Alice Munro: “The Children Stay”
Trevor and Betsy look at Alice Munro’s “The Children Stay,” from The Love of a Good Woman.
Trevor and Betsy look at Alice Munro’s “The Children Stay,” from The Love of a Good Woman.
William Trevor’s “Making Conversation,” from Last Stories, seems like a straightforward, if strange, episode where a woman is confronted by someone who accuses her of having an affair with her husband. She is not, but it’s not that simple. Indeed, the story goes into some dark, painful territory.
Paul reviews Anne Serre’s 1992 novel The Governesses, which was recently put on the longlist for the Best Translated Book Award.
Trevor and Betsy look at Alice Munro’s “Save the Reaper,” from The Love of a Good Woman.
In anticipation of Ian McEwan’s forthcoming Machines Like Me, I look at his 2016 Nutshell, a book with a premise that once put me off but which, it turns out, I loved.
Paul reviews Valeria Luiselli’s 2019 novel Lost Children Archive, recently longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction.
Next up for Trevor and Betsy’s exploration of Alice Munro’s work is “Cortes Island,” from The Love of a Good Woman.
I accidentally read Muriel Spark’s 1981 novel, Loitering with Intent. Here are my thoughts.
Paul reviews his favorite (so far) of the Man Booker International Prize longlist, Sara Stridsberg’s The Faculty of Dreams, translated from the Swedish by Deborah Bragan-Turner.
Trevor and Betsy look at Alice Munro’s “Jakarta,” from The Love of a Good Woman.