I read about half way through Anita Rau Badami's new book "Can You Hear the Nightbird Call?" before I gave up. I did enjoy "Tamarind Mem" and "The Hero's Walk" but this one just didn't do it for me in the end. And I also got about half way through Jean McNeil's "Interpreter of Silences". I hadn't read anything by her before (originally from Cape Breton and now living in London, England) and initially it also seemed very promising but bogged down for me.
So...what to do but fall back on the new Alice Munro "View from Castle Rock" which I've been saving. Alas...Munro isn't doing her usual thing! The collection begins with "stories" she has written about her Laidlaw family history. In her foreward she mentions that she has had these around and they didn't fit anywhere, hence she is including them now, her so-called last edition of stories. I found the first one quite jarring and not like Munro stories at all. I read a review and it seems like the last half of the book is more like the Munro we are used to so I have started reading the stories from the back of the book...and so far, impressed as usual with her writing.
