Sunday 20 October 2013

Sunday October 20, 2013 Runaway with Alice Munro















On October 10, Canadian short story writer Alice Munro was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature, deeming her the “master of the contemporary short story”. It is fitting that at the age of 82, Munro should receive the recognition, acknowledging her for the diverse body of work she has created. The Nobel award places Munro amongst the company of great writers, such as Ernest Hemingway, T. S. Eliot, and Toni Morrison. This prize also makes Munro the thirteenth woman and the first Canadian to have been given the award. Quite the honor!

Known as a contemporary Anton Chekov, Munro writes about the lives of woman from all ages, set in the heart of the “Southern Ontario Gothic”. Munro creates living, breathing characters that experience varying circumstances, from the daily mundane to the extraordinary. Through her tales, Munro writes about how certain life events can shape, illuminate and change the human experience.  

The first collection of short stories that Munro wrote was Dance of the Happy Shades, published in 1968. This was the literary world’s first exposure to Munro, and it made quite the impression. This series began Munro’s fascination with exploring the lives of women and men in quiet, rural Southern communities leading modest, ordinary lives and dealing with situations uniquely powerful. Munro is notable for giving great depth and dimension to her characters, without relying on theatrics. For her first published work, Munro won a Governor General’s Award, her first among many to come.

Munro followed up her debut with Lives of Girls and Women. Here Munro expanded her interest in writing about women by breathing life into Del Jordan, the protagonist who appears in this volume of cyclical short stories.  As a whole, Munro explores the themes coming of age, and again life in a small town. Munro brings much life and honesty to Jordan’s experiences; from her early teen foils, to her ever-growing disdain of small town life.

In The Moons of Jupiter, Munro expands her style by writing about an older age group, while exploring the themes of memory and love. The most beguiling of entries comes in the form of “The Turkey Season”, where an adult woman reminisces about a past adolescent experience as a turkey gutter at a processing plant. Here Munro uses her signature observational prose to great effect: a young woman as an outsider trying to make sense of her new surroundings.

In Hateship Friendship Courtship Loveship Marriage, Munro moves away from infatuation and examines long lasting love and the how the past can influence the future. In “Family Furnishings”, a writer begins to lose respect for a once close family member due to an unresolved family secret. In “The Bear Came Over The Mountain”, an elderly philanderer must come to terms with his wife’s recently diagnosed Alzheimer’s disease.

Of Munro’s most recent efforts include Runaway and Dear Life. In both volumes, Munro continues her streak in telling stories of how circumstance or twist of fate can put a person’s life course in a different direction. More than ever, Munro ponders how strange, sensual, and dangerous ordinary life can be.    

Petar Vidjen

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