Some Other Reality: Alice Munro's Something I've Been Meaning to Tell You

Bruce Meyer teaches English at Trinity College, University of Toronto.

The words that comes to mind when Alice Munro’s stories are mentioned
are “elemental” and “deceptively simple.” Munro has established
her reputation as one of Canada’s foremost craftpersons in the art of
storytelling on the strength of her sense of delineation—her ability
to demarcate in bold terms the subtle differences between sensations and
ideas. After reading her stories, one often has the feeling that there
is little more that could be said on the subject; her works are not
exhaustive as much as they are precise. Something I’ve Been Meaning to
Tell You is arguably one of her most important collections.

In this monograph, MacKendrick manages, here and there, to penetrate
the often enigmatic cores of these enigmatic stories. His treatment of
“The Found Boat,” one of Munro’s most potent tales about the
mysterious discovery of nascent sexuality among four children, is far
too brief to do justice to the story. Granted, there is much to fit into
the series’ format—chronology, critical reception, bibliography, and
discussion of the stories. But, perhaps, that serves the nature of
criticism, which is to enlighten and elicit rather than to provide the
final word. In the end, Munro’s stories are made more readable by
MacKendrick’s efforts.