Dear Life by Alice Munro (Short Story) Review.
The family life, its crises, miseries, joy and dear life.
“We say of some things that they can’t be forgiven, or that we will never forgive ourselves. But we do—we do it all the time.”
‘Dear Life’ is the story of a woman who remembers her childhood life that she spent with her parents. It’s a kinda memoir that she is narrating to the audience. She seems to be living in an inferior complexity but never directly mentioning it. However her descriptions of the life around her and their position in the town makes it clear that it is the case. In her early days she was struck in her schooling and found it difficult to pass. She remembers her childhood with some other memories highlighting the dark sides of family life and a crises that had engulfed their business and wrecked havoc to their lives, even though she doesn’t see it as something like that. It might be due to the fact that the narrator had always realized that her parents never really been well enough in their lives financially.
Before narrator speaks about her family life she describes the sorrounding and location of their house, hinting about the fact that it is a story of someone whose desires and wishes went unfulfilled. The directions in which roads are mentioned represent the idea of a symbolism. The road divides into two directions, and the road to south which turns into a genuine highway does not belong to her, but the road that turns towards west is her home. Road on south is smooth and being a highway represents luxury for ease for travers and so on. However, the road on west is a rough one without much importance to its usage and location, as narrator put it, "After that, the road divided, one part of it going south up a hill and over the river again to become a genuine highway, and the other jogging around the old fairgrounds to turn west. That westward road was mine."
Her (narrator’s) story is so relatable in today’s world. The family in modern world is seen (in most cases) not as a blessing but rather as a problem. The relatives of her father, especially women find ways to make her mother’s life miserable by just hinting at her lifestyle that doesn’t fit theirs’. This indication hints towards the modern family life problems ramping up all around. Another factor that seems very striking is that, there’s no escape from the family life either, because it would follow us wherever we go. As is clear when she talks about her own family and her children and husband in later days of her life. The story of ‘Dear Life’ therefore is a suggestion that we have to carry on, no matter what are the conditions of daily life, in the words mentioned in the start of this review.
Alice Munro, who is not self-seeker for her writings, has a way of telling stories that attracts not only attention but sympathy with characters. The power of this short story lies in the constant flow of its narration. There is just a single Dialogue in the whole story. The rest is pure narration! While reading the story one might not observe its impact immediately. However, once someone has invested him/herself deep enough, then the realization comes that it really is a heart touching story full of deep emotions and feelings with a strong appealing.
Its long and dialogue free narration make the story monotony but the descriptions and emotional rendering of the narrator of her family life makes it a must read.
It was a pleasurable reading. You should give it a try too.
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