I had a nice walk with a neighbor I haven't seen in a while. It was good to catch up. There is work happening in the kitchen, and hopefully the leak issues will be resolved for the new year. I am calm, utterly calm, or well, attempting to be so. Today is beautiful, but there is rain in our future, and I hope it is not on the day of the party. These things cannot be controlled, unfortunately.
I'm reading Alice Munro's newest book, "Dear Life". Her stories are tricky. They begin like an ordinary story, and the people seem distant and quaint even, but then the characters become complex, the motivations blurry and the outcome unclear. Sort of like life. There is clear feminist intent on the author's part, but not preachy, just a nod to the complexity of being a woman, the demands men often make unconsciously, and the restricted choices women had in Munro's generation. Some of those restrictions still seem to have ghosts in the present era. The women protagonists are often confused about what is going on and moving forward intuitively rather than with a life plan. They are buffeted by forces they don't understand, but the reader does. The stories are sad underneath, but with so much truth and beauty that the discomfort is almost easeful, instead of a downer. I am a great admirer of her craft, and I also like the window into the Canadian world.
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