Hi readers! Our second-to-last story for the month is “Home,” by Alice Munro. It’s a bit longer than some of the other stories we’ve read, but perfect for a lazy summer Sunday. Something interesting I learned researching the story is that it was first published back in 1974, when Munro was in her mid-40s. She continued to revise it over the next 30 years, finally publishing it again in 2014, in a collection of newer stories called Family Furnishings.
One Thing (Okay, Two Things) I Noticed: This story showcases a form Munro perfected, which I’ve seen described as a pastiche or “not quite story,” and which she herself described as “autobiographical in feeling, though not, sometimes, entirely so in fact.” The line between fiction and nonfiction is blurred. There is no clearly defined problem for the characters to solve or obstacle for them to overcome. Instead, as one article puts it, her characters are portrayed “not at [a] crossroads exactly but for whom life is a series of crossroads” whose choices have worked “a narrowing” in their lives.
And Munro’s character descriptions are just incredible, plucking out finely-observed details about people that say so much about who they are. Just listen to the narrator’s description of her stepmother Irlma:
“Irlma is a stout and rosy woman, with tinted butterscotch curls, brown eyes in which there is still a sparkle, a look of emotional readiness, of being always on the brink of hilarity. Or on the brink of impatience flaring into outrage. She likes to make people laugh, and to laugh herself. At other times she will put her hands on her hips and thrust her head forward and make some harsh statement, as if she hoped to provoke a fight. She connects this behavior with being Irish and with being born on a moving train.”
One Idea: Write about revisiting your childhood home. Describe how it is the same or different than when you lived there. If you no longer have access to this place, imagine what it is like now.
One More Idea: Write a scene in which you reveal your characters’ personalities through a conversation in which they gossip about someone in their community who’s done something the speakers consider scandalous.