From 500 Great Books by Women; review by Jesse Larsen
Alice Munro's novel, "autobiographical in form but not in fact," is full of piercing and detailed observations tempered, but never dulled, by tenderness. Del Jordan romps, stumbles, and races toward womanhood in her home town of Jubilee, Ontario. She knows she will someday be a famous writer and keeps journals, memorizes poetry, and makes lists in preparation: "A list of all the stores and businesses going up and down the main street and who owned them, a list of family names, names on the tombstones in the cemetery and any inscriptions underneath. A list of the titles of movies that played at the Lyceum theater from 1938 to 1950, roughly speaking." When her mother, Ada, "goes on the road" alone to sell encyclopedias to farmers, Del is outwardly mortified and secretly proud. At first disgusted, then fascinated, and finally obsessed with sex, Del resents her growing breasts and tries to rationalize her sexual cravings; still, she can't make herself fall in love with the first boy that makes her want to wash her hair. Del Jordan is sharp, sexy, tender, and hilarious. Let the world beware: she's about to become a woman. -- For great reviews of books for girls, check out Let's Hear It for the Girls: 375 Great Books for Readers 2-14.


Review
?Munro has an unerring talent for uncovering the extraordinary in the ordinary.??Newsweek


Review
?Munro has an unerring talent for uncovering the extraordinary in the ordinary.??Newsweek


Book Description
The only novel from Alice Munro-award-winning author of The Love of a Good Woman--is an insightful, honest book, "autobiographical in form but not in fact," that chronicles a young girl's growing up in rural Ontario in the 1940's.

Del Jordan lives out at the end of the Flats Road on her father's fox farm, where her most frequent companions are an eccentric bachelor family friend and her rough younger brother. When she begins spending more time in town, she is surrounded by women-her mother, an agnostic, opinionted woman who sells encyclopedias to local farmers; her mother's boarder, the lusty Fern Dogherty; and her best friend, Naomi, with whom she shares the frustrations and unbridled glee of adolescence.

Through these unwitting mentors and in her own encounters with sex, birth, and death, Del explores the dark and bright sides of womanhood. All along she remains a wise, witty observer and recorder of truths in small-town life. The result is a powerful, moving, and humorous demonstration of Alice Munro's unparalleled awareness of the lives of girls and women.


From the Publisher
7 1.5-hour cassettes


From the Inside Flap
The only novel from Alice Munro-award-winning author of The Love of a Good Woman--is an insightful, honest book, "autobiographical in form but not in fact," that chronicles a young girl's growing up in rural Ontario in the 1940's.

Del Jordan lives out at the end of the Flats Road on her father's fox farm, where her most frequent companions are an eccentric bachelor family friend and her rough younger brother. When she begins spending more time in town, she is surrounded by women-her mother, an agnostic, opinionted woman who sells encyclopedias to local farmers; her mother's boarder, the lusty Fern Dogherty; and her best friend, Naomi, with whom she shares the frustrations and unbridled glee of adolescence.

Through these unwitting mentors and in her own encounters with sex, birth, and death, Del explores the dark and bright sides of womanhood. All along she remains a wise, witty observer and recorder of truths in small-town life. The result is a powerful, moving, and humorous demonstration of Alice Munro's unparalleled awareness of the lives of girls and women.


From the Back Cover
“Marvelous…. A ribald, humorous appreciation of girlhood [that] manages to treat sex in a new way…. A real joy!”–Ms.

FROM THE PUBLISHER