The Progress of Love

by Alice Munro
The Progress of Love cover
Good Books rating 4.0
Short Story Collections
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  • ID: 3097
  • Added: 2025-10-16
  • Updated: 2025-10-16
  • ISBN: 9781448182572
  • Publisher: Random House
  • Published: 2014-05-21
  • Formats: 1
  • Reviews: 3

Alice Munro's 'The Progress of Love' is a collection of dazzling short stories that delve into the complexities of love in its many forms—filial, platonic, sexual, parental, and imagined. Each story is a polished yet unsentimental dispatch from small-town and rural life, where the surface calm often masks a strong undertow of repressed violence and sexuality, ready to snap with extraordinary force or unfold in strange and poignant ways. Munro's characters are brilliantly crafted, pulsating with idiosyncratic life, making this collection a profound exploration of human relationships and emotions. Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature and the Man Booker International Prize, Munro's work is celebrated for its complete, complex, and brilliantly structured narratives.

Reviews
Andy Quan · Andy Quan · 2025-01-10
insightful 4.50

The stories offer a complex view of characters through their layered moments in time. The narrative structure effectively illuminates different aspects of their lives.

Andy Quan appreciates how Munro's stories provide a multifaceted view of characters by moving back and forth in time. This approach allows for a deeper understanding of the characters' experiences and emotions. They particularly enjoy how the stories are structured to reveal different layers of the characters' lives, making the reading experience rich and engaging.

Quick quotes

    These short stories is that they give me a complex view on the characters, and then going backwards and forwards in time, these moments are illuminated.

    The narrative structure is particularly effective in revealing the intricacies of the characters' lives.

    Munro's ability to weave together different time periods creates a compelling and immersive reading experience.

Mookse and Gripes · 2016-06-24
thoughtful 4.00

The collection explores the weight of the past and memory, highlighting how they influence present emotions. The stories are poignant and thought-provoking.

The reviewer from Mookse and Gripes delves into how Munro's stories capture the profound impact of the past on the present. They find the exploration of memory and its emotional weight particularly compelling. The stories are seen as a deep and insightful look into the human condition, with a focus on the complexities of love and bitterness.

Quick quotes

    Munro explores how the weight of the past and of memory, of love and of bitterness comes to rest on a person at any given moment.

    The stories are a poignant reminder of how our past shapes our present.

    Munro's writing is unflinching in its honesty and depth.

Reading in Bed · 2013-12-29
mixed 3.50

While not as impactful as Munro's other works, this collection still offers compelling stories. The reviewer finds it enjoyable but not quite up to the standard of Munro's best.

The reviewer from Reading in Bed acknowledges that while The Progress of Love may not be Munro's strongest collection, it still contains engaging and well-crafted stories. They note that it didn't quite measure up to their previous experience with Munro's work, specifically Too Much Happiness. However, they appreciate the unique perspectives and emotional depth that Munro brings to each story.

Quick quotes

    My only experience with Munro is Too Much Happiness, and with only that for a basis of comparison, The Progress of Love didn't quite measure up.

    The stories are engaging and well-crafted, offering unique perspectives on love and relationships.

    Munro's ability to delve into the complexities of human emotions is evident throughout the collection.

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