Away From Her by Alice Munro

Alice Munro, the winner of the Nobel Prize in 2013 for her book Dear Life, is among the greatest of short story writers. In her scores of stories, she offers microscopic observations that reveal larger truths about her characters. While her writing is precise and observant, the motivations of her characters are imprecise and opaque. I recently reread one of my favorite Munro stories, The Bear Came Over the Mountain, which was made into a movie in 2007 titled Away From Her.

This heartbreaking story captures the slow painful effects of dementia on a long and complicated marriage. Fiona and Grant have been married for almost 50 years and Fiona, now at 70, is losing her memory. Munro’s narrator lays out the facts of Fiona’s decline without sentiment, “Over a year ago Grant had started noticing so many little yellow notes stuck up all over the house.” After Fiona wonders off at the supermarket, she says to Grant, “You know what you’re going to have to do with me, don’t you? You’re going to have to put me in that place. Shallowlake?” And Grant says, “Meadowlake.  We’re not at that stage yet.”

But a paragraph later, on a cold January afternoon, Grant moves Fiona into Meadowlake. The transition is painful, as the rules prohibit Grant from visiting for a month to ease Fiona’s adjustment.  Grant suffers. When he starts visiting Fiona, who acts as if she doesn’t know who he is or why he keeps coming to see her, Grant is perplexed. He asks the nurse if Fiona is “putting on an act.” During that month of acclimation, Fiona has become the constant companion to a man named Aubrey who is living at Meadowlake temporarily. The reader wonders if Fiona is retaliating for Grant’s past infidelities, or if Fiona is protecting Grant from her eventual demise.

When Aubrey returns to his home, Fiona is devastated. So Grant visits Aubrey’s wife, Marion, to ask her to let Aubrey visit Meadowlake for the sake of Fiona who has descended into depression. Grant’s primary motivation seems noble. He wants to ease his wife’s pain. That Grant loves Fiona is never in doubt. Grant has exhibited a version of loyalty in their long marriage, but he has not been loyal. So is he also atoning for his guilt? Is he proposing a relationship with Marion in exchange for Aubrey’s return to Meadowlake? When Marion calls Grant to ask him to attend a dance, is he acting on his pattern of infidelity or is he sacrificing himself for his wife? Munro describes their encounter but divulges nothing. Grant probably doesn’t entirely understand his motivations. And - spoiler alert - the reader simply learns that Grant has arranged for Aubrey to visit Fiona.  

Munro’s captures the complexity of human emotion with her linguistic agility. Her writing is precise as a pinprick. She never becomes maudlin, nor does she pass judgment on her characters, even though this reader did!

Munro’s genius is that she writes engrossing stories and understands multiple motivations. With plenty of puzzle pieces provided, her readers can put the puzzle together in whatever way they choose. Each conclusion is plausible because there are so many complicated emotions percolating inside her characters. As Fiona says to Grant on the last page, “You could have driven away. Just driven away without a care in the world and forsook me, Forsooken me. Forsaken.”  Is she speaking of Grant's past betrayals or her present living situation at Meadowlake? Probably both.  

This is a tragic story about the effects of dementia on a marriage characterized by steadfast love and constant betrayal. Maybe Munro is saying love, in all its possible permutations, is still love. And due to her exquisite restraint, she leaves her readers reaching for their own conclusions.