Too Much Happiness

Stories

By: Alice Munro

Narrated by: Kimberly Farr, Arthur Morey

Ten superb new stories by one of our most beloved and admired writers - the winner of the 2009 Man Booker International Prize.

In the first story, a young wife and mother receives release from the unbearable pain of losing her three children from a most surprising source. In another, a young woman, in the aftermath of an unusual and humiliating seduction, reacts in a clever, if less than admirable, fashion.

Other stories uncover the "deep holes" in a marriage, the unsuspected cruelty of children, and how a boy's disfigured face provides both the good things in his life and the bad. And in the long title story, we accompany Sophia Kovalevsky - a late-19th-century Russian émigré and mathematician - on a winter journey that takes her from the Riviera, where she visits her lover, to Paris, Germany, and Denmark, where she has a fateful meeting with a local doctor, and finally to Sweden, where she teaches at the only university in Europe willing to employ a female mathematician.

With clarity and ease, Alice Munro once again renders complex, difficult events and emotions into stories that shed light on the unpredictable ways in which men and women accommodate and often transcend what happens in their lives.

Too Much Happiness is a compelling, provocative - even daring - collection.

©2009 Alice Munro (P)2009 Random House

Awestruck

Fantastic short stories. In the audio version the chapter separation is wrong before "Childs play" and at the beginning of the epilog.

Too much misery

Well written but all the stories are very gloomy, depressing and hopeless. The aftertaste from this book is deeply rooted depression that you don't even notice anymore because why bother. I get that the title of the book is supposed to be ironic, yet I still hold a resentment towards it because I didn't really know much about the author and her books and couldn't tell from the example piece how mentally heavy these stories would be.
Narration was good for the most part but not in the last story where the narrator tried to do Russian, German and other accents. It wasn't an even accent during the whole story but rather heavy Russian accent growing into subtle Russian /German, weird French. Just don't try doing any accents please.

Huge fan of Alice Munro

Alice Munro's stories aren't for everyone. People seem to either love or hate them. Some say they're boring because not much seems to happen, at least externally. Her stories are very much about the characters' (often women) inner lives. I love this approach to writing. And I loved hearing her stories read aloud.

Alice Munro is a must!!

I just loved all of the short stories featured in this book. Every single one of them was entrancing, interesting and plunged the reader in a different universe each time! I listen to audio books while I walk in the forest or in my neighborhood and Alice Munro kept me company for weeks on end!!

Strange collection, and one great story

I bought this one because the description (and the title story) is about a female mathematician's life - of great relevance to my own career. And, as it turns out, it is indeed a part biography of THE Sonia Kovalevskaya, who is well known in mathematics! Not a made-up story but a true story, that Alice Munro tells us, was inspired by her reading of "Little Sparrow".
I liked that part of the book and found it both engrossing, poignant, and moving. How times have changed (thank goodness!)
As for the rest of the collection in this book, I still have to think about what the author is trying to tell us. I "don't get it" yet. But it has gotten me thinking.
The performance is fine, but I don't like the distraction of switching between male and female voices. If the narrator is good enough, we should be carried along no matter what gender.

Repeated Stories

If you're an Alice Munro like I am, be aware that many of the stories in this collection, including the title story--Too Much Happiness--are part of Family Furnishings. I wish there'd been a list of the stories included before I bought this.

Deep contemplations

This collection is overall fantastic although I detest several parts because of their break of rules. On the other hand, I stopped thinking about some dialogs and ideas. The story of child’s play was shocking and remained vivid in my mind for several days. The author’s description of feelings and thoughts is convincing and captures empathy.
The sound of the narrator can polish or disrupt the experience, and to me, it was good, unless when trying to mimic the sounds of different persons and accents.
I have already recommended the book to many friends.

Loved 80% of this

When listening to most of these stories, I vowed to read everything of Munro’s that I could find. Some of the time I lost the thread however. I will listen again for sure.

Great breadth of stories with compelling character

A range of stories from heartwarming to disturbing, but all masterfully written and compellingly performed.

Each story should start on its own track

The substance (performance, writing, etc.) of this audiobook is great, but the tracks are sloppily organized. This is a volume of short stories, so each story should begin at 0:00 on a separate track. For some reason, it's not organized like that. The third story, for example, starts roughly 55 minutes into the second track. Why do that? I remember Runaway, another Alice Munro collection, having the same problem. Please fix this.