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Runaway (2004)

by Alice Munro

Other authors: See the other authors section.

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3,671963,396 (4.03)187
Fiction. Short Stories. HTML:

The incomparable Alice Munro's bestselling and rapturously acclaimed Runaway is a book of extraordinary stories about women of all ages and circumstancesâ??and about love and its infinite betrayals and surprises. The runaway of the title story is a young woman who is incapable of leaving her husband. In "Passion," a country girl emerging into the larger world via a job in a resort hotel discovers, in a single moment of insight, the limits and lies of passion. Three stories concern a woman named Julietâ??in the first, she escapes from teaching at a girls' school into a wild love affair; in the second, she returns with her child to the home of her parents, whose marriage she finally begins to examine; and in the last, her vanished child turns up caught in the grip of a religious cult. In these and other stories, Alice Munro's understanding of the people about whom she writes makes their lives as real as our own… (more)

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» See also 187 mentions

English (89)  German (2)  Italian (2)  Dutch (1)  Swedish (1)  Spanish (1)  All languages (96)
Showing 1-5 of 89 (next | show all)
one of the best short story collections i've ever read ( )
  Andy5185 | Jul 9, 2023 |
Alice Munro mi piace molto. Una volta finito un suo libro non mi ricordo quasi nulla di ciò che ho letto, ma mentre lo leggo è molto intenso, molto bello e scritto divinamente.

In questo caso il libro raccoglie tre racconti che hanno per protagonista la stessa donna e che quindi formano, nella loro totalitĂ , una narrazione che potrebbe essere accostata, con le dovute precauzioni, a una specie di romanzo, caso unico in tutta la produzione della scrittrice canadese.

Forse tra i libri piĂş belli fra quelli che ho letto della Munro.

Molto, molto bello - l'ho giĂ  detto?

Altro non mi ricordo.

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Precedente: [b:La peste|3407986|La peste|Albert Camus|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1292546242l/3407986._SY75_.jpg|2058116]
Successivo: [b:Le guide del tramonto|32489484|Le guide del tramonto|Arthur C. Clarke|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1475783432l/32489484._SY75_.jpg|209414] ( )
  Demistocle | May 19, 2023 |
This short story collection won't be for everyone. I picked it up specifically because I wanted to broaden my horizons and read some short stories. Some of the stories worked better for me than others. Overall, Munro evokes a sense of sadness, desolation, and at times desperation. These are stories of women. Mostly, they are looking back at their lives and filled with regret. ( )
  CarolHicksCase | Mar 12, 2023 |
Runaway is a book of extraordinary stories about love and its infinite betrayals and surprises, from the title story about a young woman who, though she thinks she wants to, is incapable of leaving her husband, to three stories about a woman named Juliet and the emotions that complicate the luster of her intimate relationships.
  CalleFriden | Feb 17, 2023 |
I don’t think it’s an overreaction to say Alice Munro is one of the greatest short story writers I’ve ever read. Almost every story in this collection ranks among the greatest short stories I’ve ever read (Chance; Soon; Silence; Trespasses; Passion; Tricks; Powers). The only one I didn’t care a whole lot for was the title story, Runaway. Munro is a master of the medium.

The stories in this collection are about the lives and relationships of lower/middle-class Canadian women. The relationships are about lovers, companions, friends, husbands/wives, mentors/mentees, mothers/fathers/children; common themes are independence, fear, loneliness, social/cultural constraints on women, how people change, and how they really don’t change at all. They are not very optimistic stories, in general. People fall into the same old self-defeating patterns, people are abandoned, they age, they divorce, they miss opportunities, etc.

Memory and time’s passing are two themes coursing through the best of these stories. Munro likes to build up characters at young ages and then quickly jump forward decades in their lives. We first see them young and vitalized, swept up in dramas of youth (money, marriage, status, possessions). Then, we see them much later, with so many hopes disappointed and dreams unfulfilled. The reader is left with an aching for these characters’ lost potential selves, futures that never arrived, roads once open and now closed off forever. These themes are extremely potent and universal and I’m honestly surprised more writers don’t focus on them. Who among us does not mourn for that which never came about? I know at times I feel really bereaved for the missed potentialities of my life, for the chances at relationships with other people and places that never happened and never will, that now exist only in my memory. It’s a lonely, bitter thing.

I’m totally awed by Munro’s stories: carefully composed, utterly human, always relevant. She’s worth reading, I promise.

A great quote from Powers: “Life is always so full. Getting and spending we lay waste out powers. Why do we let ourselves be so busy and miss doing the things we should have, or would have, liked to do?” ( )
  jammymammu | Jan 6, 2023 |
Showing 1-5 of 89 (next | show all)
Unfortunately, her latest collection of stories, ''Runaway,'' does not represent Ms. Munro's artistry at its height. Three overlapping stories (''Chance,'' ''Soon'' and ''Silence'') provide an affecting portrait of a woman named Juliet and the harrowing trajectory of her life, but most of the entries in this volume are more stilted affairs. Instead of assuming the organic, musical form of real life, they feel like self-conscious, overworked tales, relying on awkwardly withheld secrets and O'Henryesque twists to create narrative suspense.
 
But suspense and purity, which are a gift to the reader, present problems for the reviewer. Basically, ''Runaway'' is so good that I don't want to talk about it here. Quotation can't do the book justice, and neither can synopsis. The way to do it justice is to read it.
 

» Add other authors (6 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Alice Munroprimary authorall editionscalculated
Aguilar, CarmenTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Basso, SusannaTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Boyce, PleukeTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Carasso, Jean-PierreTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Huet, JacquelineTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Zerning, HeidiTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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In memory of my friends,

Mary Carey
Jean Livermore
Melda Buchanan
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Carla heard the car coming before it topped the little rise in the road that around here they called a hill.
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(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
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Fiction. Short Stories. HTML:

The incomparable Alice Munro's bestselling and rapturously acclaimed Runaway is a book of extraordinary stories about women of all ages and circumstancesâ??and about love and its infinite betrayals and surprises. The runaway of the title story is a young woman who is incapable of leaving her husband. In "Passion," a country girl emerging into the larger world via a job in a resort hotel discovers, in a single moment of insight, the limits and lies of passion. Three stories concern a woman named Julietâ??in the first, she escapes from teaching at a girls' school into a wild love affair; in the second, she returns with her child to the home of her parents, whose marriage she finally begins to examine; and in the last, her vanished child turns up caught in the grip of a religious cult. In these and other stories, Alice Munro's understanding of the people about whom she writes makes their lives as real as our own

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