She is 87 years old, one of the most famous female authors in the country and the first Canadian woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013. Alice Munro, born in 1931 in Wingham, Ontario, has earned the reputation of being a master of the short story. She has 14 critically acclaimed collections published and has won several awards for her work.
As an aspiring short story writer in Canada, of course I have been told countless times to read Munro’s work. And from what I’ve read (regrettably I have only scratched the surface, but I’ve been going through her collection called My Best Stories), I understand why she has been recognized for her prose. It’s compelling, the characters are complex yet also relatable, and each line contains vital details and are layered with deep meaning.
A couple of years ago my friend told me that she did not like Munro’s stories because they are “too mundane.”
Today, I’m going to talk about how I think that is one of the biggest reasons why her work is so admired: because she brings life to characters who do not lead exciting, extraordinary lives, and those may be the characters we appeal to the most.
I’m going to use three different stories that I’ve read most recently as examples. The first is Miles City, Montana. On the surface, one may interpret this story as about a woman reflecting on the what ifs when her youngest daughter nearly drowns as they stop at a swimming pool on a road trip. The protagonist, who narrates the story, compares the accident to when a boy in her childhood neighbourhood dies by drowning. As a child, she blames the adults for their inaction and inability to stop it and judges them harshly at the funeral for their stoic appearances. Later on, when her own daughter nearly drowns, she comes to understand the fragility of life and how quickly accidents can happen and how easily they can take a turn for the worst.
On the surface, this seems like a reflective piece about parental fears and responsibilities. However, there is still a lot more going on here. I think Munro’s stories deserve (and perhaps require) second or third readings to fully understand (though I suppose you could say that about all literature, that it deserves the time and space to breathe and fully thrive in the reader’s mind). Besides the narrator’s expectations of herself as a mother, there are also her contemplations about the definition of home, whether this be where she originates from or where she is raising her family; her relationship with her husband; and the nature of memory and its impact on her thoughts and beliefs.
The story is composed of the protagonist’s memories and how she has come to understand the world through them, but as the reader knows, memory is a fickle thing that can be difficult to rely on. The story raises many questions about time and place; how places become associated with certain feelings and memories, how time and chance can determine the outcome of unexpected situations, such as her daughter’s near-death experience. The name Miles City also speaks about time and place and travelling and how it all affects a person. Ultimately, while the story may seem like a simple piece in an unexciting location about parents’ fears and guilt over what happens to their children, I think it says a lot more about the human mind becomes conditioned based on memories of life-changing experiences.
Next I’m going to talk about The Bear Came Over the Mountain. This story is more overtly complex, though the happenings may seem mundane to readers who are unable to fully grasp the ironies within this piece. It could be summarized as a man named Grant who loses his wife, Fiona, to Alzheimer’s disease and must let her lead a new life with the people she meets in the seniors’ institution she is sent to, particularly one man who starts treating her like his wife. Grant becomes jealous of Fiona’s new companion, even though he has cheated on her multiple times with students in his classes. When the man at the institution is sent back home with his real wife, Fiona becomes deeply depressed until Grant convinces the man’s wife to let him come and visit her at the institution. This story may at first glance simply seem sad instead of exciting, but if readers take the time to dwell upon Grant’s complicated nature, they will get more out of the story.
Grant loves his wife. This is evident from his everlasting efforts to try and make her remember him, communicate with him and keep her happy and healthy. However, his actions raise questions about the concept of devotion. Is he devoted to her well-being in the story? Yes. But is he devoted to her as his partner? No, since he has slept with other women and starts considering the wife of Fiona’s friend as a possible sexual partner. Grant becomes a great hypocrite when he is jealous of Fiona’s newfound friendship with another man when he himself has cheated on his wife. I don’t think this jealously can be called devotion, but it cannot be refuted that he does care about Fiona and her health, and he does help her in the end by bringing her friend back.
Stories with protagonists who are problematic are intrinsically complicated but fascinating to examine. What is a reader supposed to do with their mixed feelings about the main character? While there are many interesting things going on simultaneously, I think one of the best things about this story is that it leaves readers with more questions than answers. Some people may argue that endings are supposed to resolve things, but I don’t see an ending as inherently requiring a resolution. Oftentimes, it is more powerful to cut off the story abruptly and let the reader decide what could happen next.
The last story to be discussed is Runaway. There isn’t a lot “new” about this story: an unhappy wife is convinced to leave her husband, regrets her decision and has him bring her back. One might view this at first as a story about complacency, fear and male dominance. Which it is, but that is not the full story Munro is telling here. The woman, Carla, leaves her upper middle-class life behind to runaway with Clark, a “bad boy” type of character whose affections dissipate over time as he becomes a more hostile, bitter person. The story starts with a different runaway, that of Carla’s goat, Flora. The goat, who Carla has a close relationship with, can be seen as representing her instinctive inclination to get away from her situation, but the goat’s return cannot be interpreted so easily. Flora comes back once Clark brings Carla back home after her attempted escape to Toronto, aided by their older neighbour, Sylvia. When Clark confronts Sylvia and tells her to not interfere in their personal lives, Flora appears almost supernaturally in the misty field. This moment of fear and mystery ends the dispute between them. However, it is revealed that Clark has most likely killed Flora and hid the body in the woods away from the house, which Carla finds. This may symbolize the death of Carla’s freedom, though her recognition that Clark is to blame, and her willingness to move past this and not discuss it with him, makes the story even more disturbing.
Carla is dependent on her husband for survival, and the life he has created for her is all she knows. She seems afraid of him but more scared of what would happen to her if she loses him. This is a tragic reality for many abused women who lack opportunities for true independence. Beyond issues surrounding gender and patriarchal dominance, I think this story also explores the issue of constraint in general. Sylvia is constrained by the loss of her husband and her lack of family members, but eventually finds a better place to live that allows her to move on with her life. The horses are constrained by the barn and the fences; Carla and Clark make money by giving riding lessons, but the horses aren’t free to run on their own. Flora escapes but is then constrained by her master’s hand and is put to death. Clark used to move from job to job but is now constrained to life on the farm, and though he seems happier at the end of the story, it is hard to tell whether his life is fulfilling. And of course, Carla is constrained by her husband and fragile living situation. The story is not just about her, but rather about how the choices people make in their lives ultimately limit them from having certain opportunities, and it may be a difficult balance to strike between having freedom and independence yet having security and stability.
A big part of Munro’s literary magic is her ability to make readers delve into the worlds of characters who may not have immediately engrossing story lines, but whose struggles say a lot about human nature and tough choices that everyone must make. Stories don’t have to be action-packed and filled with twists and turns to be captivating, but they must engage the reader in a way that makes them forget they are reading something fictional and instead immerse themselves in a world that parallels their own. Alice Munro is a master of this, which is why she is so well-known to this day.
Read, Write, Repeat 