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The Fiction of Alice Munro This page intentionally left blank The Fiction of Alice Munro An Appreciation Brad Hooper LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Hooper,Brad. ThefictionofAliceMunro:anappreciation/BradHooper. p. cm. Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. ISBN:978–0–275–99121–0(alk.paper) 1.Munro,Alice—Criticismandinterpretation. 2.Munro,Alice—Technique. 3.Munro,Alice—Literarystyle. I.Title. PR9199.3.M8Z695 2008 813(cid:1).54—dc22 2008006940 BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationDataisavailable. Copyright(cid:2)C 2008byBradHooper Allrightsreserved.Noportionofthisbookmaybe reproduced,byanyprocessortechnique,withoutthe expresswrittenconsentofthepublisher. LibraryofCongressCatalogCardNumber:2008006940 ISBN:978–0–275–99121–0 Firstpublishedin2008 PraegerPublishers,88PostRoadWest,Westport,CT06881 AnimprintofGreenwoodPublishingGroup,Inc. www.praeger.com PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica Thepaperusedinthisbookcomplieswiththe PermanentPaperStandardissuedbytheNational InformationStandardsOrganization(Z39.48–1984). 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Contents Introduction vii chapter1 SheBeginsHerCareer 1 chapter2 SomethingDifferent,aNovel 17 chapter3 HerFirstMasterpieces 33 chapter4 HerFirstSignatureBook 49 chapter5 AnotherUnevenCollection 63 chapter6 AnotherSolidCollection 75 chapter7 ReachingHigherPeaks 87 chapter8 APlateau 101 chapter9 AStepUpward 113 chapter10 HerBestBookYet 127 chapter11 ASlightStepBackward 139 chapter12 ASlipBackward 151 Conclusion 161 Bibliography 165 Index 167 This page intentionally left blank Introduction In a recent interview,1 American fiction writer John Updike was asked about hisroleaseditoroftheanthology,TheBestAmericanShortStoriesoftheCentury (publishedin1999).Hewasasked,specifically,whathemighthavelearnedthat wasnewabouttheshort-storyformafterhavingreadsomanyexamplesinthe course of selecting stories for inclusion in that volume. In answering, Updike reaffirmed that the short story is not a moribund fictional form. “I can’t give youapocketsummaryofwhat’shappeningintheshortstorynow,”heaverred, “except that people like Alice Munro and Laurie Moore and Thom Jones are writinglarger,attemptingtoexpandtheshortstoryandtoletinalittlemore novelisticlargeness,togetmanythingsgoing.Theformisfarfromdying.”2 ThatAliceMunrowouldbementionedinthepagesofadistinguishedliterary journalthatisreadbythecognoscentiandmentionedbynolessaliteraryfigure of the magnitude of John Updike, is important to notice. Munro’s career has beenchieflydedicatedtotheshortstory(onlyoneofherdozenbookshasbeena novel),whichmightseemtolimitherappealandnamerecognitiontoarelatively smallreadership,whichwouldbereadersoftheSouthernReview.Afterall,very few collections of short stories reach the bestseller lists; in other words, how manypeoplecanbeobservedinpublicplaces,onplanesorpublictransportation, readingstorycollections?Orhearingthembeingdiscussedamongevenavidand discerningreaders?Or,forthatmatter,chosenbybookclubs? The mention of Alice Munro in the Southern Review by a fellow writer who is obviously aware of who’s who in today’s literary firmament is one thing. It is another point (at a later point for her) to be the subject of an article in the New York Times Sunday Magazine.3 And not simply mentioned in passing as in the Updike interview, and not simply mentioned in the pages of a limitedly read literary journal. But featured in an entire article in a newspaper reaching viii Introduction millionsofreaders.ThearticletakesthereadertoMunro’ssmallOntariotown, sketchingsomevividbiographicaldetails,whileclearlyidentifyingherliterary objective:thatshe“hassucceededinputtingthisintractablyrural,unhurried,and laconicregionfirmlyontheliterarymap,renderingitshumancommotion––its gothicpassions,buriedsorrows,andforlornmysteries––indazzlingplain-spoken stories that connect directly with her readers’ interior narratives and histories oftheheart.”4 AndthefollowingcommentinthearticlecorrespondswithJohn Updike’sSouthernReviewremarkabouthershortstories:“AsforMunro’splaying fastandloosewiththegenre,itisanissuecriticshaveraisedfromthestart.”5 That her accomplishments have become roundly and soundly accepted on a critical level––by literary critics, that is—both summarized and cemented into place by this quote found in a standard reference source, Contemporary Literary Criticism: “Munro’s mastery of the short fiction form over the course of her careerhasdrawnrespectandhasspurredmanytoconsiderheroneofthemost importantwritersworkingtoday.”6 ThecentralargumentIwillpursuethroughmyclosereadingofallofMunro’s shortstorycollectionsandonenovel,intheorderoftheirpublication,isthatshe hasdevelopedherownbrandoftheshortstory,onethatpermitshertoget“many thingsgoing”andsoshemayenjoy“playingfastandloosewiththegenre.”In manyways,atypicalMunroshortstory,asthetypehasevolvedoverthecourse of her career, violates––at least at first glance––the standard definition of the form: which, traditionally, has the short fictional form, unlike its big sister the novel,notgettingalotofthingsgoing. WhenMunrobeganwriting,sheratherupsettheapplecart.Herfirststories foundpublicationinsuchCanadianliterarymagazinesasTamarackReview,The Montrealer, and Chatelaine; and these first stories were collected in Dance of the HappyShades,whichappearedinCanadain1968,andsubsequentlyintheUnited States in 1973. It was obvious from the beginning of her career that she was after something different in her stories, and this striving for a difference has as its purpose suitingher own needsin tellingthe kind of story she wantedto tell.Whatexactlyshewasafterandhowshewentaboutpursuinghergoalwas largely transparent in its execution, which is not to infer sleight-of-hand, but ratheraprocessoflyricalsubtlety. From the beginning, Munro’s stories primarily were character studies, the chiefwayofdescribingthem.Fromthestart,shestrovetoarriveatthebestway tocaptureanddelineatetheessenceofcharacter.Theresultisthe“goingafter somethingdifferent”Ireferredtointhepreviousparagraph;Munromanipulated theform’straditionalstructuretoaccomplishanintensestudyofcharacter.But shehadnointerestinallaspectsofacharacter;exceptfortheoneoccasionwhen shedidwriteone,shedidnotwritenovels.Herstoriesareindeednotnovels,nor dotheyevenvergeonhybridizationasa“condensed”novel(whichisnotareal orviablefictionalform,butashortcutmeasurebyawriterinterestedin,butnot energeticenough,towriteatruenovel). This,then,isthebasicpremiseofmybook:Munro’sshortstoriesareindeed that,notcondensedorshortnovels.(Ashortstorythatgoeslongerthantheusual Introduction ix numberofpagesmuststillretainthe“singleeffect”qualityoritsimplyflounders andhasnoeffect;andashortnovelmuststilldowhatanoveldoes,whichisdevelop morethanoneaspectofacharacter’snaturethroughaseriesofepisodesandnot justoneortwoisolatedepisodes,nomatterhowillustrativeandexemplarythe chosen episodes may be. If it fails to do that, then it, too, has no viability as a successfulliteraryentity.AlthoughonecriticmakestheassertionaboutMunro’s handlingofthetwoforms:“Ironically,althoughshehadneverwrittena‘proper novel’hershortstoriesblurthedistinctivebetweenthegenres.”7) I will analyze how, for her, form has followed function, in somewhat of a fictionalequivalentofFrankLloydWright’sguidingprincipleinhisarchitectural designs––namely,hisdesigntendencythatcametobecalledthePrairieSchool. Munro’strademarkfictionaldeviceiscirclingthroughtime:herstoriesrefracting past events through a narrator’s perceptions and first-person voice, as these occasionsfromacharacter’spastinformthesalienttraitsofthatcharacterand informthereaderofthosetraits.(Asonecriticexpressedit,hertechniqueisto “holdpastandpresent,nottospeakofevenmorecomplicatedzonesoftimein- between,incontinualsuspension.”8)This,then,isthechallengeshehaschosen totakeup;thisistheriskshehasaccepted.Thefictionalforminwhichshehas decidedtospendbasicallyallherenergyworkingisnottraditionallytheplace formuchreferencingofthemaincharacter’spast.The“now”iswhatmattersin ashortstory,traditionallyspeaking,andavisionofthenowthatisnotclouded, encumbered,orweighteddownbythingsthattranspiredbefore.Thetalentofa short-storywriteristypicallyrealizedbyhoweffectively––andexpressly––the nowofacharacter––again,theparticularaspectofthatcharactertheauthoris not interested in capturing at this time––is communicated with a minimum of thepastactuallycitedaspossible. The particular talent of Munro (not too strong to say “genius”), as we shall seeinourforthcomingexaminationofherentireoeuvre,derivesfromanuntra- ditionalhandlingofthepast.Hercharacteristiccirclingthroughtimeisallabout thepast;thedifferenceshemakesinherhandlingofthepastistoarriveatanew way,unboundbytraditionalshort-storymovesanddistinctions,ofbringingthe past into the frame of the story. In this pursuit, she avoids simple referencing ofthepasttoactuallyequalizethepastandthepresentinalayeringeffectthat works its way down through time to arrive at the core, which is the present moment: the present situation Munro has selected to most readily, apparently, andtellinglyrevealtheessenceofacharacter. This complicated process is accomplished, I believe (regardless of the previ- ously cited critic who insists Munro “blurs” the lines), with no compromise on her part to the integrity of either the short-story form or the novel. Her short stories,then,soIfind,arenotshortnovels,nordotheystraddlebothformsand resultinbeingneither. Munrohas,asIshallexplainandexplore,achievedamiddleground.Shehad “birthed”herownvarietyoftheshortstory.AsafactorindefiningtheMunro shortstory,wewillaffirmthatwhileherfictionaimsfirstatcharacterexploration and delineation, plot is not incidental; in fact, on frequent occasions she offers

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As a short-story writer, Alice Munro has achieved high critical and popular regard in both her native Canada and in the United States. Indeed, Munro has been adopted by the entire English-speaking world as one of its own, and her work has received many awards and honors. In the U.S., she is roundly