Runaway, by Alice Munro
I discovered something.
Alice Munro is a Canadian pride. In 2013, she won nothing less than the Nobel Prize for Literature. But perhaps because she comes across as writing nice, rural, slow-paced little stories, I wasn't particularly interested in reading her. (Even though those kinds of stories are more my kind of thing. I've read a lot of them, so what could be so original, I thought).
Then I read the first short story in this collection, and my breath caught. Literally. I was fascinated, shocked, then haunted.
Then, I was embarked in a suite of three short stories that could have composed a small novel, with the same main character that we follow in time. (Or a movie: ah well, that's what happened. See below.) I had time to get attached to the character, and to have my heart broken a little.
Then I was won over. The short stories that follow are just as poignant, mysterious and well-crafted, and it's easy to become attached to each of the new heroines. For they are all women who have the lead in these stories, and I really appreciate that. Even though they are short stories, there is always time to immerse yourself in a new world. The pace is more like that of novels, but since they are short stories, you wait with excitement for the trigger. And then that trigger comes, and it never takes the form you expected. I felt almost like I was in a detective story.
I found it very easy to identify with the characters, and I think a lot of women will agree with me. I could see myself in certain situations when I was younger, with men for example, that make me cringe in retrospect, but actually turned out okay. In this book too, these situations don't end badly (or at least not badly in the way one would have imagined): the men are nice, in their own way.
Really, I discovered something.
Julieta
As announced on the cover, the book, and more specifically the group of three consecutive short stories I mentioned earlier, inspired Julietaby Pedro Almodóvar. It's not on Netflix, but I rented it on Youtube. I already loved Almodóvar, but I love him even more now for choosing to put these stories on film.
This is the story. Julieta is about to leave Madrid for Portugal with her lover. But on the street, she meets Beatriz, who tells her that she ran into her daughter a few weeks ago, and that she thinks Julieta is still in Madrid. So she drops all her plans. If her daughter thinks she's still in Madrid, she'll stay there. And we go back in time to understand why her daughter, with whom she was very close, left so abruptly and without giving any news, 12 years ago.
The film is pretty faithful to Munro's short stories, while adding just enough content to bring it full circle. Because in the short stories, there is more left to our imagination. And the beautiful HD footage helped imprint this beautiful story in my brain that felt like it was made for me.
I can add this book to my favorites. I hope you will like it as much as I did.
If you want to discover Alice Munro before you get the book, go read one of these 25 stories freely available online. And take the opportunity to have a look at the beautiful Literary Hub.
Then buy the book at a bookstore near you:
