The View from Castle Rock, by Alice Munro
ACP Spouse/Guest Book Club
Friday, April 23, 2010
Alice Munro has received multiple awards in recognition of her unforgettable short stories. In her 2006 collection, The View from Castle Rock, she presents the reader with something quite different from her previous work. As writer Deborah Eisenberg comments in her 2006 review of the book in The Atlantic, "The amalgam of history, fiction, and memoir is unlike any historical fiction or autobiographical fiction that I have ever encountered." A chronicle, an investigation, a meditation - the collection is all of these. The author describes and imagines her way into the lives of ancestors dating from the seventeenth century and tracks them into lives of the present day.
Consider these questions as you read Alice Munro's beguiling narrative:
- How does the reader separate fact from fiction in this linked collection of short stories? Is it important or relevant to do so?
- What, if anything, does the author owe the reader in separating fact from fiction?
- How would you define the boundary between fiction and autobiography in this collection of stories?
- How would you approach the construction of a narrative about your family from past generations to the present?
We anticipate a lively exchange of ideas among readers of The View from Castle Rock.
We will use the Vintage paperback edition of 2008 for this meeting of the book club.
George O'Dea, PhD
Clif Cleaveland, MD
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