thoughts on alice munro

For those of you living in a cave/under a rock/taking a news break and therefore don't know: Alice Munro recently died at age 92. Shortly thereafter, her daughter Andrea Skinner wrote publicly about sexual abuse by her stepfather (Munro’s second husband), and Alice’s failure to support her, or even acknowledge her daughter’s trauma.
     Full disclosure: despite being a short story writer and admirer, I’ve never been a huge Alice Munro fan. Of course, she undeniably has tremendous skill and has won every major literary award including the Nobel Prize for Literature (2013).

For me, the stories themselves are masterful, but often dismal and/or uncomfortable, with unlikeable male characters. She was gifted at creating tension, sexual and otherwise, and drawing it out over the pages, but I often wished there could be a more humorous touch, some cheekiness, to counteract the residue of world-weary defeat that seemed to linger on me after reading (perhaps also a testament to her skill).
    Although not a fangirl, there are two things that bother me, after hearing that people are boycotting Munro Books in Victoria, discouraging anyone from reading or purchasing her work, and reversing their positions of adoration displayed at the time of her death:
 

1. Alice was not the one who did the sexual abuse. I understand that she abandoned her daughter in her time of need, choosing her husband over her child, but I still feel that the focus of anger should be on the perpetrator of the actual crime (who was charged and convicted but did not do any jail time). Alice’s first husband, the child’s father, was also aware of the abuse and continued to send his daughter across the country for visits with the couple. So, we have a criminal husband, a possibly negligent husband, and a wife who made a very unfortunate choice, perhaps afraid for her livelihood and reputation. Alice was the famous one, the “celebrity,” and we love our celebrities until they let us down. Does her poor choice negate all the reasons she received so many accolades? And, as occurs so frequently, are we quicker to judge because she is a woman?

 (no idea why this little glitch occurs that messes up the numbering and can't be corrected)

1. Can we separate the artist from the art? I’m certainly not the first to write about this subject, but it comes to mind here. Should fifty years of creating globally renowned short fiction be discounted because of her failure as a mother? Consider actors, musicians, visual artists…all known to misbehave, some even celebrated for it. Consider the money made by selling the memoirs of murderers.

        One professor said she may need to “recontextualize” her course on Munro’s    literature; that makes sense, and may alter the interpretation and/or discussion of some stories, especially those that involve victimization. But to toss them aside completely and pretend they never happened? That seems wrong.
 
     We need to remind ourselves that celebrities of any kind are just people—however talented—and are intrinsically flawed. Some flaws are bigger than others; we shouldn’t put up with bad behaviour or overlook it, but we can appreciate art in the context of the artist’s humanity, the good and bad therein.
 
     We cannot undo the damage done in this family. I still think we can say thank you for your stories, Alice. May you rest in peace.