Too Much Happiness

Too much happiness, it’s an Alice Munroe title but it’s also been the global reaction to one of Canada’s most esteemed writer’s Nobel Prize win for Literature.  It’s especially happy news for women writers, for Canadian literature and in particular, the short story format – which Munroe excels and has also re-invented with her indelible command of the English language and her propensity for building unforgettable characters.   It is exciting news for me; I am Canadian, a woman writer and someone who has been working hard to be good at short story writing.  I don’t know how far I’ve come in that goal but it’s a blessing just trying.  It’s also a joy to see someone as treasured as Alice Munroe acknowledged for her stunning work, for her dedication to a craft I respect and love.

I read a fantastic interview with Ann Close, Munroe’s editor since the late 1970s and she said some wonderful things that struck me.  On Alice’s work she said: “Her work as the quality of making you think she’s just writing for you.  It’s fiction written from the inside.”  And this:  “Alice writes about the smaller parts of growing up, or marriage, or you’re leaving somebody.  She often gets things people don’t often write about.”  Such lovely things to say about an incredible woman and writer.  High compliments.

One other thing that seeped in while reading her interview was a comment she made about writing.  She said this:  “If you aren’t writing something you really care about, it won’t work.”  She is absolutely right.  I’ve been thinking about that statement, going back over my previous stories and applying that premise.  It’s true and I realize the reason that I finished any of them was because I was writing about subjects and for characters that I cared for deeply.  And they worked.  So, next time I am wondering why something isn’t panning out, I’ll keep that tiny assessment in the back of my noodle and apply it.  And, I can’t remember who said it so I’ll paraphrase and agree that when you read Munroe’s work, she seemingly goes anywhere she wants and we go with her.  I love that ideal, of a storyteller having free reign to take you anywhere they want to go and a reader willingly follows.  That’s symmetry, chemistry, literary fate. 

I regret not posting about this sooner but I’m having internet issues at home and would rather spend my writing time working on original work.

In terms of what I’m writing right now, ‘Burden’ has me perplexed but in a challenging and positive way.  I’m about five pages in and I have absolutely no idea where it’s going but I’m taking it all in stride.  Judy and Helen, sisters, are such different creatures, such opposing personalities and complexities.  The story is told from Helen’s point of view but I wonder how different it would be told from Judy’s, who is the contentious sister.  I am too deep now to change the voice and Helen is the one who asked me to translate but the devil’s advocate in me wonders.  It’s taken some interesting avenues and thrown me into places I’ve never been before emotionally and these women have also taught me a few things thus far.  That’s a good thing.

For now, I am putting my literary fate in Helen’s hands and have agreed to go anywhere she wants to go.   Seems that little notion works both ways.  Hmm …

In propinquity,

Nic