"Family Furnishings"

I read the fourth story, My Mother's Dream in Alice Munro's Family Furnishings collection of short stories. And so far this is my favorite story. It was sad and compelling at the same time. But it felt so real. The characters were realistic and Munro's writing style is absolutely marvelous. She gives us enough detail to see the surroundings and understand the way some of the characters are. Its absolutley beautiful.

I've decided that I'm going to give a review of each story since this collection is pretty long and at the end I will give an overall review of how I feel with the collection as a whole. So today I will begin with the short story My Mother's Dream. At first it is difficult to tell who is telling the story, but after about 2 or 3 pages we discover that it is in Jill's child's perspective. Jill is the main character of the story but it is told through her child's point of view, even right before she is born. But we still get somewhat deep insights into Jill's life and her sister-in-laws. Jill gives birth to her daughter shortly after she receives the news that her husband has been kill in WWII as a pilot. But the story is not really about her late husband. It is more about the early relationship, or lack-there-of, with her new born daughter.

Jill tries to breast feed her daughter, but the child refuses to par
take in it. So Jill's sister-in-law, Ioda, feeds the child a bottle of formula. From then on the child takes to Ioda instead of Jill. Anything Jill does makes the child cry and scream until Ioda comes and comforts her. Jill does not seem phased by this. She is worn from the birth and becoming a widow all in such a short time span that her thoughts and body are strained. I think she is glad that Ioda has taken a fondness of the child and that the child likes her as well. But the Ioda and her sister have to go on a small trip for a weekend, leaving Jill and the baby alone.

This creates the usual stress of being a new mother and trying to calm a child that does not like you. Jill begins to feel her patience growing thin and wants to sleep. The child only stops crying to feed fora few minutes, or decides to take a small break from crying. But the child cries at anything Jill does. It is this scene that really made me like this story. It is such a realistic occurrence. I myself am not a mother, but I can only image the kind of stress and unease this kind of situation would case a new mother. But the way Munro wrote this weekend of Jill and her child together was absolute marvelous and capturing. I could feel myself in the house with her as she tried to figure out a way to deal with the child and to help herself as well.

Now I won't go too much into the ending because I don't want to spoil anything. It is an interesting ending that also kind of ties into the beginning scene, but it was unexpected for me. I didn't see it coming, but once it happened I connected it to the beginning scene. I will only say that it changed the relationship between Jill and her new daughter, and for the better. I really enjoyed this story and I hope the others continue to be this great. I am really enjoying this author's work and I am so glad I was able to win this book in a goodreads.com giveaway. Tomorrow I will write about the next story in the collection. Happy reading everyone :)