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Lives of Girls and Women: A Novel | 
 enlarge | Author: Alice Munro
Publisher: Vintage
Category: Book
List Price: $13.95
Buy Used: $2.89
You Save: $11.06 (79%)
New (38) Used (30) from $2.89
Avg. Customer Rating:  14 reviews
Sales Rank: 163207
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 288
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.2 x 0.7
ISBN: 0375707492
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780375707490
ASIN: 0375707492
Publication Date: February 13, 2001
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
The only novel from Alice Munro-award-winning author of The Love of a Good Woman--is an insightful, honest book, "autobiographical in form but not in fact," that chronicles a young girl's growing up in rural Ontario in the 1940's.
Del Jordan lives out at the end of the Flats Road on her father's fox farm, where her most frequent companions are an eccentric bachelor family friend and her rough younger brother. When she begins spending more time in town, she is surrounded by women-her mother, an agnostic, opinionted woman who sells encyclopedias to local farmers; her mother's boarder, the lusty Fern Dogherty; and her best friend, Naomi, with whom she shares the frustrations and unbridled glee of adolescence.
Through these unwitting mentors and in her own encounters with sex, birth, and death, Del explores the dark and bright sides of womanhood. All along she remains a wise, witty observer and recorder of truths in small-town life. The result is a powerful, moving, and humorous demonstration of Alice Munro's unparalleled awareness of the lives of girls and women.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 9 more reviews...
lovely writing January 5, 2007
I hadn't read Munro prior to this "novel" loosely woven from a series of short pieces connected by sequence and character, but found this work delightful. I took the most pleasure in the texture of the prose. Sentences frequently contain, mostly conclude with, these interesting, nearly polar modifiers, so that they say the thing and it's opposite in rapid succession. And both are true in the way that ripened fruit contains within it its future rot. I'm encouraged to discover other Munro.
 maybe I missed something? June 28, 2006
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I agree with many of the other reviewers that the characters and the story were generally enjoyable to read. Though it did take me a bit to get invested into the book I found myself deeply involved with them, of course Del primarily, toward the end. The descriptions of Del's adventures and curiosity were tangible and brought back childhood memories and feelings. However, I expected a much different outcome; I expected this curious, intelligent, intellectual Del to develop into a different woman. I can't help but wonder if this book is popular among women who are looking for reassurance in their decision to follow relationships rather than personal ambitions (and maybe that is ok to a certain degree). Hate to sound cynical, but I was outraged at Del's decisions toward the end of the book and in my opinion she made some serious and more importantly, uncharacteristic decisions that really ruined the book for me and made me wonder how this is a major book for women. I couldn't tell if it was condoning her behavior or simply displaying it as the constricted and likely course for women of a time period and even to (I think) a lesser extent today. Still I think that Del's character in the last chapter was entirely too emotional and irrational given her previous actions and thoughts. I myself am in my mid-twenties and I know that life options for women now are not what they were for women in their 50s, 60s, even 40s today, so perhaps it is more relatable for those a little older, and maybe it is important that I've read it to gain a bit more understanding about where we've (women) have come from; but I'd hate for a young girl today to read it and think that she should emulate Del.
 What a load of crap July 14, 2004
2 out of 40 found this review helpful
Typical anti-male diatribe disguised as a work of literature. This was assigned reading for one of my college literature courses over twenty years ago, and the memory of the distaste I felt while reading it is still fresh in my mind. The symbolism and 'moral of the story' is heavy-handed and overtly obvious. I recommend avoiding it like the plague.
 A classic coming of age story with a twist. June 17, 2002
15 out of 15 found this review helpful
Alice Munro is truly the master of the short story. "Lives of Girls and Women" deserves to be on everyone's list of must-read books. Munro is an exceptionally talented writer, one who can take ordinary situations and turn them into something wonderful. Here, she presents a traditional coming of age story, then spices it up with her own unique brand of dry, subtle wit and a host of zany characters. In "Lives," we follow Dell Jordan from childhood to young adulthood as she struggles with her identity in a small town in southern Ontario. Along the way, we meet many colorful characters, including Dell's Baptist boyfriend, her social outcast mother, a suicidal music teacher, and a lecherous friend of the family. "Lives" is more of a collection of short stories than a novel, but each story is like a puzzle piece. In the end, each piece fits together to create a massize jigsaw puzzle of Dell's life. I have read "Lives" three times, and it is one of my favorite books - addictive, humorous, and thoroughly enjoyable.
Great literature - Munro is a master structuralist May 20, 2002
20 out of 23 found this review helpful
What an amazing book! This not merely a good book for middle-aged women, or good instruction for girls, or any such claptrap. To label Munro as good "women's lit" is demeaning to women and demeaning to "The Lives of Girls and Women." (Plus it makes men who enjoy reading her a bit funny.) It's a great book! In any category!Munro is a master of characterization and narrative structure. Del's description of her mother, for example, reveals: (1) Del's feeling of discomfort at her own place within Jubilee's hierarchy and environment; Del wants to fit in, and her mother embodies the eccentric within her own self. (2) Del's mother's strengths, pulling herself from abject poverty, putting herself through school, starting her own business in conservative postwar rural Canada - this woman evokes our admiration, despite the disgust of our narrator. It's these multidimensional portraits that makes Munro so great - yes, a character (Del's mother) can earn our admiration, disgust, and pity all at once... Then in the building of conflict, Munro ALWAYS surprises us. Every scene is fresh, new, interesting, every culmination of conflict resolves in ways we would never expect. Take the time when Del was being molested by her mother's boarder's boyfriend. One day she goes off with him in his car out to the country, and we're expecting some "Bastard Out of Carolina" child-raping exploitation and subsequent weepy victim hood. But Munro makes a left at the light, has the man simply masturbate in front of the child, who for her part is excited, charmed, and repelled by the sight and is grateful to be introduced to the mystery of the penis. And lastly, Munro refuses to depict her women in the same, old tired way. Her women are not dragged around by the hand by handsome strangers, as they so often are in movies. Her women are not victims of rape, incest, or peer pressure, as in way too many contemporary novels. No, Munro's women are real. They have drive, ambition, and a deep desire to be seen as people. Definitely one of my favorite books, ever.
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