#31 Runaway (2004)- Alice Munro
“It was as if she had a murderous needle somewhere in her
lungs, and by breathing carefully, she could avoid feeling it. But every once
in a while she had to take a deep breath, and it was still there”
Of all the beautiful writing in this piece, this passage
stuck with me. I’ve never read a more poignant
description about what its like to be in an emotionally abusing relationship,
painfully breathtaking.
And with that, I am introduced to Alice Munro. A legendary Canadian author, her name is at
the top of nearly every list of best short fiction writers, and for good
reason. Runaway, the title story of this
collection I cant wait to read more of, is a seamless literary tapestry,
emotional but not pushy, grand but no flamboyant. It’s a piece that stays with you.
Life is hard.
Changing that life, no matter how uncomfortable, unfulfilling,
oppressive it may be, is possible the hardest thing we can do. Carla is the victim of just such a life, but
she like many, can’t see the world beyond. She’s poor and lives in a trailer
which she philosophically thinks:
“Some people live in trailers and there’s nothing more to
it.”
That’s her feeling on most of her life. This is just how it
is. When they were first married and
starting a horse farm, she not unhappily saw herself as one of her husbands
horses as “a captive, her submission both proper and exquisite.”
The pastoral nature of this piece softens the level of angst
for the reader, as her own pastoral setting probably softened her own suffering
sometimes. Their lost goat, Flora, who
was put in the stables to calm the hoses was very much representative of Carla,
there to calm her angry husband. But to
her husband, Flora was a symbol of freedom he didn’t want Carla to see. Carla even dreamed about Flora with an
enticing Eden-like red apple in its mouth.
There is a lot to this story, themes about anger, about
family, about freedom. Great, great
short story!
Notable Passage: *see above
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