In the introduction to my original list of book reviews, I made a dismissive crack about stories concerning "the intimate bond between sisters," suggesting that my masculine taste didn't cotton to accounts of characters' relationships and feelings. Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage proves the folly of my prejudice. Only one of the stories in this collection features sisters ("Queenie"), but all of them are about relationships and feelings.
The turning point in a Munro story, the surprise twist, comes in an emotional reaction rather than an event. The title story, for example, has two teenage girls fabricating a correspondence between a housekeeper and a man who lives in far-off Saskatchewan, leading the woman to believe that marriage may be in the cards. You can see disaster approaching. But even though the plot goes exactly where you think it's going, the woman responds to the situation in an unexpected way. Resulting in a happy ending!
Munro's characters are navigating the competing needs for companionship, and independence. The narrative set-up often feels familiar from other writers, but even the weaker stories include an impressive a-ha moment. I wasn't enjoying "Post and Beam" until Lorna's bargain with the universe two-thirds of the way through; the adulterous plot of "What is Remembered" is clichéd but I loved how the inciting intimacies were comfortable spouse-like rapport rather than titillating glances.
I guess the Nobel folks were on to something.
The turning point in a Munro story, the surprise twist, comes in an emotional reaction rather than an event. The title story, for example, has two teenage girls fabricating a correspondence between a housekeeper and a man who lives in far-off Saskatchewan, leading the woman to believe that marriage may be in the cards. You can see disaster approaching. But even though the plot goes exactly where you think it's going, the woman responds to the situation in an unexpected way. Resulting in a happy ending!
Munro's characters are navigating the competing needs for companionship, and independence. The narrative set-up often feels familiar from other writers, but even the weaker stories include an impressive a-ha moment. I wasn't enjoying "Post and Beam" until Lorna's bargain with the universe two-thirds of the way through; the adulterous plot of "What is Remembered" is clichéd but I loved how the inciting intimacies were comfortable spouse-like rapport rather than titillating glances.
I guess the Nobel folks were on to something.
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