These questions apply to each of the nine stories:

1. Are there themes that link these nine stories?
   

2. How does Munro create an entire life history for the main characters in a few pages?
   

3. Look for examples of characters who get what they need; also of those who lose something important.
   

4. What are some of the generational issues Munro depicts?
   

5. How do inanimate objects reflect or bring into relief characters' lives, feelings, memories?
   

6. What is the turning point in each story?
   

7. About her writing Alice Munro says: "I want to tell a story…--what happens to somebody--but I want that 'what happens' to be delivered with quite a bit of interruption, turnarounds, and strangeness. I want the reader to feel something is astonishing--not the 'what happens' but the way everything happens." How does she accomplish this?
   

8. One critic said Munro's stories dramatize the "underbelly of relationships". How is that portrayed in each story?
   

9. How are men portrayed in the stories?