The Landscape of Canadian Women's Crime Fiction

Tag: Alice Munro

  • “I’m no prude but . . .”: Alice Munro’s Women and the Problems of Sex and Love

    In Munro’s Who Do You Think You Are? (I always feel like the question mark is wrong, as it’s an accusation and not a question), Rose recovers from the birth of her first child in a maternity ward, where one woman dominates the conversation about how her kitchen shelves are arranged. In a sea of…

  • Library “Privileges” and Alice Munro

    I awoke with a keen sense of excitement and anxiety this morning, the first day of the year. Per Louise Penny’s novels, I quickly murmured “rabbit, rabbit, rabbit” before getting out of bed to feed our rabbit-like cat, who was already making soft cooing noises. She appreciates my early wake-ups. The question on my mind…

  • Murder Ballads and Alice Munro’s “Open Secrets”

    I’m initially veering a little off topic again, the topic being Canadian women’s crime fiction, to speculate about an intriguing musical genre that makes an odd appearance in Alice Munro’s story “Open Secrets.” A murder ballad is a sung story about violent death and its aftermath, including the execution of the murderer. Some of my…