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No Love Lost
Alice Munro is universally acknowledged as the finest short fiction writer in English. Bringing together ten incomparable stories from six different collections, No Love Lost confirms her pre-eminent status. Focusing on the many paths of falling in love, each of these stories of ordinary people reveals new truths about people as real – and as extraordinary – as ourselves.
In selecting this unique gathering of stories, Jane Urquhart noted the brilliance of Munro’s fiction, suggesting that Munro's genius guides us “through love’s labyrinth, insisting all the while that we keep our eyes wide open to its complicated foliage, its shadows, its piercing blasts of light.”
Contents:
Bardon Bus (from The Moons of Jupiter)
Carried Away (from Open Secrets)
Mischief (from Who Do You Think You Are?)
The Love of a Good Woman (from The Love of a Good Woman)
Simon’s Luck (from Who Do You Think You Are?), Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage (from Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage)
The Bear Came Over the Mountain (from Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage)
The Albanian Virgin (from Open Secrets) Meneseteung (from Friend of My Youth)
The Children Stay (from The Love of a Good Woman)
Selected and with an afterword by Jane Urquhart.
In selecting this unique gathering of stories, Jane Urquhart noted the brilliance of Munro’s fiction, suggesting that Munro's genius guides us “through love’s labyrinth, insisting all the while that we keep our eyes wide open to its complicated foliage, its shadows, its piercing blasts of light.”
Contents:
Bardon Bus (from The Moons of Jupiter)
Carried Away (from Open Secrets)
Mischief (from Who Do You Think You Are?)
The Love of a Good Woman (from The Love of a Good Woman)
Simon’s Luck (from Who Do You Think You Are?), Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage (from Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage)
The Bear Came Over the Mountain (from Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage)
The Albanian Virgin (from Open Secrets) Meneseteung (from Friend of My Youth)
The Children Stay (from The Love of a Good Woman)
Selected and with an afterword by Jane Urquhart.
421 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published April 8, 2003
About the author
Alice Munro
243 books6,654 followersCollections of short stories of noted Canadian writer Alice Munro of life in rural Ontario include
Dance of the Happy Shades
(1968) and
Moons of Jupiter
(1982); for these and vivid novels, she won the Nobel Prize of 2013 for literature.
People widely consider her premier fiction of the world. Munro thrice received governor general's award. She focuses on human relationships through the lens of daily life. People thus refer to this "the Canadian Chekhov."
(Arabic: أليس مونرو)
(Persian: آلیس مانرو)
(Russian Cyrillic: Элис Манро)
(Ukrainian Cyrillic: Еліс Манро)
(Bulgarian Cyrillic: Алис Мънро)
(Slovak: Alice Munroová)
(Serbian: Alis Manro)
People widely consider her premier fiction of the world. Munro thrice received governor general's award. She focuses on human relationships through the lens of daily life. People thus refer to this "the Canadian Chekhov."
(Arabic: أليس مونرو)
(Persian: آلیس مانرو)
(Russian Cyrillic: Элис Манро)
(Ukrainian Cyrillic: Еліс Манро)
(Bulgarian Cyrillic: Алис Мънро)
(Slovak: Alice Munroová)
(Serbian: Alis Manro)
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
September 6, 2014
"One of the things that Alice Munroe teaches us about the state commonly referred to as "falling in love" is that the inner landscape of the fallen lover is a dramatically lit, potentially painful, and sometimes oddly solitary place. It is a territory that one enters precipitously -- not necessarily of one's own free will -- and one in which the lover, at least in some ways, is forced to wander alone. Though many of us consider falling in love to be a dance conceived for two people, Munroe is interested in the singularity of the experience, in the days and months or years that precede or follow acts of communion, or in the long, inward-looking periods of reflection that are born of a love that is either unrequited, difficult, or impossible. ... [I]t is the mystery of love and the development of our fully human, multi-faceted natures while under its influence (or while recovering from its assaults) that form the core of this selection. For what is love if not the last splendid, indefinable mystery?"
-- Jane Urquart (from the "Afterword" to No Love Lost)
-- Jane Urquart (from the "Afterword" to No Love Lost)
December 24, 2017
Bardon Bus:
This story when it delivered, it packed a punch. I was knocked back 30 years to the breakup of my first love and the madness that was my existence at the time. I would give this one 4/5.
Carried Away:
I had read previously in another compilation. I really liked this story and gave it 5/5
Mischief:
My least favourite. The 3 main characters all seemed immature. Only 2/5.
The Love of a Good Woman:
Enid seemed a strange character. Whilst on the one hand wanting to care for others, on the other seemingly unable to connect to others enough to have a relationship. Only through sickness and death does she seem to connect until it comes to the Quinn family. But then the connection stems back to her school days.
I was often teased and even tormented by a boy during my school years who I later recognized probably had a thing for me and this was the only way he knew to get noticed by me. Enid seemed to do the same with Rupert and it is not surprising then that she could never feel sympathy for Mrs. Quinn. Whether the thing really happened as Mrs Quinn relates or not, Rupert probably believed it was so. And Enid got what she wanted, unknown to her all along, by keeping quiet. Interesting point was the two notebooks she kept; the side she showed the world and her hidden self/reality.
The story was very much about Enid and the lies she told herself.
I would give this one 3.5/5
Simon’s Luck:
Was this about Simon's luck or Rose's?
The story seems to suggest that love stops one being involved in reality. But is it love or the idea or being in love? If love is contentment then no, but if love is possession, a kind of madness, then yes. It takes over everything else. If this is the only kind of love Rose can engage in then she is better without it.
I think she may have learnt a different sort of love if she had not run away and found out where Simon was. I think if she had faced her fear, which was fear of facing the loneliness inside herself, then Simon could have shown her love is more than possession; love is about sharing our individual journeys, for even a short time. 3/5
Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage:
Loved this one. I loved the character Johanna and the story to do with her I would give 5 stars. I find that Munro does introduce sexual items more than I am comfortable with but Johanna is such a wonderful character and this is an interesting story so overall, despite some sexual content that I felt was unnecessary, I would give this story 5/5.
The Bear Came Over the Mountain:
Again a master craftswoman at work.
Having worked with patients and their families with dementia and with friends going through this with aging parents, this story rang so true. I really loved Fiona. Again, in her best works, Alice does a great job of making strong female characters that one can like and to a degree relate to.
I thought Grant, the husband, finally came into his role with the demands of this disease on his relationship. Another 5/5.
The Albanian Virgin:
I found this story more disjointed than previous ones. It seemed to be several stories all jumbled together and left me unsatisfied at the end with no clear answers on any of them.
What happened to Charlotte?
What happened with the priest?
What happened with Nelson?
The most interesting part was the story in the mountains of Albania and really I wished this had been Alice's main focus.
3/5.
Meneseteung:
The title is taken from the name of a river mentioned in a poem by the main character, Almeda Roth, and reminds the reader of menses, the word that describes the ebb and flood of women’s menstrual cycles. It describes a modern day woman trying to find out more about Almeda who was alive between 1840 until 1903. All she has to go on are the poems by Almeda and some newspaper articles of her earlier life. At this time women were treated with contempt and either medicated, isolated or victimized in some way.
Almeda is a sensitive thoughtful soul but who can stand against the norms of our time? Not woman with her being linked to the ebb and flow of the natural world within and without. 4/5
The Children Stay:
What madness is love? This thing that would cause a woman to walk away from her children? It appears the images we have of life that we can live when first in love are not what we can really endure. 3/5
This story when it delivered, it packed a punch. I was knocked back 30 years to the breakup of my first love and the madness that was my existence at the time. I would give this one 4/5.
Carried Away:
I had read previously in another compilation. I really liked this story and gave it 5/5
Mischief:
My least favourite. The 3 main characters all seemed immature. Only 2/5.
The Love of a Good Woman:
Enid seemed a strange character. Whilst on the one hand wanting to care for others, on the other seemingly unable to connect to others enough to have a relationship. Only through sickness and death does she seem to connect until it comes to the Quinn family. But then the connection stems back to her school days.
I was often teased and even tormented by a boy during my school years who I later recognized probably had a thing for me and this was the only way he knew to get noticed by me. Enid seemed to do the same with Rupert and it is not surprising then that she could never feel sympathy for Mrs. Quinn. Whether the thing really happened as Mrs Quinn relates or not, Rupert probably believed it was so. And Enid got what she wanted, unknown to her all along, by keeping quiet. Interesting point was the two notebooks she kept; the side she showed the world and her hidden self/reality.
The story was very much about Enid and the lies she told herself.
I would give this one 3.5/5
Simon’s Luck:
Was this about Simon's luck or Rose's?
The story seems to suggest that love stops one being involved in reality. But is it love or the idea or being in love? If love is contentment then no, but if love is possession, a kind of madness, then yes. It takes over everything else. If this is the only kind of love Rose can engage in then she is better without it.
I think she may have learnt a different sort of love if she had not run away and found out where Simon was. I think if she had faced her fear, which was fear of facing the loneliness inside herself, then Simon could have shown her love is more than possession; love is about sharing our individual journeys, for even a short time. 3/5
Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage:
Loved this one. I loved the character Johanna and the story to do with her I would give 5 stars. I find that Munro does introduce sexual items more than I am comfortable with but Johanna is such a wonderful character and this is an interesting story so overall, despite some sexual content that I felt was unnecessary, I would give this story 5/5.
The Bear Came Over the Mountain:
Again a master craftswoman at work.
Having worked with patients and their families with dementia and with friends going through this with aging parents, this story rang so true. I really loved Fiona. Again, in her best works, Alice does a great job of making strong female characters that one can like and to a degree relate to.
I thought Grant, the husband, finally came into his role with the demands of this disease on his relationship. Another 5/5.
The Albanian Virgin:
I found this story more disjointed than previous ones. It seemed to be several stories all jumbled together and left me unsatisfied at the end with no clear answers on any of them.
What happened to Charlotte?
What happened with the priest?
What happened with Nelson?
The most interesting part was the story in the mountains of Albania and really I wished this had been Alice's main focus.
3/5.
Meneseteung:
The title is taken from the name of a river mentioned in a poem by the main character, Almeda Roth, and reminds the reader of menses, the word that describes the ebb and flood of women’s menstrual cycles. It describes a modern day woman trying to find out more about Almeda who was alive between 1840 until 1903. All she has to go on are the poems by Almeda and some newspaper articles of her earlier life. At this time women were treated with contempt and either medicated, isolated or victimized in some way.
Almeda is a sensitive thoughtful soul but who can stand against the norms of our time? Not woman with her being linked to the ebb and flow of the natural world within and without. 4/5
The Children Stay:
What madness is love? This thing that would cause a woman to walk away from her children? It appears the images we have of life that we can live when first in love are not what we can really endure. 3/5
May 14, 2024
Got this paperback as a gift still have it. It was like a breath of silence at a time when my life seemed devastatingly complex. Had alot of emotions for this one, still makes my mind race into my own regretful moments. I guess there's a moral examplified within the writting if I remember I'll be sure to add to my review here. RIP Alice Munro 2024 🙏
January 19, 2012
I am not a fan of short stories but if the author is Alice Munro, I know they will be exceptional. Only one of this collection had I read before which was very nice. Love was not friendly or forgiving to most who experienced it. As portrayed in this book, I would not venture into the arms of love. The amazing chances that these women took without considering the consequences was unbelievable.
May 29, 2010
I love her short story "Bardon Bus." It's my new favorite short story. I thought no story could top "Our Friend Judith," but this one, oh, oh, oh, I love it!
Want to Read
August 3, 2010NCL.2006-10-01
July 6, 2013
A literary writer of short stories. Excellent langauge weaving and threading times characters and interactions. Mostly set in small town Ontario
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews