Free Radicals

She hadn’t had time to wonder about his being late. He’d died bent over the sidewalk sign that stood in front of the hardware store offering a discount on lawnmowers. -From Free Radicals-

When Nita’s 81 year old husband Rich drops dead outside the hardware story, Nita grieves and wonders how she could have outlived him given her terminaldiagnosis of cancer. Then an intruder arrives – and Nita’s view of life and death changes.

Alice Munro has crafted a short story about grief and moving forward after the death of a loved one. She also explores the creativeness of the human mind, especially when confronted with our own demise. Carefully constructed (although at times feeling a bit contrived), Free Radicals leaves some questions unanswered. I read this story on line at the New Yorker for 21st Fiction Yahoo Group. Not everyone in the group came away from it with the same interpretation of events. This is one thing I enjoy about a well-written short story – the loose ends, the questions that perhaps have several different answers. Free Radicalsis a story which appears simple on its face, but has many levels of meaning below the surface.

http://www.lanacion.com.ar/1627710-un-cuento-de-alice-munro-radicales-libres

[READ: July 1, 2008] “Free Radicals”

The second Munro story in two days for me. And many of the elements are in place: idyllic, Canadian life, female protagonist, and a fairly unspeakable horror.In this case the horror has come from outside. Nita’s husband recently died, and Nita is left by herself. She always figued that she’d die first, what with the cancer and all, but she has unexpectedly survived her husband. The flashback to her pre-married life shows that she was the other woman, and she caused her husband’s first marriage to disintegrate. This is something about which she is wistful, not remorseful. But once they were married they were very happy together.

Now that he is dead, she spends her days going a bout a solitary routine, one which her friends and neighbors believe cannot be healthy for her. One morning she is startled from her routine by a man who has come to fix “the fuses.” I wondered when I read this if it was even possible that there would be someone who did such a job. It just seemed like an obvious set up for trouble. And so it is. The man pretends to do work in the basement and then comes back upstairs and holds Nita at knifepoint.

She is terrified, of course, and then thinks about the fact that she has cancer and will die anyway. She wonderes if she shouldn’t be scared. However, when the intruder shows her a photo of the reason why he is on the run, Nita really does become worried.

Rather than relying on the cancer as a bargaining pint, Nita relies on her past. She invents a story showing that she is just as dangeous as the invader. She retells her life’s story in which she is the cheated upon woman in the marriage.

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