When I’m skimming through the New Yorker or Tin House or any number of other journals with formidable-to-crazy good short fiction, I maybe read the first line and if it doesn’t grab me, I go on to the next. Life’s too short for a short story–or essay or novel–that doesn’t sing.

This morning I roamed the New Yorker web site looking for a short story for my Gotham class and I found this one by Alice Munro. I could not stop reading.

She knocked my socks off with “A Bear Comes Over the Moutain,” that was made into the movie, Away From Her. Incredible artistry. But I don’t want to influence you. Read it. Tell me what you think.