In the opening story of Alice Munro's prize-winning anthology, she finds the relationship between two sisters coming to a head in the most sinister way imaginable. After decades of conflict, the reader is thrust into a final paragraph that recontextualizes everything that came before. Suddenly it requires backtracking to better understand what the first-person narrative was saying. Was it reliable at all, or have we been exposed to one of the pettiest, most jealous characters to grace the page? The answer is only haunting once discovers where everything is built from, showing how difficult her interiority ultimately was. It not only encourages detective work through the indirectness, but it also sets up the stories to come in unfathomable ways.
Ultimately what makes Munro one of the great short story writers is her ability to create complicated women. Even when they're speaking directly to the reader, there is something that feels hidden. It's not always evident, but it's there. She is also a master of recontextualizing what time means. Sometimes it's the fear of growing old, but often it's about the pain of a faithful memory as a new generation asks the elders to recall their past. Everything is warped to some extent, creating a provocative view of hindsight that perfectly shows what a woman's life ultimately amounts to. It's not always triumphant or even evident, but each of these characters deserves some accolade for surviving in an American landscape, especially when opposite questionable men. As the title suggests, these are things that feel like afterthoughts, but very important ones at that.
Like most of the best writers, Munro is someone who can be described as pseudo-autobiographical. While not a lot of these women share her profession, there is a sense of growing up through the middle of the 20th century and dealing with two different eras of feminism. There's the freedom of the younger generation clashing with a more conservative mentality that requires a girl to have a housewife position in mind. It's the feeling of being trapped while also having those moments of freedom that become strangely paralyzing. As a result, there's a lot of interiority of her characters looking back on what they've done in their lives and wishing that they could've grown up later or made different decisions. It's because of this, several centers around affairs or moments that may not have the greatest gender politics, but they all say something about what it feels like to be alive.
While not every story is about the role of women in society, there's still the sense of growing up in an interesting time. One story involving arson could be perceived as a metaphor for the Vietnam War. Still, the observations are rich, sometimes even comic, reflecting on how the intersecting personalities that make up her world all create provocative outcomes. In one case, the death of a mother figure becomes one of moral conflict less because of the relationship and more because of a foolish, impulsive brother who somehow did everything wrong to the protagonist but not the mother. These scenarios aren't all from the world of logic and realism, but Munro is still dealing with the question of why they feel so important. It's asking why she didn't stop and view things a bit differently. As a writer who seems obsessed with indirection and hindsight, it becomes crucial to understand things as mundane as talking to people on trains about the cosmos. Everyone has their own weird quirks, and it's important to enjoy them while one can.
It would be difficult to go into why this is one of my favorite anthology collections, but it's a great showcase of Munro's work. Not only is she capable of being provocative and challenging, but she does so without losing sight of the ensemble's humanity. It's easy to dislike a lot of figures in her text, and yet there is a love and nostalgia for the way things used to be while sharing an appreciation for where things have gone. It's resentful of neither and instead shows that time changes everything. Women's roles will continue to be confusing and muddy. The only thing one can properly do is try to share the small piece of advice that's gotten them this far. It may not be the best, but it's probably worth stopping for a few minutes to think about.
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