My second Alice Munro, which I thought was on a reading challenge that I’m doing (it was not), but after reading, I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of Alice Munro.

The eponymous story is about a woman who runs away from an abusive husband, but took me totally by surprise by the end. And from there, ‘Chance’ disturbed me, ‘Passion’ had me horrified, yelling at the audio book, ‘Tresspasses’ unnerved me, ‘Tricks’ upset me. And I don’t mean any of those lightly. I mean sitting-in-the-parked-car-staring-blankly-at-the-parking-spot disturbed. Cringing as I flash back to scenes in the stories for days and weeks after I read them. (And months later, thinking about ‘Chance’ still makes my stomach twist and my chest tight). But then there was ‘Powers’, which has most recently had its claim to fame with a cameo on “Fire Island”, a 2022 streaming romcom (and which I now must watch).

Powers is mindmending (pun intended ;)). In five parts over decades, it follows two childhood friends, exploring their relationships, and marriages, and the power we exert (or fail to exert) over others for good or bad ends. It is all at once frustrating, heartbreaking, aggravating, and upsetting, but I do not want to give too much away.

I’m skimping on details for all of these because what I loved about them (and hated, if I’m being honest) is that the endings are never what you expect. Munro sets up a story and you think you see the path forward to the end, but before you know it, you are completely lost in the woods, a cliff to one side, and no sight of the ending until you read that last word, and you stagger out of the forest, dazed and roughed up. I felt like I needed to recover in order to move on to the next story (not that I did). 

If you plan on reading Runaway, read the CWs as these books run the gamut of sensitive topics. Having read it months ago and only writing this review now, I think my love of the book has only strengthened (for all that it roughed me up emotionally).