Friend of My Youth (Magill’s Literary Annual 1991-2005)
At a glance:
- Author: Alice Laidlaw
- First Published: 1990
- Type of Work: Short stories
- Time of Work: The 1860’s through the 1970’s
- Setting: Scotland; a ship in the Atlantic Ocean; and various locations in Canada, including Ontario and British Columbia
- Genres: Psychological fiction, Short fiction, Domestic realism, Character study
- Subjects: Self-discovery, Memory, Mothers, Parents and children, Marriage, Friendship, Dreams, Women’s issues, Storytelling, Adultery, Sisters, Women, Divorce, Death or dying, Canada or Canadians, Imagination, Widows or widowers, Sacrifice, Happiness, Miscarriage, Wigs
- Locales: Oceans, Ontario, Canada, Scotland, British Columbia, Canada
Whatever their differences in age and aspirations, the protagonists in Alice Munro’s short-story collection Friend of My Youth have one thing in common: They are living as much in the past as in the present. They come to see that their lives are the result of past choices made on impulse, the influence of memories and dreams, and even the secondhand stories of other lives.
The title story, “Friend of My Youth,” illustrates the fact that the lives of others, founded as they are on these irrational elements, can never be fully understood. The major characters are Flora...
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See Also:
Alice Munro (Cyclopedia of World Authors)Alice Munro (Short Fiction)Alice Munro (Identities and Issues)
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