In Dear Life by Alice Munro, a collection of fourteen short stories gives the impression that themes which range from the past, memory, loss, winter, and death, are used to describe a dark, lonely, and wanting side of life. Each story is interwoven to reflect and influence the others. Each character with his or her unique qualities can be viewed as experiencing the pain of a similar and at the same time different existence. By depicting one salient meeting or interaction upon which the rest of the story is built, the author creates a unique person, life, world.
In many of the stories there is a sense of looming or foreboding that is depicted in various ways ranging from tone, setting, and characterization. The first line of each story isolates the subject matter and sends the message to the reader that uncertainty is the only guarantee. In “Amundsen,” for example, Munro’s first line is, “On the bench outside the station I sat and waited.” (31). The author follows up her unsettled tone in her introductions with bleak surroundings, including freezing cold Canadian winters, which further suggest isolation, desolation, and, immobility. Finally, characters who experience loneliness while in the presence of others or characters who experience loss of life, love, or friendship, solidify the overall message the author looks to convey.
Since Munro overlaps her tone, settings, and themes so beautifully, she is able to weave together her stories in ways which fully utilize literary devices; the stories and characters stand alone and combine to create a cohesive whole. In retrospect, a reader can see in “Amundsen,” the complexity of a young teacher who meets her first love and the ways in which the loss of the love, for example, relates to other experiences of loss in the text (Munro 31-67). Pieces of the literary puzzle combine, so that in the end, the reader develops several isolated ideas from single stories in addition to the more holistic themes included within the text.
Although this text is about dark subjects, there are still positive aspects that can be pulled from it, which blend to make it remarkable. Not only is it written by a seasoned professional, the overall message she provides is one of connections people make in an instant. She writes of those experiences, good or bad, which alter a person. She shows that life’s greatest circumstances always come with a lesson, if one is reflective.
Final Star Rating: 4 out of 5