The View from Castle Rock

Fiction? Memoir? Genealogy? Whatever you choose to call it, this book marks a distinct departure for Munro. The first half traces her father's Scottish relatives and their journey to Canada in the early 1800s: "Their words and my words, a curious recreation of lives." It takes a while to form an identification with men and women whose names have been quickly rattled off, but Kimberly Farr's agile rendering of each character's unique speech pattern helps set them all forth as individuals. The second half of the volume contains stories that Munro never included in her other collections--not memoirs exactly, but fiction drawing from a more autobiographical base. Everything comes full circle in the end, a fascinating blend of past and present. R.R. (c) AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine