The incomparable Alice Munro’s bestselling and rapturously acclaimed Runaway is a book of extraordinary stories about love and its infinite betrayals and surprises, from the title story about a young woman who, though she thinks she wants to, is incapable of leaving her husband, to three stories about a woman named Juliet and the emotions that complicate the luster of her intimate relationships. In Munro’s hands, the people she writes about–women of all ages and circumstance... (show more)
The incomparable Alice Munro’s bestselling and rapturously acclaimed Runaway is a book of extraordinary stories about love and its infinite betrayals and surprises, from the title story about a young woman who, though she thinks she wants to, is incapable of leaving her husband, to three stories about a woman named Juliet and the emotions that complicate the luster of her intimate relationships. In Munro’s hands, the people she writes about–women of all ages and circumstances, and their friends, lovers, parents, and children–become as vivid as our own neighbors. It is her miraculous gift to make these stories as real and unforgettable as our own. (show less)
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Alice Munro's 2004 collection of short stories ¨Runaway¨ lovingly tells eight stories of the human condition of the hopes, betrayals, misunderstand... (show more)
Alice Munro's 2004 collection of short stories ¨Runaway¨ lovingly tells eight stories of the human condition of the hopes, betrayals, misunderstandings and acts of kindness of women in trying to weave their lives, loves to the context of their immediate surroundings and relationships. 1) ´Runaway´ is the story of a young woman, Carla, who, with the help of her elderly neighbour Sylvia, where she works as housekeeper, tries to leave her abusive husband Clark, but finds herself incapable of doing so. 2) 'Chance´ Juliet leaves teaching at a girls' school and crosses Canada to B.C. to reconnect with her lover that she had met previously 3) 'Soon' Juliet, returns East with her child, Penelope, to the home of her parents, giving her a new insight of her relationship with them. 4) 'Silence' Twenty years later, Penelope, now as a young adult leaves Juliet never to return. Juliet thinks that Penelope is in the grip of a cult, where she tries to rescue her. Julia discovers later that Penelope has left home for good and severed ties completely with her. 5) "Passion," Grace, a young woman in a job in a resort hotel discovers first ephemeral love through a casual affair with a doctor who has no long-term designs 6)¨Trespasses¨ 14-year-old Lauren discovers her true origins vis-à-vis her birth in a confrontation with her parents and a woman worker in a restaurant who takes very close interest in her. 7) 'Tricks' Robin, a nurse on a day train trip to a Stratford play loses her purse, but encounters a Montenegrin who helps her out, and after a seduction, vow to return to meet each other one year later. The re-encounter ends in a disaster of mistaken identity, which Robin discovers only later in life. 8) "Powers," a 50 year span of the fate of a young clairvoyant, Tessa and of the characters that entwine her life. 29-42 Paris 24Oct09 (show less)
I didn't actually finish this book. Read it about halfway through and decided I did not like it at all. Can't figure out why it received such goo... (show more)
I didn't actually finish this book. Read it about halfway through and decided I did not like it at all. Can't figure out why it received such good reviews-Yuck! (show less)
Munro is without a doubt a fantastic storyteller. Her stories have a mystical quality to them that is captivating, and reflect the isolation of some of the desolate Canadian regions in which they take place. Her characters, while very real, leave you wondering which one of their truths to believe. You'll feel a little uncomfortable reading these stories, mainly because there's always an undercurrent of something horrible lurking in the shadows, which Munro usually leaves to your imagination (... (show more)
Munro is without a doubt a fantastic storyteller. Her stories have a mystical quality to them that is captivating, and reflect the isolation of some of the desolate Canadian regions in which they take place. Her characters, while very real, leave you wondering which one of their truths to believe. You'll feel a little uncomfortable reading these stories, mainly because there's always an undercurrent of something horrible lurking in the shadows, which Munro usually leaves to your imagination (thanks!). There's very little levity in these stories, which I found to be not only unsettling, but also somewhat one-dimensional – and this is my one criticism of the book. Loss, death, disease, abuse, freakishness, infidelity, more death - yes, but not to the exclusion of all the rest there is to life. After reading Runaway, you might be convinced that that's all that goes on up in the Northern frontier, and more broadly, that that's ultimately what forms the basis of our lives. (show less)
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Munro is a master of craft and characterization. If you're learning to write, you ought to read her work.
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I feel like I am missing something. After all the rave reviews about Alice Munro, I was eager to read this short story collection. My initial excitement, however, was quickly replaced by boredom. So much so, that I abandoned the book without finishing it, an unheard of phenomenon for me. In light of all her acolade...s, I do still plan to give Ms. Munro a chance by reading her one more of her work.
There was one great story in this book...a story that is broken down into three parts and that ends so poignantly -- you will know it when you read it. Otherwise, the rest of her writing was so affected, and rife with clumsy sybmoblism, that I just did not find myself entering her world of characters, and I could not bring myself to care about what happened to them.
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