Dance of the Happy Shades: And Other Stories – Alice Munro

I am not usually a big fan of short stories. It feels as though they have leave me adrift. There is no closure with what happens to the people involved, at least that’s all I had felt  before i stumbled on this book. I also have not had much luck with reading authors with awards of any kind, found them too highbrow for me. I did pick this book up because I was running out of my self prescribed time to be in the library and the cover stated that Alice Munro was a winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature ( 2013 Google has informed me since )

To state that the book was a surprise is an understatement. Not that all the stories struck a chord ( I have to provide this disclaimer) there was something about the other stories that were so heavy ( for the lack of a better word) that they enveloped me and at the very end I have to admit I let out a sigh that it was over. The writing was three dimensional as well as described the whole person. With just a line or two she ( the author ) paints a picture which lets us see the characters for who they are and their pasts which have shaped them into who they are.

There are some which do not end well ( meaning satisfactorily) but on the whole, the book with just short stories, achieves what any storyteller yearns to succeed in, to tell a good story!

P.S: I did rate it 5 stars :). And this book was originally written in 1968!