Books of the Month

'Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage' by Alice Munro

Alice Munro is in the premier league of short story writers. Of the same generation as fellow Canadian Margaret Atwood, and frequently compared to Chekhov, she has been writing highly regarded collections of stories for many years. Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage (the title comes from a child's counting game) was published in 2001, and like many of her other books, is largely set in the small town communities of her native Ontario.

Munro isn't the kind of writer for whom stories are fleeting glimpses of unknowable lives. Hers are much richer and more inhabited than mere narrative snapshots. She's said herself that she needs to know everything about her characters - what they like to eat, how they dress, their histories - before she can fully realise them. And reading a story like the title one in this collection feels like embarking on a novel, such is the degree of detail, the spaciousness and the measured pace. The story centres on Johanna, an unloved housekeeper who becomes the butt of a childhood prank. Sabitha and her friend Edith concoct a series of love letters to Johanna from Sabitha's father, which work so well that the housekeeper gives up her job and travels to his remote village on what she believes is the agreement of a future marriage.

Apart from the story not turning out the way the reader fears it will, what's notable about it is the way that Munro chooses to tell it, and how she moves the reader skilfully towards her conclusion. The first scene, for instance, is of Johanna arranging for Sabitha's father's furniture to be sent to him - at great inconvenience and no little expense. We don't yet know that this is the man she is to marry, or how the relationship has developed, or even how she knows him. What we are left in no doubt of, however, is Johanna's determination and resourcefulness - both characteristics which influence the eventual outcome of the tale. Also, because Johanna isn't an instantly likeable character, Munro invites us to wait and see before judging her.

These are stories of what-might-have-been: affairs that could have led to something more, or opportunities which never quite led to affairs; lives which could have been lived differently; deaths which approach, or are dealt with, in the light of experience gleaned from past mistakes. They aren't always comfortable stories, but then looking back at missed opportunities, or life-altering decisions, rarely is. The final story in the collection is 'The Bear Came Over the Mountain', recently turned into a film (retitled Away From Her) by Canadian actress and director Sarah Polley. It's the story of Grant and Fiona, a couple who have been together many years but whose retirement is turned upside down when Fiona contracts Alzheimer's disease. Deftly handled by Munro, it's a sensitive, touching exploration of what happens when the loyalty, love and memory get tangled up. Resisting sentimentality and mawkishness, it's a fitting end to an impressive collection that will appeal to both short story aficionados, and those who prefer to get their teeth into something richer and denser.

Susan Tranter

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