In Entertainment today, we listen to an interview with the Canadian writer

Alice Munro about her latest collection of short stories, The View from Castle

Rock.

Alice Munro has some ‘big-name’ fans (some ‘famous’ fans). US novelist

Jonathan Franzen called her the ‘best fiction writer working in North America’,

and the British author A. S. Byatt went further, describing her as the ‘greatest

living short story writer’ anywhere!

The View from Castle Rock is a combination of autobiography, family history

and fiction. It begins back in the 19th century with Alice Munro’s great, great,

great grandfather’s boat journey from Scotland to Canada, and stories from her

family’s past eventually lead to stories about her own life in small-town

contemporary Canada. And, as always with Munro’s writing, stories about

small things soon open a window of understanding on the world ‘at large’, on

the world ‘in general’.

Here is Alice Munro talking to the BBC interviewer Mariella Frostrup about

how and when she first discovered the power and wonder of books.

As you listen, try to catch the way her family felt about books and reading.

Alice Munro

‘I discovered books when I was 7 years old. And I’d had my tonsils out and I couldn’t play

outside in the summer holidays and I started to read. I think though, in my family’s life, there

was a strong feeling about books being a form of self-indulgence – reading being selfindulgence

– (Frivolous, even!) and there were lots of stories about how women took to 

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reading and it was sort of like taking to drink – you neglected your house and your children

and there was dust under the beds and that kind of thing!’

Amber: Alice Munro says that her family saw reading as ‘self-indulgence’ – as

something you do only for your own pleasure or satisfaction. But, Alice Munro

went on to say that because her family didn’t encourage her to read books,

that’s probably why she enjoyed them so much!

Many of the stories in The View from Castle Rock are about ‘poverty’ – about

not having enough money even for basic needs such as food, clothing and

housing. They’re also about ‘hardship’ – about the difficulties caused by a lack

of money.

But Alice Munro explains that she grew up at a time in Canada when people

could ‘jump into the middle class’ if they had an education. As you listen to the

next part of the interview, try to catch the expression that Alice Munro uses to

describe what she was not.

Alice Munro

‘I must emphasise that this was not great poverty; it was the poverty of the area where I live. I

didn’t grow up as an outcast at all. I grew up in the same situation as most other people I

knew, but then, when it’s almost inevitable perhaps that you will jump into the middle class as

you would at that time in our country’s history if you got an education.’

Amber: So Alice Munro says she did not grow up ‘an outcast’ – ‘an outcast’ is somebody

who has been excluded by a particular group or by society as a whole.

However, Alice Munro is very interested in writing about the ‘tension’ – the anxious and

uneasy feelings – caused by differences in wealth between people and by differences in their

position in society. In a story called ‘A Hired Girl’, the servant girl narrating the story feels

angry about the carelessness of the wealthy family that she goes to work for. Alice Munro

explains that she remembers feeling angry about social injustice when she was growing up.

As you listen, try to catch the word she uses for ‘anger’. 

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Alice Munro

‘Oh no, I can remember it being a rage I felt at the time and it’s quite unreasonable because

all those people wanted was a servant, a good servant, and that’s what her job was, but she

wants to be a person in their lives and of course that isn’t possible – it’s not to be expected.

And this seemed to be a really interesting thing to write about. It’s a very autobiographical

story. And I just love exploring this kind of tension in people, in their lives.’

Amber: So Alice Munro says she remembers feeling ‘rage’, or extreme anger, at social

injustice when she was growing up. And she’s very interested in exploring the tension inside

people in different positions in society – inside a servant girl who wants to be ‘a person’ in the

lives of her employers, for example.

Now here’s a list of the language we focussed on in the programme today.

Big-name

Fiction

Autobiography

At large

Self-indulgence

Poverty

Hardship

An outcast

Rage