Runaway readers cannot run away from the book after turning the final page. Instead, they have to burrow in. Much like "Vandals" in 1994's Open Secrets and the title story in 2012's Dear Life, "Powers" is one of those closing stories that sends readers rushing back to the beginning.
In the story, it is Joan who prolongs the name "with a certain tone of celebration". Penelope. But it's easy to imagine that it is actually Alice Munro who is savouring every syllable as she draws it out in ink. Pen-ell-oh-pee. You can imagine her there, à la Winslet and DiCaprio, at the
Though each segment could be read as a standalone, each is So Much a Part of the Landscape that Polly Dugan's work is best read all-in-a-burst. Little Brown & Company, 2014 More trust is required on the reader's part than, say, with Carrie Snyder's more prominently linked The Juliet
Simon & Schuster, 2014 Just as one character follows another's gaze, readers of Deryn Collier's mysteries will find their perspective shifting. "The cafe was starting to fill with lunch customers. Duke Forsberg stayed in place, rolling his now-empty coffee cup between his meaty hands. He stared straight ahead
I am fond of specific Alice Munro collections: A Friend of My Youth because it was my first, Open Secrets because it was the impetus for a particularly good book club discussion some years ago, and Runaway. McClelland & Stewart, 2004 Runaway because I have a memory of reading it
