something good has come from goodreads, since otherwise i probably wouldn't have heard eveline raving over this book and might never have picked it up.
"Future absence I accepted--it was just that I had no idea, till Mike disappeared, of what absence could be like. How all my own territory would be altered, as if a landslide had gone through it and skimmed off all meaning, except loss of Mike."

Alice Munro's stories are not thrillers or detective fiction, but they always have this sense of everyday mystery that keeps you turning the pages and wondering, what do we have in store this time? http://paquetdevie.blogspot.com/2015/07/review-hateship-friendship-courtship.html

A breath of fresh air. Alice Munro's collection of stories about relationships that bind us in surprising ways is a complete joy, from start to finish.

In selective, delightful prose, she carefully delineates the lives and loves of her characters, always making sure to show the bad with the good, and lending an ear to the vulnerabilities that make us all human. She is a genius of short fiction. Some highlights here are the title story, "Nettles" and "The Bear Came Over the Mountain."

I've been pushing myself to read through short story collections completely, and this was the first one that I read through and felt that I didn't feel that I needed to slog through to get to the end.

Munro's better stories didn't feel front loaded (the title story, "Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage, "Family Furnishings" and "The Bear Came Over the Mountain") rather, they were evenly dispersed and even the ones that weren't as great ("Post and Beam" and "Queenie" IMO) still brought something valuable to the collection. She follows the ebb and flow of marriage, the private moments between husband, wife, and possible lover, and how their lives appear to others from the outside.

Overall, I enjoyed it, but I do wish there was more diversity among the couples featured in these stories (hetero, mostly white, all in Canada). Munro's prose didn't blow me away - I found it to be mostly serviceable, second to the characters she was developing. These stories run much longer than what I'm accustomed to, usually 30 to 40 pages in length, and were paced slowly, but each page was carefully crafted to develop characters who really felt like they existed outside of this collection.

Well written but very depressing subject matter involving lots of cheating spouses. I like realism, but I also need hope, of which I found very little. That said, the first titular short story was my favorite!

It's my lifelong goal to develop an appreciation for short stories - I'll admit it. That said, I really, really try to? I know their power and potential awesome. Everything about this book seems like a win, but it's not catching me. It wasn't until Nettles, which starts on page 156 that I was captured. :/ This is due back to the library and while I could renew it ... I know that I won' and that I probably should. But still won't. :)