Yikes. If this is a picture of small town Ontario, then I don’t know where tf I lived for 30 years of my life. Incredibly, I grew up relatively close to Munro’s hometown but I couldn’t relate to these humans or stories at all. 

The stories feel ridiculously outdated for something originally published in 2011 and I really could’ve done without the racism, sexism, and abusive men. There are a few mentions of war so maybe 40s? I thought this would be a contemporary collection, not historical. 

The themes in this stories I did read (1-9) seem to be doctors, trains, reminiscing about the 40s (?), and disempowered women. Apart from some lovely descriptions of Ontario landscapes, realistic Ontario weather, and name-checking some small towns I’m familiar with, this didn’t feel like a Canadian slice-of-life at all. 

The writing was poor, the characters weren’t compelling, and the lack of punctuation made it difficult to read at times. The stories had no structure and didn’t feel like they had anything to say. The book’s vibe would fall under “monotone” and “boring”. I’m not entirely sure how this writing won a Nobel Prize?!

Beautiful cover. Underwhelming content. Really glad I only spent £0.99 to try this on iBooks. 🤷🏼‍♀️