當(dāng)代“契訶夫”

Munro was born in Ottawa. She spent most of the time in this quiet city. Her novels are also written about love and ordinary lives in this suburban town， but they involved in serious topic of illness and death.

The writers writing style is simple and plain， but the portrait of real life brings sincere deep feelings. Simple texts bring deep emotion， which shows the natural power of literature.

Munro wrote 11 collections of short stories and one novel similar to stories. As short story is generally in low status in European and American literature， her Lifetime Achievement Award surprised some people， but more people used one word to describe their feelings of her success： “Value！” “Every time read Alice Munros novels， know the things never thought before.” This evaluation is from the writers， scholars， and scriptwriters.

Alice Munro is routinely spoken of in the same breath as Anton Chekhov. She resembles the Russian master in a number of ways. She is fascinated with the failings of love and work and has an obsession with time. There is the same penetrating psychological insight； the events played out in a minor key； the small town settings. In Munros fictional universe， as in Chekhovs， plot is of secondary importance： all is based on the epiphanic moment， the sudden enlightenment， the concise， subtle， revelatory detail. Another significant feature of Munros is the （typically Canadian） connection to the land， to what Margaret Atwood has called a “harsh and vast geography”. Munro is attuned to the shifts and colours of the natural world， to life lived with the wilderness. Her skill at describing the constituency of the environment is equal to her ability to get below the surface of the lives of her characters.

She introduced a method of reading novels in an essay： the fiction doesnt like a road； it is more like a house. You enter inside， stay for a little while， walk around， observe the room and the corridor， and then look out of the window to see what happened outside

門(mén)羅出生在渥太華，她大部分時(shí)間都在這個(gè)安靜的城市度過(guò)。她的小說(shuō)寫(xiě)的是這個(gè)城市郊區(qū)小鎮(zhèn)中平民的愛(ài)情、家庭日常生活，而涉及的卻是和生老病死相關(guān)的嚴(yán)肅主題。

這個(gè)女作家的筆觸簡(jiǎn)單樸素，卻細(xì)膩地刻畫(huà)出生活平淡真實(shí)的面貌，給人帶來(lái)真摯深沉的情感。簡(jiǎn)單的文字帶來(lái)豐厚的情感，這恰好顯示了文學(xué)最本質(zhì)的能量。

門(mén)羅一生創(chuàng)作了十一部短篇小說(shuō)集和一部類似故事集的長(zhǎng)篇小說(shuō)。在短篇小說(shuō)普遍地位低下的歐美文學(xué)界，這個(gè)終身成就獎(jiǎng)?lì)C給她讓一些人驚訝，但更多的人對(duì)門(mén)羅獲獎(jiǎng)的感受卻可以用一個(gè)字來(lái)形容：“值！”“每讀到愛(ài)麗絲·門(mén)羅的小說(shuō)，便知生命中未曾想到之事。”這是由作家、學(xué)者、編劇等組成的評(píng)委對(duì)她的評(píng)價(jià)。

提及愛(ài)麗絲·門(mén)羅，人們常常將她與安東·契訶夫相比較。在諸多方面，她的確與這位俄國(guó)文豪有相似之處。她對(duì)描寫(xiě)婚戀和工作中的種種不如意情有獨(dú)鐘，對(duì)時(shí)光流逝這一主題近于癡迷。兩者有著同樣入木三分的心理分析洞見(jiàn)，同樣習(xí)慣以小調(diào)般的舒緩節(jié)奏鋪陳事件，同樣喜歡將故事置于小鎮(zhèn)生活場(chǎng)景之下。與契訶夫的作品一樣，在門(mén)羅的虛構(gòu)世界里，情節(jié)的重要性位居其次。一切都根植于豁然開(kāi)朗的頓悟時(shí)刻，那種恍然大悟，那種簡(jiǎn)潔、微妙、天啟般的細(xì)節(jié)鋪陳才是關(guān)鍵。門(mén)羅作品中另一個(gè)顯著的特點(diǎn)（同時(shí)也是加拿大人的典型特征）表現(xiàn)為對(duì)土地難以割舍的依戀，瑪格麗特·阿特伍德曾用“環(huán)境嚴(yán)苛險(xiǎn)惡、地域廣袤無(wú)垠”來(lái)描寫(xiě)這片土地。對(duì)自然世界的演化變遷、光影色澤，對(duì)生活在荒涼曠野的生活情狀，門(mén)羅了然于心。她描摹自然環(huán)境及其要素的技法，絲毫不亞于透過(guò)角色生活表象洞悉其內(nèi)心的能力。

她曾經(jīng)在一篇散文中介紹讀小說(shuō)的方式：“小說(shuō)不像一條道路，它更像一座房子。你走進(jìn)里面，待一小會(huì)兒，這邊走走，那邊轉(zhuǎn)轉(zhuǎn)，觀察房間和走廊，然后再望向窗外，看看從這個(gè)角度看，外面的世界發(fā)生了什么變化?！?