Realini's Reviews > Alice Munro's Best: Selected Stories

Who Do You Think You Are by Alice Munro
10 out of 10


Doubt is the name of a fabulous motion picture, with the outstanding Philip Seymour Hoffman, Meryl Streep and Amy Adams - http://realini.blogspot.com/2020/04/n... - and it also what many feel when the Nobel, Pulitzer or some other prestigious prize is awarded, but in the case of Alice Munro, this reader has no more Doubt, after exulting in The Beggar Maid - http://realini.blogspot.com/2020/04/t... - and then completing the Virtuous Circle with Who do You Think You Are, included on The Guardian’s 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read list - https://www.theguardian.com/books/200... - in the Family and Self zone.

The collection of short stories follows Rose and to a lesser extent, her step mother, Flo, as the former has to endure squalor and abuse as a child, then grows up, while the latter grows old and then loses some of her mental capacities – forgetting who the visitor is at times, though on occasion, as when she scolds the guest that has braved the snowstorm, extreme fatigue to see her and tells her ‘she must not park the car in the street, she has to shovel the snow’, even when the ‘visitor’ insists that one more word would make her depart – ending up in a home, when being alone would no longer be sustainable or safe for her.
In The Beggar Maid, we are acquainted with Patrick Blatchford, the son of the very wealthy owner of a chain of stores and a very peculiar, snobbish, silent and hostile mother – the heroine is worried that she might see some of those traits in her daughter, Anna – who has a period in which he is in conflict with the family, unwilling to enter their business, and apparently in admiration of the woman who comes from such a poor background, but the one who might inadvertently chosen the perfect approach for the cavalier, outré young man, when she came to him to vent the anger caused by a stranger who had just grabbed her ankle, as she was arranging some books in the library where she was working temporarily and the student was reading…

The difference between them is emphasized by many exchanges, scenes and the infatuated use of erudition, such as when he references the painting of King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid – which gives the name to the short story – but this is a bad habit that this complicated man has, he is more than surprised when the others do not know about the said tableau and much else of what he mentions and he is also puzzled when the rest say something he does not know…he is considered a huge catch and girls at the faculty are very jealous and baffled to find that Rose is the one to get him…nonetheless, the young woman – virgin when she has coitus with him – is not so sure that this is the love of her life and the interaction between them is worth reading about, she provokes him – in one passage, she talks about the erectile dimension of his attraction for the old landlady – and in one nadir, she declares she would not marry him, despite the fact that she had accepted, and raises the stakes or lowers them by adding that he is weak, and other insults that appear to make any redemption impossible…

Patrick acts with stoicism and endurance, on the face of it and with hindsight, he would extract revenge for this, by assaulting his wife, literally and psychologically, and before they take their marital vows, he is rather loathsome when they visit Flo and he says that ‘he agrees, it is a dump’ and reacts with horror at the food offered, the tackiness of the place…when Rose declares she is not marrying him, he suggests a period of a couple of weeks of meditation, reflection and the result is that the heroine, who is for most of the time unpredictable, decides earlier on getting married, after asking to be pardoned for the humiliation poured on the poor man…
Poor man who is immediately quite rich, for he accepts entering the store managing business, acquires an impressive house, if not the massive, opulent mansion the parents have, only Rose is not happy with this ‘fortune’ – indeed, positive psychology studies have discovered the Hedonic Adaptation, a phenomenon which has humans adapt to material things…the Coolidge effect might play here too – and she is infatuated (probably love would not do as a proper term) with the husband of an acquaintance, Jocelyn, and this violin player, Clifford, would provide some excitement in her life, for they kiss and embrace within the first few minutes after they meet at a party, then they plan on moving their platonic affair into a carnal sphere, as the man tours with the philharmonic and the protagonist would meet with him at the bus station, in this little town along the itinerary of the musician…

Alas, there is no bus stop and she is terrified after waiting for many long hours, on the porch of a home for the old, planning desperate exits for what looks like a catastrophic scenario, because she only has a dollar or two – whenever she needs something, she has to ask her rich husband, who is not magnanimous, but quite strict – and thus she has to envisage a situation where she claims she has become amnesic and has no idea what she is doing in this place, to be thus able to get away…fortunately, Clifford arrives eventually, but this ends quite horridly, with him saying it would be a Mischief (which is the name of the short story about this) and this is happening again, with differences, when she is separated from Patrick and lives with Anna, in a quite lackluster, poor place and she tries to escape, find solace into another affair, which is blocked by a snowstorm this time – when she tries to travel to meet this other married man, she takes her daughter with her, but there is no way out, the heavy Canadian snowfall has blocked the airport and there is no bus coming and thus departing from her small town…
What happens in the short story Providence is continued with Simon’s Luck, which begins at a party, where the apparently careless, unloving, insensitive Rose tells the story of her cat, which she had not really wanted, but decided he would be hers anyway and just before coming to this do, he jumped into the clothes in the washing machine and when she took them out later, she wondered what fur does she possess…it was the expired tomcat, which provoked laughter among some guests and horror in the host…this where she meets Simon, who comes home with her, play acts some characters, talks about and does work in her garden, mentions arranging the faulty heating system and when he departs, she thinks it is only to return the following weekend and when this does not happen, she is so devastated that she drinks so much it will have become a problem, unless she took definitive action, packed her things, sent some messages and moves altogether, only to leant later about ‘Simon’s Luck’…

In other two short stories in the collection, we learn about the man who has a low IQ, Milton Homer, who takes part in all the parades, when a baby is born, he comes to all the houses and declares that the infants should have a good life and if they die, they will be in the hands of Jesus – something similar I hope – but he has a perversity, which could be explained by his mental derangement, and he appears to be both an exhibitionist and a quite violent man, when he did not get his, institutionalized at some point, quite beyond the proper limit apparently …