DEAR LIFE by Alice Munro

 DEAR LIFE

by Alice Munro

In 2013, the Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to Alice Munro, with the Swedish Academy praising her as a "master of the contemporary short story." Their statement commended Munro for her precise storytelling, characterized by clarity and psychological realism.

Alice Munro was born in the town of Wingham, Ontario, Canada, a place situated along the Maitland River. The reason for highlighting her birthplace is that at least four of her stories are deeply connected to her life and surroundings, forming a kind of autobiography. These four final stories are titled: "The Eye," "Night," "Voices," and of course, her finest story, "Dear Life."

This book is one of Munro’s last works and beautifully showcases her mastery of short story writing.

Wherever people go, they often carry their religious beliefs, cultural traditions, and even ethnic perspectives with them—and they strive to pass these beliefs on to their children.

Canada has long been a country that welcomes immigrants and has officially embraced and actively implemented a multicultural policy. Munro’s stories profoundly reflect the diverse beliefs and cultures of this vast land. This is why her stories feel deeply connected to reality, making them both relatable and believable.

Munro draws inspiration for her short stories from her surroundings, portraying the world of women who grapple with loneliness, gender-based challenges, financial and intellectual independence, and struggles against outdated beliefs.

As I mentioned earlier, this collection tells its stories in the simplest way possible, without using overly complex phrases or overly refined sentences. The focus remains on people’s lives, making the stories both profound and impactful.

Munro’s narratives explore themes such as memory loss in old age, the search for lost identity, disillusionment with everyday life, difficult choices at life’s crossroads, the fading of love over time, and the transformation of beliefs due to social and geographical changes.

For example, in the story "To Reach Japan," Munro explores a woman’s inner conflict between her role as a mother and her identity as a poet. At the same time, the story highlights emotional fulfillment and the consequences of choices in personal and family relationships. A tension arises in the protagonist’s mind as she struggles between her inner desires and societal expectations.

Munro has a way of immersing readers in the lives of her characters, making them feel real and tangible. I won’t be summarizing all fourteen stories in this book, but I will touch on some of their key themes.

Love, aging, regret, life-altering moments, the passage of time and its impact on our choices, moral values, childhood innocence, confronting fears and past sins, and social hypocrisy are among the themes explored in this collection.

For instance, in the story "Paradise," a young girl is placed under the strict control of her religious uncle in the absence of her parents. Her uncle expects both her and his wife to conform to his rigid religious and traditional values. The story directly addresses gender roles within family control, the power structures within households, and the suppression of individual identity.

In "Pride," the central theme revolves around human relationships and unspoken emotions. Here, pride is depicted as a double-edged sword—it can protect one’s dignity, yet it can also cause harm, preventing deep emotional connections.

The story "Train" presents an unexpected and involuntary situation where a war veteran jumps off a train near a village and finds himself entangled in a complex life he neither anticipated nor was prepared for.

The short story "In Sight of the Lake" focuses on aging and memory loss, touching on the theme of dementia and how memory shapes our identity. It raises an important question: What role do we play in the memories of others, and what memories of them remain in our own minds?

I hope you find the opportunity to read this book and enjoy it!

Notes from book:

writing this letter is like putting a note in a bottle-

and hoping

It will reach Japan. Page 14

Giving. Some people were giving, other people were not very giving. Barriers between the inside and outside of your head were to be trampled down. Authenticity required it. Page 20 "it's like being inside a Russian novel." page 36 good riddance to bad rubbish. page 44 "The thing is to be happy,’ he said. ‘No matter what. Just try that. You can. It gets to be easier and easier. It’s nothing to do with circumstances. You wouldn’t believe how good it is. Accept everything and then tragedy disappears." page 108

I said that the only thing that bothered me, a little, was the way there was an assumption that nothing more was going to happen in our lives. Nothing of important to us, nothing to be managed anymore. page 235 leaning' on the old top rail, in a big corral. Lookin' down the twilight trail for my long lost pal- Page 259 "Roly Grain, his name was, and he does not have any further part in what I'm writing now, in spite of his troll's name, because this is not a story, only life." I know a grassy hillside Above a river clear A Place of Peace and pleasure A memory very dear- The sun upon the river With ceaseless sparkles play And over on the other bank Are blossoms wild and gay- Across the Iris-bordered stream The shade of maples spread And, on the river's watery field, White geese, in flocks are fed "I would have composed them right around the time that I was being so intolerant of my mother, and my father was whaling the unkindness out of me. or beating the tar out of me, as people would cheerfully say back then." page 317 "I did not go home for my mother’s last illness or for her funeral. I had two small children and nobody in Vancouver to leave them with. We could barely have afforded the trip, and my husband had a contempt for formal behavior, but why blame it on him? I felt the same way." page319