Alice Munro's women

Author understood better than any other writer, living or dead, the strange sexual desires that can drive a woman's actions

- HEATHER O'NEILL

The shocking and delightful sexual desires of women electrify all of Alice Munro's work, Heather O'Neill writes.

My father once told me my Achilles heel was my terrible taste in men and it would ruin my life. He wasn’t necessarily wrong. I ended up having a baby at 20 with a young man who never had a job. Before he left, he stole everything from me: my clothes, my books and my money. He left me with $7. He later died of an overdose. It was quite remarkable how badly I had chosen.

We met in high school. He had a knack for writing funny poems riddled with spelling mistakes that he would pass me in class. He was always in the talent show, even though he had no particular talent in singing or acting, but he just could not resist the pull of a stage. I liked the way he smiled in his sleep. Was this enough to decide to spend my life with someone? No, but honestly, how much choice do any of us have in love?

I have been re-reading Alice Munro. One of the reasons I adore Alice Munro is that her characters are also at a loss as to why they end up with their partners. They throw everything away for the most random of men they barely know. They simply pack up their lives and commit to strangers.

Munro’s characters are always so horny. Especially if they get on a train. Whenever one of her young women gets on a train for the first time, anything perverted can happen. They get into all kinds of kinky situations!

You might be thinking, “I’ve never really thought of Alice Munro in that way. Is there that much sex in her stories?”

A lot of people have this blind spot with Munro. She is not really known as someone who wrote about the strange sexual desires that drive a woman’s actions. But it is true. The shocking and delightful sexual desires of women electrify all her work.