Lives of Girls And Women

I have recently read the novel "Lives of Girls and Women" written by Alice Munro. This novel is a collection of eight different short stories that she has written earlier in her life. All of these short stories are slightly connected in the way that they all are stories about the main character Del's life and the challenges she goes through. All of these stories are also connected because they take place in the small town of Jubilee where Del lives just a mile away of.

While reading this novel I had many mixed feelings for it. Some of the stories in it were fairly interesting and not boring, while others did not appeal to me one bit. I really enjoyed the first section of this novel which was called The Flats Road. This story kept me on my feet at all times with no stops in the rise and fall of the climax. The story had the feel where you got pulled into it because you felt for the characters, especially for Diane (Madeleine's daughter) and Del's Uncle Benny. This short story was the best in my perspective also because in a way you could relate it to the society we live in and many challenges that people right next to us might be going through.

I also took interest in the fourth short story "Age Of Faith." This section of the novel was very well written I found, because Alice Munro was able to write it in a way that it did not make it go against any religions. Any Catholic to Atheist human being can read this chapter and agree with what is being said because there was so many different views and it shows that what ever you believe in you should continue to believe in. Del goes against her mother showing that she is trying find her place in religion where her mother is not. Going to a public school you see a lot of this just in the classroom, from people disagreeing with beliefs to the way people act.

This novel also had it's appeal because of where it took place. There were many towns in this novel that I recognized because Alice grew up in Southern Ontario and made all of the settings of her short stories be in places that she knew as she was growing up. It made it easier to stay on track while reading because the thought 'Oh I know where this is' made me interested and wanting to keep the pages turning. It made it easier for me to connect with some of the stories because living in a small town for my whole life I know the feeling of knowing every neighbour and the cars they drive. Some of the places that were familiar included, Kitchener which is where Madeleine was from, Toronto which is where she ran to, London, and several other towns from around our area.

All in all I felt this novel was well written and interesting in most parts. I feel as though some of the short stories were stretching my patience span but did not harm me too much.