2013年诺贝尔文学奖授予加拿大女作家Alice Munro（中译为“爱丽丝·门罗”或“爱丽丝·芒罗”。 记得读研时期我的一篇学习文章即是对Alice Munro 的“How I Met My Husband”小说故事的赏析，今贴在博客里，谨此纪念这位伟大的作家。

               An Appreciation of “How I Met My Husband” by Alice Munro

As far as modern English literature is concerned, we cannot take no notice of Alice Munro, a contemporary female writer who has a good place among any literary stars in the history of Canadian English literature.  Though there are a few great writers like Shakespeare, Milton, Fielding, Byron and Shirley and a few magnificent masterpieces in the history of English literature as well, we do meet some shining stars who belong to Canada.  Alice Munro is one of them.  Reading How I Met My Husband is a good way to approach her.

As a female writer, Alice Munro has a minute insight peculiar to females and she is very good at psychological depiction of her characters and vivid description of the settings.  We can find all those characteristics in the story of How I Met My Husband.

The story happens in a very small town.  One day a plane suddenly landed somewhere in the quiet town, causing quite an excitement.  People, both children and adults are full of curiosity and they all want to have a ride.  The first meeting between the pilot and Edie is so embarrassing that she, as a young girl who first falls in love with the young pilot, behaves so naïvely and innocently.  Here at their first sight and at that embarrassing moment, our 15-year-old heroine happens to be left alone in the house.  I should say, she longs for an opportunity to be alone, an opportunity to realize her secret dream.  She finds out the mistress’s dress, puts it on and makes herself up.  By exposing the young girl’s secret, Alice Munro gives us a lively description of Edie’s naïve nature.  Then once again, at the time of their second meeting, the young girl’s overcautiousness and embarrassment appears vividly to readers’ eyes, yet which shows her innocent character.  She asks the pilot not to tell on her especially not to mention her dressing at their first meeting.  Upon reading here, we cannot help laughing indeed.  What a simple and unsophisticated countrygirl she is.  Our hero, the young pilot, Chris Waters his name, seems to be welcomed by most of the people in the small town and gets more and more familiar with Edie who naturally falls in love with him.  However, unfortunately she does not know if Chris loves her just as she loves him.  That foreshadows who “my husband” really is in the story.  The appearance of Alice Kelling, the Pilot’s financee causes Edie to show great jealousy of her.  What she said and did later on can only be understood as a young girl’s instinctive responses.  She is sincere to her first love.  That’s why she cheated Alice Kelling by telling her the wrong place where the pilot goes.  Alice Kelling’s appearance also suggests that the pilot is a very romantic and free man who flies everywhere, making friends.  But somehow his fiancée chases after him, which totally exceeds his expectations.  Is his departure for a much longer time due to Alice Kelling or Edie?  Aparently he wants to be away from Alice Kelling.  He promised Edie he would write a letter to her and tell her where he is.  Therefore she waits and waits for the letter. But nothing comes from him.  She even get familiar with the mailman whom she sees almost every day.  We did not realize who “my husband” really is until the story nearly ends.  It is the mailman not the pilot who becomes the “husband” of our heroine.  The story ends in a rather unexpected way, yet which is surprising and amazing.

The story appeals to us because of the simple and humorous language that Alice Munro excels in.  Simple English, the best English, which is quite true.  She is especially skilled at writing country people and their simple lives with her peculiar techniques.  The description of the setting with local colourism is vivid and lively.  Its dialogues are colloquial and in keeping with their characters.  All that reminds me of Thomas Hardy of his Tess of D’Urbervilles.  There are similarities between Hardy and Alice Munro, not in the plots, the fateful circumstances and tragic coincidences, but in their descriptions of the settings, their simple languages and characters’ psychological process of their feelings.

Alice Munro uses the first person narration which embodies a real-life story.  It goes, especially when describing Edie, with two voices: one by a middle-aged Edie, one by the 15-year-old Edie.  The two voices utter alternately, constituting this wonderful story.