Friday, June 15, 2007

Nettles

I think my favorite image from this story is of the kids washing the feet of Mike and the narrator after their golf-course outing.

Claire especially was delighted with the sight of our naked, foolish, adult feet.

It's fantastic because it's an image of humility and also because it harkens back to their own childhood when their friendship began. Only now they are the adults in someone else's Kid World.

The narrator says of her own childhood: It doesn't seem likely that such account would be taken of children's feelings, in those days. They were our business, to suffer or suppress.

It seems, though, that the same is true in adulthood, isn't it? Doesn't the narrator find that her feelings are still her business to suffer or suppress?
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2 comments:

Erin said...

That's an excellent point. Yes, this narrator does seem to be alone to deal with her feelings. That seems to be somewhat of a trend, in fact, with Munro's characters.

2:49 PM, June 15, 2007
kc said...

Yes, good point with it being a Munro trend. There's a lot of interior drama that never gets an audience in the world of the story.

Many of her characters are very solitary emotionally, even though they share physical lives with others.

I'd like to see her write about a deep friendship or a truly happy and passionate romantic relationship. It would be interesting to see how she handled it.

5:00 PM, June 15, 2007

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