“Runaway”
by Alice Munro
Published: September 2005
ISBN: 0143050710

(Updated: February 12, 2007.)

From the Publisher…

The incomparable Alice Munro’s bestselling and rapturously acclaimed Runaway is a book of extraordinary stories about love and its infinite betrayals and surprises. 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 neighbours. It is her miraculous gift to make these stories as real and unforgettable as our own.

It can’t be said that I don’t try. I do. I heard that this was a lovely collection of stories and despite my reservations about “collections of stories”, I bought it and I read it and, well, I continue to work on evolving my understanding about my reservations about “collections of stories”.

Maybe I’m slow of heart and mind and feet, maybe its my pull towards gluttony of sorts but if I am going to experience anything, I like to experience it. I like to savour it. I like to get to know it. I like to have “time”. And, I want to try/see/experience everything that someone has taken that time to put in front of me in this same way. (I am truly miserable at buffet dinners. Truly. Really. Miserable. But… a meal of beautifully put together appetizers is probably one of the “best” meals I can imagine.)

I like people. I like trying to understand/know/examine/look at/learn what our human experience — individual or collective — is. I so like it when someone takes the time to look at any part of this and write about it. And when it is beautifully thought out, when it is beautifully written, when the experience of a book is incredible… it is simply “incredible” and to be savoured.

So… maybe it is my fault for wanting to rush onto or into the next page but, despite the presence of a couple of “appetizers”, reading this book for the most part reminded me of a great buffet that I wanted to turn into a bunch of separate “meals”. I was happy to find that some of the stories went “together” and maybe it would be different if each story were in its own jacket but I don’t think so. More. I wanted more.

Looking at the publisher’s description of the book… maybe my frustration comes from the fact that although I like (most of) my neighbours, I love (all of) my friends. And, true to the publisher’s words… in this book I found neighbours, some of whom I (personally, Ines, me) would have loved to get to know as “friends”.

All of that put together — and some of the stories, the perspectives, the deliveries were wonderful — I give this book three hearts.

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