Barbara Pym and Alice Munro-- opinions and where do I start?

I've never read Alice Munro, but if she compares to Barbara Pym for subtlety and wry portrayals of the human condition, I'll have to start. I'd also recommend Penelope Fitzgerald.

I recommend you read Barbara Pym's books in the order she wrote them, too, as the stuff she wrote when she was younger seems a bit wryer than the stuff she wrote when she was older, which is deeper. And it's a good approach to sort of go into things that way.

A book that reminded me of Munro's style, also by a Canadian, was A Student of Weather by Elizabeth Hay. I loved the way the details of nature fit into the story.

Unbelievably, I'm going to start Excellent Women tomorrow.

I just started it. It is KILLING me.

I just finished Less Than Angels at Aimless' recommendation! What a treat. Laffs on every page. I retract what I've written about her.

Perhaps there can be too much making of cups of tea, I thought, as I watched Miss Statham filling the heavy teapot. We had all had our supper, or were supposed to have had it, and were met together to discuss the arrangements for the Christmas bazaar. Did we really need a cup of tea? I even said as much to Miss Statham and she looked at me with a hurt, almost angry look, 'Do we need tea?' she echoed. 'But Miss Lathbury...' She sounded puzzled and distressed and I began to realise that my question had struck at something deep and fundamental. It was the kind of question that starts a landslide in the mind.

^ftr, Pym, not Munro

I've done a 180 on Pym after reading Less Than Angels and The Sweet Dove Died

Miss Lathbury otm

I've done a 180 on Pym after reading Less Than Angels and The Sweet Dove Died

i read excellent women recently and didn't really feel it (tho i recognised that tea paragraph as a standout moment), maybe I'll try those two.

At the risk of stating the obvious, the recent Backlisted episode on Pym was great: https://www.backlisted.fm/episodes/109-barbara-pym-excellent-women

i read excellent women recently and didn't really feel it

Same.

Midway through Less than Angels, can't say I'm feeling it more than Excellent Women. With both of them I feel, aptly enough, like an anthropologist, albeit a bad one who cannot fathom the nature of or reason for the tribe's peculiar customs.

They just really want to know what the new vicar's up to.

With both of them I feel, aptly enough, like an anthropologist, albeit a bad one who cannot fathom the nature of or reason for the tribe's peculiar customs.

i.e. what it's like to be gay in a world of straight people?

Yes it's really that isn't it?

Hear, hear!

But also what it's like to be closeted from everyone else in the world. You can sense this slightly intoxicating bewilderment she holds in Excellent Women for the likes of William, who's absolutely flaming and comfortable with it.

I will read the second half of Less than Angels with this perspective in mind.