The Canadian Woman
I finished reading Alice Munro's Runaway a couple days ago and have been trying to figure out what to say about it ever since.
To say the least, Runaway is a very, very good collection written by a master story teller.
The important thing about Alice Munro's writing is to remember she is Canadian and her stories take place in Canadian locales with Canadian people; and, there is a difference between the United States and Canada. A lot of our cultures are very similar, but there is a different mindset on the other side of the border, a different way of looking at life.
At its core, this collection of stories describe dreary, rainy places where people contend against nature as much as against each other. All of the eight stories are written from a female point of view.
Three stories concern one women appearing at different times in her life: her meeting and eventual joining with the father of her child ("Chance"), her relationship with her parents ("Soon") at the end of her mother's life, and destruction of her personal familial relationships with the loss of partner and child ("Silence"). In each the reader is exposed to differing descriptions of what it means to be a woman, from a young college scholar in a male dominated field to a mother who is forced to look at the meaning of her life when forced to deal with an estranged child. Of the three, "Silence" affected me the most, since I, too, have a child who is estranged, but not to the degree written by Alice Munro.
"Trespasses" is about a young girl who discovers something dark about her parents' relationship and about the step-sister she never knew. We see a city child forced out into the country by parents running from life and dragging the fruit of their love on a journey of ultimate truth.
Alice Munro divides her time between homes on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, and in Ontario near Lake Huron; and, these stories take place in similar locales. The time span is from the 1920's to the present.
But, I think what most affected me by all of the stories was the weather: the cold, damp of British Columbia; and, the heat and humidity of Southern Ontario's summers and the neverending snows if its winters. Two very different regions that impact the characters' lives in often dramatic ways.
By all means, read this wonderful collection of short stories by one of the greatest writers of our time.
To say the least, Runaway is a very, very good collection written by a master story teller.
The important thing about Alice Munro's writing is to remember she is Canadian and her stories take place in Canadian locales with Canadian people; and, there is a difference between the United States and Canada. A lot of our cultures are very similar, but there is a different mindset on the other side of the border, a different way of looking at life.
At its core, this collection of stories describe dreary, rainy places where people contend against nature as much as against each other. All of the eight stories are written from a female point of view.
Three stories concern one women appearing at different times in her life: her meeting and eventual joining with the father of her child ("Chance"), her relationship with her parents ("Soon") at the end of her mother's life, and destruction of her personal familial relationships with the loss of partner and child ("Silence"). In each the reader is exposed to differing descriptions of what it means to be a woman, from a young college scholar in a male dominated field to a mother who is forced to look at the meaning of her life when forced to deal with an estranged child. Of the three, "Silence" affected me the most, since I, too, have a child who is estranged, but not to the degree written by Alice Munro.
"Trespasses" is about a young girl who discovers something dark about her parents' relationship and about the step-sister she never knew. We see a city child forced out into the country by parents running from life and dragging the fruit of their love on a journey of ultimate truth.
Alice Munro divides her time between homes on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, and in Ontario near Lake Huron; and, these stories take place in similar locales. The time span is from the 1920's to the present.
But, I think what most affected me by all of the stories was the weather: the cold, damp of British Columbia; and, the heat and humidity of Southern Ontario's summers and the neverending snows if its winters. Two very different regions that impact the characters' lives in often dramatic ways.
By all means, read this wonderful collection of short stories by one of the greatest writers of our time.
posted by Carl Holiday at
10:18 AM
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