Lives of Girls and Women  (1971), Alice Munro's second published book is, like "Boys and Girls," a female coming of age tale. It is also the story of its protagonist's development as a writer.

Twentieth-century writers interested in writing a book about artistic calling will find that James Joyce's brilliant Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1914) is worthwhile reading. This book, like Munro's Lives of Girls and Women, is part of a sub-category in fiction in which writers fictionalize their own artistic apprenticeships.

One Canadian critic has written an essay which specifically addresses Canadian coming of age stories. This critic compares Munro's Lives of Girls and Women to other Canadian books concerned with the theme of adolescence and growing up: Anthony B. Dawson, "Coming of Age in Canada," Mosaic 11, No. 3, Spring, 1978, pp. 47-62.

The novel Housekeeping (1970), by Marilynne...