The first time that I finished reading this story, I thought it was all about happiness. No doubt influenced by the last line and by the knowledge of later Alice Munro stories pulling that theme to their hearts. (The collection Too Much Happiness immediately comes to mind.) After I read
It's not something you hear much about anymore: once, people more commonly pitched fits, threw fits, had fits, staged fits. Hissy fits. Crying fits. (Now rants and tantrums.) A fit of rage. A fit of pique. A fit of temper. Blustery and ephemeral. Unpredictable and dramatic. Fits, whether in human nature
The turkeys, Steve Gauley, a young girl: drownings. (In my memory of this story, only one of these stood out: wrongly, as it turned out.) Re-reading "Miles City, Montana" reveals the intricate layering of Alice Munro's stories, the multiple threats of drowning and its actual occurrence. One. Then the next.
The reader is introduced to Colin's brother, Ross, when he's wearing both hats, cutting the lawn in front of the school, one of the hats being a floppy pink strawhat that his mother wore in the garden. He is viewed through the window, Colin and his work-mates on one side
Once a year, David travels to visit Stella; they have been divorced for 8 years (they were married for 21 years), and this year he brings Catherine, the woman he is with. But Catherine is not his "new girl"; that is Dina -- without the 'h' -- whose picture he
