ALICE MUNRO, THE ALBANIAN VIRGIN IN OPEN SECRETS, EXAMPLES HER CHARACTERISTIC APPROACH. It would be difficult to try to trace Alice Munro's narrative techniques to any particular development in the short story The Albanian Virgin. This could be because it is simply written from careful observations, as many of his other short stories are. In her short stories, it is as if she is trying to transform a common and ordinary world into something disturbing and mysterious, as seen in Vandals. Most of his stories found in Open Secrets take place in or focus on Munro's native Canada, Huron County, and particularly in the fictional small town of Carstairs in Ontario, although the setting of The Albanian Virgin is in British Columbia. The story, The Albanian Virgin, found in Open Secrets, exemplifies Munro's signature approach to short story writing as it explores the lives of the central characters which are revealed from a combination of first person narrative and third person narrative. By using both narratives, Munro adds realism and autobiographical information about his own life into the short stories, as the stories are also based on fiction, as can be found in earlier written short stories. Since many of her stories are based on the region in which she was born, the characters and narrators are often seen as recounting her life and how she grew up; and make her stories appear in a feminist approach. This might also indicate why the central characters in the Open Secrets short stories are all women: a young woman kidnapped by Albanian tribesmen in the 1920s in The Albanian Virgin, and a young born-again Christian whose feelings Unresolved love and anger cause her to vandalize a house in Vandals. Its theme has often been the dilemmas of the adolescent girl struggling with her family and a small town. Her most recent works address the problems of middle age, single women and the elderly. Characteristic of his style is the search for a revealing gesture by which an event is illuminated and given personal meaning. (The Canadian Encyclopedia Plus 1995)Munro's later work can probably be considered that of her later or more recent memories, because as she ages, so do the characters in her short stories. The short story, An Albanian Virgin, begins..... . middle of paper......sp; The use of narratives, both first person and third person, gives rise to Alice Munro's unique style. Few writers could write in a way that makes the reader feel like they are in some way the narrator. Most of his stories have often been compared to autobiography rather than fiction by some critics. It is true that many of his stories relate in one way or another to his life, whether that of his childhood or that of his later years. The point is that while the reader can discern some similarities in the stories, they are mostly fictional with some added realism. REFERENCES Blodgett, ED “Alice Munro.” The Canadian Encyclopedia Plus. 1995. Bloom, Amy. “From strength to strength.” The Boston Book Review. January/February 1995, Electric Newsstand. MacKendrick, Louis, K. The Narrative Acts of Alice Munro. Downsview, ECW Press, 1983. Munro, Alice. Open secrets. Toronto: McClelland & Steward Inc., 1994. Turbide, Diane. “The incomparable storyteller.” Maclean’s. October 17, 1994, 46-49.