If black belts were awarded for writing short stories, Canada's Alice Munro would have one with bells on. Open Secrets (Knopf; 294 pages; $23) is another stunning victory over one of the toughest of literary forms. The eight stories in this volume are about women uneasily balanced between their conventional past and a present that tips them in new and strange directions.
No toe-stubbing subtexts are hidden here. Munro's gender agenda is neatly buried in her quietly daring art. An Albanian Virgin, for example, spans half a century and half the globe to join vastly different lives. A Canadian tourist who...
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