Friend of my youth - Alice Munro

 

Friend of my youth: The story that gave the name to the book is vintage Munro. Reminiscing on a time when Canada was much backward, conservative, and religious, the story touches on two main themes. How a daughter misses her mother - long deceased, and how some people simply don't open up, however much long a time they've been closely associating. That conservative Canada's view on sex may have played its part is clear.

Five points: This story runs through two parallels - a woman, the level she wants her illicit affair, how she behaves as a typical woman in front of her lover, the level of arrogance she has one's satiated.

"'I've got to go,' she says. 'Soon.' you can make love in a hurry if you have to, but you need time for a fight. Is that what they're starting on? A fight? She feels edgy but happy. Her happiness is tight and private, not the sort that flows out from you and fuzzes everything up and makes you good naturedly careless about what you say. The very opposite. She feels light and sharp and unconnected."

The parallel story is her lover recalling things from his youth - drugs, how an unattractive girl paid to have sex with her. Overall its one of the best short stories I've read of Munro's.

Meneseteung: Here Munro experiments with form. A poet's work is introduced, and from there how some of the poems' have their basis close to the poet's heart. A spinster, she shies away when love comes knocking - although she was expecting it. At the end we realise, that an anonymous author has imagined our poet's life, from her work.

Hold me Fast, Don't let me pass: I don't recall any Munro story being based outside of Canada (there might've been those that could've slipped my mind ). But this particular tale, based in Scotland represents a strict religious conservativeness about the residents of a Scottish village, where their excesses are conveniently not spoken of, or pretended as never to have taken place. Jack's widow, Hazel, visits the Scottish village to see a relation of Jack, as well as meet one of his war time dalliance. But the blanket pretension of those residing, where certain actions and their consequences are treated with tact between them, while denying the  past,  make Hazel's aims futile.

Oranges and Apples: As mentioned in the introduction, the restlessness of a married woman, in a monotonous marriage is one of the main themes in this collection. In this story, we see the married couple coming to an agreement to continue, without arguing, or even discussing about what Barbara went through.

  "Barbara came over to the table and pushed his head against the wet satin and the cruel little buttons, pushed it mercilessly between her hard breasts. 'We are never going to talk about it,' she said. 'We never will. O.K.?' He could smell the cigarette smoke on her now, and the smell of the foreign skin. She held him till he echoed her."

To me this part speaks to in several levels - how when is tacitly released, she can't bear to leave him, and how things work out between a husband and a wife, with a resolve to do so. 

Pictures of the Ice: Is a story centered on the character, Karin, wife of the new minister of the church, and the retired one, a widower, who contemplates marriage, amidst the opposition of his two grown up kids.

"Parents and children, Karin," he says, sighing, sighing, looking humorous. "Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we- have children. Then they always want us to be the same, they want us to be parents - it shakes them up dreadfully if we should do anything they didn't think we'd do. Dreadfully."

The story moves along the troubled, eventful life of Karin, and the rather monotonous one of Austin - who seeks some excitement in his last years. 

Goodness and Mercy: This has the subtle overtone of a mystery in a ship cruise, without a proper mystery - just an old lady waiting for her death, the ship's captain with his stories, and a celebrity of sorts. looking for love aboard the ship, now that her marriage has failed. But appreciating the sheer literary capacity of this story, am glad that it is not limited to a mystery.

Oh, What Avails: A story of a brother and sister - the sister moves away from her town, and looks for freedom, "smashing" (the term is used within these stories in this context) her marriage - tricked by a seducer, as she learns later. The brother, with his eye injury, lives his life in his own terms, considering his business as his primary aim for living - and even playing partner for a woman, who longs for her estranged man, is acceptable to him.

Differently: This is possibly the chief story in this collection of women testing their boring relationships, and being quite glad to "smash" their marriages if it comes to that. The unmistakable tone of once poor boys, who have since become qualified surgeons, proving to be boring partners brings an element of color to the story.

Wigtime: Anita and Margot come from a small town, and one aspires to become a nurse. But it is the other one who becomes a nurse, as she regrets the attention that her friend has received from a man. They meet each other after long years, and they share the stories, and "Wigtime" is a phrase one woman uses to contain her husband, and have him at her heed.

Another stellar collection by Ms. Munro, which I enjoyed a lot. For a Munro fan, this is more of her same classic constructs, with a subtlety  which signify the changes her country was going through, and how it has affected people of her generation.

Rating: *****
First Published in 1990