Open a book this minute and start reading. Don’t move until you’ve reached page fifty. Until you’ve buried your thoughts in print. Cover yourself with words. Wash yourself away. Dissolve. Carol Shields Republic of Love

Alice Munro “Accident”

“Frances is loitering by a second-floor window of the high school in Hanratty, on an afternoon in early December. It is 1943.”

Loitering: it’s a significant word.

There is something unsanctioned about her presence there.

And, yet, she is a high-school teacher.

But she has no business being on the second floor.

Readers learn what [...]