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Reading Alice Munro’s latest short story collection titled Too Much Happiness is to find oneself carried away to Munro’s home country: Ontario, Canada, with the last and longest one (also the title story), taking place in Victorian Europe. You’ll be swept away into Munro’s world by her deceptively unadorned, calm language. The shear force of Munro’s glorious writing is comparable to ocean currents whose hidden strength could change a simple walking on the beach, in knee high water, to being pulled far out to sea. At first the title might seem ironic, as these ten new stories come from the darkest depths of human hearts; there is a child killer, burglary, infidelity, drowning - to name just a few, but regardless of their sorrow, at the end, there is always an enlightenment. I was especially drawn to the title story, inspired by a real life Russian woman mathematician Sofia Kovalevskaya, who made important contributions to the theory of differential equations. She was the first woman appointed as chair at a modern European university, at Stockholm University, where she also wrote fiction and co-wrote a play, "The Struggle for Happiness," (hence the title of the Munro’s story?). Sophia’s also credited to say, "It is impossible to be a mathematician without being a poet in soul." Munro’s writing is tremendously powerful, and this book is a shimmering example how she transforms all the banalities and mysteries of our existence, into a miraculous, radiant truth.
Reviewed by Aggie Z |
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