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In praise of Alice Munro

The Reading Circle discuss a new Nobel Laureate of Literature

Fayza Haq
With the Canadian High Commissioner Heather Cruden as the chief guest, Dr. Niaz Zaman as the moderator, Neo Mendes - at his book shop, Omni Books -- held an eye-opening discussion. The talks by Ameneh Ispahani, Shahruk Rahman, Asfa Hussain, Tanveerul Haque, Shireen Scheik - all members of the Reading Circle and Ali Ahmed, a retired government official and one of the few people in Dhaka in possession of some of Munro's books, were all informative and absorbing, in the short time they were allotted.
The programme was for about an hour. Tea and snacks in the premises followed, though some people skipped that as this was the evening before yet another long-winded hartal.
Alice Munro was the 13th woman to get the Nobel Prize, Ameneh said. She added that Alice Munro, in Ontario, Canada got weary of selling books that other people wrote and felt that she could do better than the writers that she was selling. She was working at Jim Munro's s book shop for 50 years. She got a Booker Award in 2009, and three Governor General's Awards the spotlight was on her latest book which won the Nobel Prize for 2013. Ameneh added that her writing was certainly of a high standard. She said that there was simplicity behind her
stories and that they were addictive.
She ended her brief talk by saying that the message of the writer always comes through. She said that she had read her stories for the first time. She had managed to read six of her short stories including "The Bear Comes Over The Mountain" and "The Red Dress".
"There was great value in them," Tanveerul Haque added. "She even writes about sexworkers and how a father ends up killing his children. The background remains a small town. The tragic lives that she narrates make the stories remarkable. Her descriptions are superb. In the end Fiona is granted a home. It is tenderness of feelings that is left."
Shireen said that one of the books had been dedicated to the writer's father. "Each story sticks to the mind." In her books, said Shireen, Munro captured humour and human psyche. "The work was revolutionary. As it moved backward and forward in time -it does not lose the string of event or the collection of characters. We see a teenager dates for the first time, and how she takes to drinking when she is jilted. The characters include Moira, who looks after her brother. She has leukemia and so has her birthday party days before due time, so that she is alive for the party's gaiety and fun. There is the inclusion of the young teacher, who enters the scene of the quixotic children. She appears, as if, out of the blue to correct the children."
Dr. Niaz Zaman said the Canadian Ambassador had been chosen as the chief guest, as this was the first time that a Canadian had got the Prize for Literature. Munro had studied literature, and her stories were set in the small towns of Ontario. She said that women had to take time off from their housekeeping chores to take to writing.
Shahruk said that Alice Munro has received many prestigious awards. She said, "Munro has presented the silent drama. She is like Jane Austen. Munro's characters are taken from ordinary life. But unlike Austen, the personalities do not necessarily have much humour. She brings in complex sexuality in her characters. In one of the stories, said Shahruk, Uncle Jasper rules his house with a firm hand. One day, it was said, he came home to find his wife in a social soiree and that his wife had arranged it. Aunt Dawn, in the narrative, handles the situation. From being a bully, he turns into singing at a funeral service.
Ali Ahmed remembered his days in Ontario. He had read Munro's analysis by Margaret Hatwood. This was the first time that the short story was in focus. She certainly represents the culture of Canada, he concluded.
Dhiraj Kumar Nath, a former adviser of the caretaker government, thanked the speakers and suggested that some of Munro's stories be translated into Bangla.