Volume 52, Number 2 · February 10, 2005
Life Studies
By Al Alvarez
Runaway
by Alice Munro
Knopf, 335 pp., $25.00
'Man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward,' Eliphaz the Temanite told Job. In Alice Munro's stories, it is the women who are born that way and the men, mostly, who cause it. 'You flare up,' says Carla, in the title story of Munro's new collection. 'That's what men do,' her husband, Clark, replies and Carla doesn't answer back. She may be young and confused, but she is old enough to know that she's complaining about nothing worse than his impatience and irritability: he picks fights at the local store, squabbles with clients of their nickel-and-dime riding school, and is chronically sullen with her. Trivial stuff, nothing to worry about. But Carla travels a long way in the course of a short story, and by the end 'what men do' has come to seem altogether more sinister than mere moodiness.
Review, 2549 words
To read the full text of this piece, please choose one of the following options:
|
If you are already a subscriber to the Review's electronic edition, please sign in: |
To subscribe to the electronic edition, please press the button below. |
To purchase access to this article for $3, please press the button below. |