Family Furnishings

Family Furnishings: Selected Stories, 1995-2014 by Alice Munro
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Alice Munro has perfected the realistic short story and though this collection contains 24 they are each perfection. I give her the Willa Cather award. Her stories often carry the tension between the expectation of a woman's role and her longing for something more fulfilling. In "The Children Stay" raw protagonist contemplates bringing her play's script on a beach outing with her children, but "then laid it down. She was afraid that she would get too absorbed in it and take her eyes off the children for a moment too long." This desire to be a good mother, a good wife, a good daughter, and the desire to realize one's own dreams and desires often chafes up against one another. Family Furnishings is also the perfect title because so many of these stories deal with family and a sense of place. The later stories become more and more autobiographical, but they all deal with the inheritance of expectations and responsibilities as well as personality and proclivities that are passed along family lines. I could, and probably should, expand what I mean by everything I just wrote, but I won't and encourage you to read a Munro story whenever possible.

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