Tough-O-Meter

We've got your back. With the Tough-O-Meter, you'll know whether to bring extra layers or Swiss army knives as you summit the literary mountain. (10 = Toughest)

6 (Tree Line)

"Passion" is short. Hey, they don't call it a short story for nothing. It's also pretty accessible, so you don't have to go into it with an extensive knowledge of Canadian legislative policies or spelunking—but something you'll repeatedly hear about Alice Munro's stories is that they have the complexity of a novel. In other words, these may be short stories, but Munro is really good at stuffing a bunch of stuff into her stories, which might be annoying if she weren't such an artful, Nobel Prize-winning story stuffer. "Passion" seems simple enough. It isn't until you start trying to unpack it that you realize how complex it is.