Alice Munro wrote 14 original collections of short stories in her distinguished career. And with, 'Away from her', I've read eleven of them - eleven books over eleven years, where I've never been disappointed with any of the books. 'Away from her', which was originally titled 'Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship,Marriage', (HFCLM) was her tenth book. The story "The Bear came over the mountain", one of her more renowned stories, captured in at least one anthology, has been renamed as "Away from her", carrying the title of the motion picture produced by Sarah Polley, which was based on that short story, It is a moving narration of where a husband is required to institutionalize his wife of many decades of marriage due to her deteriorating state with amnesia. In classic Munro style, the reader is left to guess which actions of the wife is caused by her sickness, which by convenience, as she finds rather preferred company at her new 'home'. The reader is left to ponder even if this is 'get even' times for her with her husband. A further point that the reader may mull over is, whether in the overall scheme of thing, a life long love is proven by its sustenance despite temporary betrayals, and instances of giving way to temptation. In 'Away from her', Grant, despite his excesses stands by his wife in her most difficult times, when he was losing her in more sense than one. (Further, the foreword by Sarah Polley, is almost a short story by itself, as she recounts what the short story meant for her, how in a grander scheme of things, it resulted in finding her, her then husband.)
About half of these stories center on an episode of a chance encounter of an infatuation. And, to a person, all such stories encounter a woman - be it the first chance of kissing a married woman for a youth (as in 'Floating Bridge'), the passion of a bush doctor for a woman he meets at a funeral, which she experiences just one day in her life and which she relives all her married life as a precious episode ( "What is Remembered"), or the chance meeting of her childhood friend, who when met as a young man holds a chance of passion which they get to experience very briefly ("Nettles"). Of these, "What is Remembered" made the most impression on me, as the details of her capitulation - which was not something that she had in mind - but upon experiencing it, her necessity of storing up in detail for future, made such a convincing case when caught in a long term marriage.
“The job she had to do, as she saw it, was to remember everything—and by 'remember' she meant experience it in her mind, one more time—then store it away forever. This day’s experience set in order, none of it left ragged or lying about, all of it gathered in like treasure and finished with, set aside.”
It is almost as if Alice wanted a collection of stories which focused on the temporary release of a long term bonding, read as marriage, in which the woman had no logical reason to end, but a one time relief, was most welcome. This mental balancing act is nowhere more clearer than in the short story 'Post and Beam', where our protagonist is prepared to compromise in her mental prayer of something precious to her, to be pardoned for her mistreatment of a relation, who had made sacrifices on her behalf. And what does this barter amount to ? Giving up a young man in a debate with her mind, with whom a chance romance was blossoming. She gives up her chance of release in barter, in conversation with her mind, as long as the "worst" doesn't happen to her relation. Even when a marriage is life long, and is limited to one partner, there is at least one instance of an infatuation - as is the case with Nina and Ed, as we find in "Comfort" - where the materialist ideology of Nina's husband, Lewis, is so important to him, that she could possibly be looking for a momentary respite from the arguments between those for and against God.
"Family Furnishings" is another top story here, as Alice subtly leaves the building blocks around for us to construct the relationship between Alfrida and the father of our protagonist. Alfrida's daughter, of whom we don't come across till the last moment says this to our protagonist,
"You want to know what Alfrida said about you?”
Now. I knew it was coming now.
“What?”
“She said you were smart, but you weren’t ever quite as smart as you thought you were.”
I made myself keep looking into the dark face against the light. Smart, too smart, not smart enough.
I said, “Is that all?”
“She said you were kind of a cold fish. That’s her talking, not me. I haven’t got anything against you.”
Years of bitterness, from the mother and the daughter delivered as a punch, to our protagonist, who wasn't quick enough to understand that she don't need hear it. A classic finish to a classic short story!
The collection concludes with "Quennie", a short story in which one step sister has a genuine affection and regard for the other, but whom she loses in her youth, as Quennie states that she cannot survive "without love". Another story which doesn't come quite close to the best stories here.
Overall out of the nine short stories found here, I could clearly say that most of them are quite excellent and for the eleventh time, I close a collection by Ms. Munro, awestruck with the details of human nature, failings of men and women which when taken in perspective are forgivable, and how in this journey called life, one can only be true to himself or herself.
Rating: ****1/2
No comments:
Post a Comment