The women
I bought this book partly because of the author, whose previous works I've read, and partly because of the appeal of reading about multiple women protagonist. It was featured in a best-of list along with Fun Home, one of my favorite books.
This is the paperback version, which I have, and which I find more engaging than the simplicity of the hardback cover.
In this book are eight stories about women who are stuck in some sort of limbo - they run from husbands, stifling lives, toward adventure and promise. Sometimes they run further into themselves. All of these people, from ten-year-old precocious Lauren to meddlesome 66-year-old Nancy, struggle with their flaws and secrets and hidden desires. Whether living in Vancouver or Toronto, in the 30's or modern day Canada, these women are achingly real, and their problems timeless.
As strange as it may sound, I feel most comfortable with comparing Munro's style and themes with those of Will Eisner. She is a natural at conveying details that are at once strange and familiar - that invite you in, but primarily as a closed-off observer. This is not to say that her characters are off-putting or fake. However, I did find some to be more fascinating than others: Lauren, who is beginning to doubt that she is her parents' biological daughter, and Grace, who gets to know her boyfriend's family perhaps a little too well - they both come to mind. We hear about Juliet in not one but three stories that chronicle her relationship with the charming Eric, and the daughter who is the result of their union. One prevailing theme is that our heroines are attempting to move from one place to another - sometimes literally, like Juliet moving out of her small town in "Chance," but mostly figuratively, such as the unhappily-married Carla in "Runaway." A mark of a great short story is the twist near the end - it must be relatively quick and effective and more than a little clever. I appreciated the endings to "Tricks," "Trespasses," and "Runaway" in particular; they made each story seem fresh and complex. There is also, in this collection, a less prominent theme of the supernatural: the sudden appearance of a goat has a profound effect on two arguing neighbors, a woman possesses a power to find lost or misplaced objects.
Like Eisner, Munro believes that struggles are inherent and inevitable - that life is meaningless without them. And like all short story writers, she focuses on the changing point of her characters' lives, the moment in which they make the decision that affects - positively or negatively - the rest of their lives, how they choose to act and why. Grace, for example, experiences the following:
"And Neil said to Grace, 'You didn't want to go home yet, did you?'
'No,' said Grace, as if she'd seen the word written in front of her, on the wall. As if she was having her eyes tested.
...Describing this passage, this change in her life, later on, Grace might say - she did say - that it was as if a gate had clanged shut behind her."
A great reader will feel this way after reading his or her first Alice Munro story. Rating: 4.5 green dresses out of 5.