Pretty disappointed—a series of stories which, though competently written, lack sufficient tension and narrative arc to justify their existence as formally straightforward short stories. Felt like Munro was trying to be more subtle/withholding in her psychologizing, but accidentally left the reader at too far a remove from her characters.

Honestly, not a single story stood out more than the others here. Maybe the one where the woman with cancer kisses the boy on the floating dock. That’s quite an image.

She is more hit-or-miss than I’d expected when I started reading her.