Word: bookings
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...Book-ending the more challenging center of the album are three tracks that cleave closer to the pop sensibility of debut “Hold On Now, Youngster.” Whether they’re the most interesting songs on “Romance is Boring” or not is up for debate, but singles “There Are Listed Buildings” and “Romance is Boring,” as well as blogosphere hit “The Sea is a Good Place To Think of the Future” show the band...
Middle-aged women are supposed to love Alice Munro almost as much as they love yogurt. A serene, poised, white-haired presence on the book jacket, Munro rules over her own world of strong, quiet, older women. She never raises her voice and provides neat little bites of stories that are flavorful without too many calories...
...writing within a narrow world, and her stories begin to seem undistinguishable from one another. Instead of presenting readers with a slice of Munro’s world, it starts to feel as if she were reaching out to her target audience and telling them: Here, like this book...
...final and titular story of the book exemplifies this tendency. It is Munro’s imagining of a short period in the life of an exceptional woman from history: Sophia Kovalevsky, a mathematician and novelist who lived in the late 19th century. Munro writes that she encountered Sophia’s story in an encyclopedia, and the story begins to read more like a factual entry than anything else. Sophia is a fascinating character and a perfect example of a powerful woman, but by portraying her as a saint, Munro makes this woman less accessible to her readers...
...want to believe that in every ordinary person is a kernel of resilience and power? It is certainly impressive that she manages to create a portrait in miniature of the world that feels so authentic. But just like yogurt, while one or two can be refreshing, after a whole book of stories, it might be time to get something a little more sustaining...