thought I would see stitched together, "bug-eyed pickle ass". Go figure. Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage is a collection of short stories with a common theme: relationships:Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage - a childish prank backfires.Floating Bridge - a woman deals with positive news concerning her cancer.Family Furnishings - a college student learns about a secret her aunt was keeping.Comfort - the suicide of a husband. Nettles - childhood taunts.Post and Beam - when a house is more than a house.What Is Remembered - the memory of an affair with a pilot lingers long after the romance has died.Queenie - A sister's abandonment.The Bear Came Over the Mountain - An adultery gets his comeuppance.

[venarain-354758 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Poignant and compelling, Alice paints a sometimes sweet, sometime bitter picture of coupled life.

[leslie398 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Though well written, I didn't really like these short stories. The characters didn't engage me & I was often left with a feeling that the story didn't have any purpose.

[stravinsky-544320 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

stories that are short and feature covetous relationships and other life slices

[nancyjean19 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Each story is a mini novel, centering usually on a character looking back on her life and the way a particular person, usually someone more on the fringe than the character, impacted the course of her life. I love the way her characters represent their younger selves -- I love when authors are simultaneously able to convey two voices for the same character. No need for me to say it, but Alice Munro is a true master.

[viviennestrauss · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

First off, I can't believe this is my first Alice Munro book, unless I've read one long ago and forgotten it. I was slow to warm up to her but I mainly blame that on having just finished several phenomenally great novels. By the end though, I can't help but give this 5 stars.

[vivienner_3 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Of all the Munro stories I have read, this collection is my favourite. Munro has an unrivaled gift for writing beautifully perceptive stories about ordinary people. Perfect.

[phyllis.shepherd · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Alice Munro is one of my favorite authors. She has a wonderful talent for seeing into the hearts and minds of people in ways to which we can all relate. This is an excellent collection. The final story, "The Bear Came Over the Mountain," was adapted into the 2006 film "Away from Her."

[porch_reader · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This was my first collection of Alice Munro's short stories. She'd been on my "to read" list for a long time, and after she won the Nobel Prize in Literature this year, I picked up this collection of short stories at Prairie Lights. Munro is a master of her craft. Her short stories contain more depth, more feeling, more real life than most novels. Her stories often begin in the middle of a situation and allow us to stumble around for a bit, making sense of the landscape. For example, the first story begins: "Years ago, before the trains stopped running on so many of the branch lines, a woman with a high, freckled forehead and a frizz of reddish hair came into the railway station and inquired about shipping furniture." As we figure out who this woman is, why she is shipping furniture, and what might become of her, Munro zooms in on a day or a moment, and then back out to cover a life. The stories themselves were often a bit dark, as real life can be, but the gift that she gives is a careful consideration of each moment, each life.

[sweetbriarpoet · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

These stories were easy to read- the language flows wonderfully and the settings are both beautiful and stark. I am not usually a fan of stories that were obviously written in the nineties- there are usually distinct themes which were modern then and seemed a bit played out now such as living with terminal illnesses, love affairs that end in both love and hatred, etc. But Munro is definitely a testament to good short story writing. She has a particular style which is easy to read and creates beautiful imagery. I will continue to explore her other stories and find themes that agree with my personal preferences more.

[nivramkoorb · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A great book. This is my 3rd collection of Munro short stores. I have just begun to read short stories in addition to novels and I think Alice Munro is the best. Her view into the human condition is illuminating. I hope to be able to read everything she has written. She is a testimony about what is so great about good literature. It really makes you glad that books are like the stars in the sky. They go on forever.

[lamour_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Munro is a master of the short story technique. What may seem as a minor event or description in the story line, turns out to be very significant to the plot. This means you must read her stories carefully for they are packed with little moments on which the plot will turn. At the end of each story, I felt as if I had just read a novel for there is so much plot in each one that I felt I had known a character for a very long time and not just the 30 pages that these stories are in length.

[marciliogq_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is a wonderful short story by Alice Munro, which was transformed in a movie. Both of them are really great. Munro's narrative style is deep and full of details. Her characters are intense. The narrative is about a woman with Alzheimer who goes to a clinic to treat her problem. There, she has contact to another man and they perhaps fall in love. The problem is that she is married and her husband has to fight to her disease to catch her heart again. Impossible not to get moved by this story. Highly reccomendable.

[stouthearted_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Munro's short stories in this volume often revolve with either an event or a person that changes the protagonist's life. The first story is by far the best, with its honest portrayal of a woman on the cusp of spinsterhood who is the butt of a mean prank by some teen girls, a prank which does not go as expected. Other stories concern a larger-than-life female family member that appeared so dynamic when the story's protagonist was a child, but lost that appeal when the protagonist entered womanhood. Only the last story, "The Bear Came Over the Mountain" uses a male protagonist, but the center of the story is his wife Fiona, who suffers from Alzheimer's. A strange staple of Munro's stories is the female protagonists' comfort in a taboo connection with another man. These women are married, yet any life crisis can send them to whichever man happens to be around. Sometimes it's just a kiss, other times an affair, or perhaps just an emotional affair. I feel like Munro too often uses the emotional connection like a crutch in her stories; as if the kiss or affair is all that is needed to make the protagonist accept her situation. In some stories, the taboo connection felt natural, as in the story of the woman who ran into her childhood love, but in some other stories it felt forced. Perhaps this is why the first story shines even after all the other tales have been read. The emotional connection between two characters feels very right, like it ought to happen, and it's interesting how such a fatalistic theme works with no-nonsense prose and such a no-nonsense protagonist.

[sonja_de_2 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The first Munro I read, and I'll definitely seek out more of her work. I loved all of the stories. Especially the first one (Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage) gripped me completely and I had to hurry through because I was afraid for the heroine. Have to reread it now that I know the ending. The translation is really good, since I didn't notice it at all - which is a rarity for me. I confess: I only bought this edition because I love the format - small hardcover that fits in any pocket. I'm glad I found this author this way!

[suedonym · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Munro consistently delivers stories and characters that will linger in your mind. One of my favorites again delights.

[readingrat_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Like any collection of short stories some are good and some are not.

[niecierpek · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I love it and am a bit ambivalent at the same time. Munro’s stories are so close to real life, and so undisguised, and about such difficult subjects, that reading her is like going to the therapist. She is an absolute master of the structure, the intrigue and the style. Once I start reading, I cannot stop. I just get immersed in her, and can’t even stop thinking about what she writes when I am not reading. I guess she is just too intense for me. She reaches somewhere in my psyche, and exposes truths and issues I am unwilling to explore on my own. Or, she shows scenarios that may happen, and if they happened, they would be painful. To use an analogy: reading Munro for me is a bit like passing by an accident and having that irresistible urge to slow down and look, no matter how gory it is. She is excellent though, and this collection of short stories is the best thing I have read so far this year.

[trippy_3 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The best collection of short stories I have. I want to write like Alice Munro!