Munro, Alice. Runaway: Stories.

MUNRO, Alice. Runaway, stories. Random House, Vintage. 335p. c2004. 1-4000-7791-5. $14.95. SA

This collection of stories by an author who has a claim to being Canada's best short story writer is a piquant assortment of stories about women. Three of the stories are about the same woman at different times of life. Juliet's story begins when she is just 21; she is a classics scholar who is returning from a temporary teaching job and impulsively finds a new love. The second story is set when she is a little older and returns to visit her parents with her toddler daughter, and the third story takes place when she and her daughter are much older. Each story stands alone, as a good short story should, but reading the others adds to its richness. The real glory of Munro is how she can take the normal stuff of a woman's life--friends and family, love and death, children and romance--and make them deeply meaningful.

In the first story, Runaway, an older neighbor helps a young wife run away from her husband. When the wife changes her mind, her husband confronts the neighbor, which makes for an interesting story in itself; but Munro adds a plot twist that gives the story a deeper meaning. So although these stories are simple on the surface, each has a certain complexity the reader will enjoy mulling over long after the book is finished. Nola Theiss, Sanibel, FL