nettles

• i went back to living as i had lived before they came . • i stopped cooking breakfast and went out every morning to get coffe and fresh rolls at the italian deli . • back home ,i would sit and write for hours at a wooden table under the windows of a former sun porch. • Outside the windows ,as it got dark, the back-yard paries would begin, with music and shouting and provocations that later might develop into fights ,and i would be frightened , not of any hostility but of a kind of nonexistence.
第26段
• in one of these moods ,i phoned sunny, and got the invitation to spend the weekend in the country.
mood：n. 情绪，语气；心境；气氛 in a good/bad ~心情不错/糟糕 in the ~ for (doing/ to do) sth有心情做某事 in no ~ for (doing/ to do) sth in a ~: 心情不好in a fit of bad temper; in depression • e.g.: he is in a ~ today. • • • • •

The author uses this word figuratively here, comparing problems of everyday life such as friendship and love, marriage and divorce, which she addresses in this story, to nettles, which from time to time irritate or annoy you.


In Munro stories, as in Chekov's, plot is secondary and "little happens." As with Chekov, Garan Holcombe notes: "All is based on the epiphanic moment, the sudden enlightenment, the concise, subtle, revelatory(启示性的， 预示性的 ) detail." Munro's work deals with "love and work, and the failings of both. She shares Chekov‘s obsession with time and our much-lamented inability to delay or prevent its relentless movement forward.― Alice Munro, Fiction, ―Nettles,‖ The New Yorker, February 21, 2000, p. 254
Works by Alice Munro

Para.16-19
• The time is shifted to that of the first paragraph: in the summer of 1979. • Throw up: vomit • How is the time shifted in Para.19? • Dovetail: to fit perfectly together. • Reel: feel dizzy • Stoke: To eat steadily and in large quantities. • Stoke (oneself) up: to seek energy by drinking many cups of coffee and smoking cigarettes. 提神. • E.g. stoke up the furnace 往火炉里加煤
At / on / in hand
• A major international crisis is ____. • He always has his dictionary ___ when he studies. • You should keep your feelings well ______ when something unpleasant happens to you. • You may go to whatever stores ______ to buy chewing gum.
• • • • • •
Dress one’s wound: to clean and cover a wound. Resurrection: coming back to life. Para.12: reinstate: (1) To bring back into use or existence. E.g. To reinstate damaged property. (2) to put someone back into a job or position of authority that they had before. • E.g. to reinstate sb. in the post of manager/as manager

Nettles
Time：1979
Setting：Sunny’s
house in Uxbridge,
Ontario, Canada Characters: The narrator, Mike, Sunny, etc. The plot: the climax and the epiphany The theme?
The
How
does the author begin the narration? Do you find this beginning interesting or peculiar? Why or why not? The author begins her story in a rather unusual way. She starts her narration from 1979 in the brief beginning paragraph. This allows her to infuse her stories with a sort of floating suspense, inducing the readers to continue.

Something I've Been Meaning to Tell You (1974)
《我一直想要告诉你的事》

Who Do You Think You Are? (1978)
《你以为自己是谁？》

The Moons of Jupiter (1982)
《朱庇特的月亮》
Works by Alice Munro
加拿大总督文学奖堪称是加拿大最大的国家级文学奖，每年评选 一次，由评审从上千件的英语、法语作品中评选出入围作品与得主， 颁给小说、戏剧、非小说、儿童文学(文字和插图)、诗歌及翻译六大 奖项。 从1937年到现在，加拿大总督文学奖在奖项和奖金等方面都有 所不同。例如1937年的第一届得奖者是没有奖金的，1951年才开始 有250元美金的奖金鼓励，2000年之后则提高到15,000元美金；2005 年开始，除奖金之外，得奖作品经手工制作成皮革装版本后，颁赠给 得主；出版商也能得到3,000元美金作为推广作品的经费；入围者则 可获得1,000元美金。 因此，现在的奖金总额已经超过30万元美金。 在奖项范围方面，1937年仅限于用英语写作或从法语翻成英语 的小说、非小说、诗歌、戏剧，到1959年加拿大艺术委员会(Canada Council for the Arts)接掌此文学奖的运作后，在该年增加了以法语写 作作品之奖项；1987年又增加儿童文学(文字)和儿童文学(插图)等两 个奖项。