Housewife won Nobel Prize for Literature

Murakami missed out on the Nobel Prize for Literature again when the honor was awarded to Canadian writer Alice Munro - who claims to be just a housewife.

Author Alice Munro and her works at a book exhibition in Frankfurt - Photo: AFP, Reuters

Announcing the award yesterday afternoon, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences described 82-year-old Alice Munro as "a master of the contemporary short story." Munro writes in many genres, but short stories have made her name. Over the years, she has published many famous short story collections such as Who do you think you are (1978), The moons of Jupiter (1982), Runaway (2004), The view from Castle Rock (2006), Too much happiness (2009). The short story collection Hateship, friendship, courtship, loveship, marriage (2001) was adapted by director Sarah Polley into the successful film Away from her in 2006. Her most recent short story collection is Dear life (2012). Alice Munro is a relatively new name to Vietnamese literature lovers. In 2012, Nha Nam Publishing House published her short story collection, entitled Escape, translated by Tran Thi Huong Lan.

Writing stories since age 11

Ms. Munro was born in Ontario (Canada) in 1931, studied journalism at the University of Western Ontario, but her studies were interrupted when she got married in 1951. At the age of 11, she decided to become a writer and started writing stories from then on.

However, it was not until 1968 that the first book was published. It was the short story collection Dance of the Happy Shades.

Munro's short stories are often set in small-town Canada, where the protagonists struggle for social acceptance, leading to broken relationships and moral conflicts. Her stories are mostly about everyday events, not dramatic but always flashing with wisdom and moments of enlightenment. Her female characters are often very ordinary, like herself.

"Ms. Munro is not a very social and prominent person in society. She rarely appears in public and never promotes her books," AFP quoted American literary critic David Homel as saying. Writer Munro also always shows a precious humility. "I think I write successful stories because I have no other talent - she explained in an interview uploaded on the YouTube website - I'm not really an intellectual. I'm just an ordinary housewife. I never pay attention to anything else, so life doesn't affect me like it does other people."

She met her first husband, James Munro, while still in school and they married, moved to Vancouver, and had three daughters. In 1963, they bought a house in Victoria and opened a bookstore called Munro's Books. Author Allan Fotheringham described Munro's Books as "the best bookstore in Canada." Munro won many prestigious literary awards in Canada, including the Governor General's Award. Her short stories often appeared in famous magazines such as The New Yorker and The Atlantic Monthly.

In 2009, she was honored with the prestigious Man Booker International Prize. "She writes about women, but she doesn't demonize men," said literary critic Homel. Ms. Munro's themes and style have often led to her being compared to Russian author Anton Chekhov, one of the greatest short story writers in literary history. Ms. Munro says she enjoys writing about the "hidden aspects" of relationships.

She sets her stories primarily in Canada because "I live here with a discomfort that I couldn't have in another place I didn't know as well." She explains that in her stories there is no distinction between major and minor themes. "The major things, the evils, that exist in the world are directly related to the evils that exist around the dinner table, where people treat each other," she emphasizes.

In an interview with the New York Times earlier this year, Ms. Munro revealed that she might not write anymore. She said she wanted to take a break and that her collection of short stories, Dear Life, might be her last. When awarding her the prize in 2009, the Man Booker judges described her: "She brings depth, wisdom, and precision to every short story in a way that novelists spend their entire lives bringing to theirs. Every time you read Alice Munro, you learn things you never thought of before."

According to Tuoi Tre - TH