First published in 1992, this is the first study of the work of Alice Munro to focus on her obsession with mothering, and to relate it to the hallucinatory quality of her magic realism. A bizarre collection of clowning mothers parade across the pages of Munro's fiction, playing practical jokes, performing stunts, and dressing in disguises that recycle vintage literary images. Magdalene Redekop studies this with the aim of gaining increased understanding of Munro's evolving comic vision.
This study of the work of Alice Munro focuses on her obsession with mothering, and relates it to the hallucinatory quality of her magic realism. Magdalene Redekop studies this with the aim of gaining increased understanding of Munro's evolving comic vision.
"Huron County modesty threatens, but I will spare you. To be read so lovingly and attentively and intelligently is a joy -- that's all there is to it" (Alice Munro, letter to Magdalene Redekop, October, 1992).
"In a brilliant pioneering study, Magdalene Redekop outlines the precise patterns of compassion and ironic distancing in Munro's stories" (Harold Bloom in 'Alice Munro: Bloom's Modern Critical Views', 2009).
