A passing reference - Michelle de Kretser comparing Josephine Rowe's Here Until August to Munro's stories - created a little niggle which grew into a firm wish to re-read Runaway. It's one of those books that had grown in stature in my mind since I first read it, and it didn't disappoint on a revisit.
It's difficult to put into words why the stories in it are so good, but I think it's something to do with their plain-spokenness and directness, and how unforcedly taut they are, so that the characters and their motivations emerge with just the right (lifelike) combination of availability and oblique mystery, and the more dramatic elements of the plots work in service of the stories and what they're about, rather than dominating those stories. In their quiet way, they leave me feeling stirred-up.
She keeps on hoping for a word from Penelope, but not in any strenuous way. She hopes as people who know better hope for undeserved blessings, spontaneous remissions, things of that sort.
It's difficult to put into words why the stories in it are so good, but I think it's something to do with their plain-spokenness and directness, and how unforcedly taut they are, so that the characters and their motivations emerge with just the right (lifelike) combination of availability and oblique mystery, and the more dramatic elements of the plots work in service of the stories and what they're about, rather than dominating those stories. In their quiet way, they leave me feeling stirred-up.
She keeps on hoping for a word from Penelope, but not in any strenuous way. She hopes as people who know better hope for undeserved blessings, spontaneous remissions, things of that sort.
