Stories that unite us

Alice Munro's compassionate lens

Today’s post is a tribute to the work of Alice Munro as part of

Tara Penry

’s Virtual Memorial.

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Photo by James Lee on Unsplash

Here at The Mindful Writer I am on a mission to help us make a difference with our words and bring more stories to the world that reconnect us rather than drive us further apart. Alice Munro is a writer who I believe does that with her stories. When I heard the news of her death, I shed a few tears and this is not something I have ever done before when learning that someone famous has died.

In the days that followed, I thought about why the news of her passing moved me this way. And I now know it’s because she writes with real compassion for all of her characters no matter what they have done. She knew that we are all confused and imperfect and doing the best that we can with wherever we are on our journey; and this understanding shines through in her stories.

I haven’t read them all, but I have read a fair few and my favourite collection is one of her later ones, “Too Much Happiness”, which was published in 2009. I use the stories in this collection often in the writing workshops I teach.

A lot of stories, novels, TV shows and movies nowadays reinforce the “them and us” mentality. They paint two-dimensional pictures of the good guys, who can do no wrong, and the bad guys who have no depth, no possibility to become something else, no insight into themselves to understand that they could, or should, be a different version of themselves.

The stories in “Too Much Happiness” definitely do not portray the human condition in an idealised state, nor do they bring more division. They show that there is good, and bad, in everyone. The following is an excerpt from a post I wrote over at The Tao of Storytelling, The Dark and the Light, where I discuss stories where the protagonists battle between the light and the dark inside them. I used Alice Munro’s “Dimension” as the reading to highlight this.

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“Dimension” tells the story of 23-year old Doree who is visiting her controlling and abusive husband, Lloyd, in an institution for the criminally insane, where he is imprisoned for murdering their three children. The story weaves back and forth between the present day and their past relationship. It also focuses on Doree’s therapy sessions with Mrs Sands, in which Doree doesn’t feel able to be truthful about her actions, feelings and beliefs about what has happened.

It is very much focused on this idea of both darkness and light inside of us. Of those in the light being drawn to the dark, and those in the dark understanding that the light is where peace can be found. It is not an easy read, but it is compelling, thought provoking, and completely immersive. Something we all want for our own stories.

Although Lloyd has done this terrible thing, there is compassion both in how Munro writes his character, and in how Doree sees him. So we the reader are invited to question the ways in which killers are portrayed. To see beyond the headlines into the very human stories that lie behind them.

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For me, all of the Alice Munro stories I have read invite me to look beneath the surface to see what drives each and every character’s actions. In doing this, we come to understand that no matter how we might behave and what we might say, deep down we all want the same thing: love, peace and connection. And when we understand this, we can’t help but have empathy and compassion for everyone.

As a writer, and as a human being, this is what I hope to achieve with my words and my way of being in the world. It’s an ongoing journey and one that I feel so glad to have Alice Munro’s stories to accompany me on.

What about you? Have you read her work? What stands out about it for you?

With love,

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