Dance of the Happy Shades
by Alice Munro (1968)
Vintage (1998)
224 pp
I got so much out of reading and reviewing over time each story in Munro’s newest collection, Dear Life (see here), that I’ve decided to go back to the beginning and do the same with her first collection of short stories, Dance of the Happy Shades (1968), some of which will be very familiar as similar events and themes came out in Munro’s “finale” to Dear Life, those four “autobiographical” stories that concluded that collection.
This will be the anchor post, an index with links to my reviews of each story in this collection, which will be popping up here over the coming weeks and months.
Dance of the Happy Shades contains fifteen stories:
This is an excellent initiative on your part. I read all Munro’s books within the space of a few months(a few years ago) and have just finished off Dear life, so I am delighted to be able revisit some of her earlier work in the company of a very knowledgeable reviewer.
Anton