Alice Munro - Axis - Who is Alice Munro? - . Alice Munro - b 1931, Wingham, Ontario, Canada. Like O'Connor, she was brought up on a farm. . First short story published in 1950 while she was a student at University of Western Ontario . Short story writer - won Man Booker prize 2009 for 'lifetime body of work'; won the Nobel Prize in Literature 2013 'master of the contemporary short story' · Stories often set in her native southwestern Ontario - 'stories fuelled by her fascination with the way people portray their own lives' . Married (twice) mother of three - her first collection Dance of the Happy Shades was published in 1968. It won the Governor General's Award - Canada's highest literary prize. · Has published 14 collections of short stories (latest in 2012) Alice Munro on Writing - . [I] 'never meant to be a short-story writer', [aiming] 'to write 'sprawling novels born of work and planning' . 'A child's illness, relatives coming to stay, a pile-up of unavoidable household jobs, can swallow a work-in-progress as sure as a power failure used to destroy a piece of work in the computer.' · Often rewrites/republishes versions of her stories Critics on Alice Munro - . Her stories 'embed more than announce, reveal more than parade' · In her stories, as in Chekhov's, plot is secondary - 'All is based
on the epiphanic moment, the sudden enlightenment, the concise, subtle, revelatory detail' - Garan Holcombe · 'Munro's writing creates ... an empathetic union among readers .... We are drawn to her writing by its verisimilitude ... the feeling ... of just being a human being.' - Robert Thacker . 'In most Munro stories there is as much as in many novels' - Alex Keegan . [Munro] actually is a revolutionary ... but it's not on the surface. It's very deep ... she does time and structure better than anyone' - Lauren Groff Information about Axis - . First published in January 2011 in the New Yorker . Tells the story of Grace and Avie from their first friendship at university 'Fifty years ago' [1961] . 'Farm girls' - like Munro - aspirations as serious students but 'destined' for marriage though 'brains and looks were not believed to go together' · Avie more adventurous/daring - Grace more traditional, cautious? Narrative Form - · Detached third person - omniscient · Looking back/flashback - past tense . Switch to present day, present tense as Avie is on train · Simple narrative form · Hidden meanings · Underlying metaphors - literal and metaphorical journeys/Avie's dream/geology Themes in Munro - . Love and work
· Time passing · Dilemmas of coming of age (especially of girls) . Small town life · Families · Ambiguities of life