Alice Munro · 323 pages
Rating: (13.7K votes)
“A fight like this was stunning, revealing not just how much he was on the lookout for enemies, but how she too was unable to abandon argument which escalated into rage. Neither of them would back off, they held bitterly to principles.
Can't you tolerate people being different, why is this so important?
If this isn't important, nothing is.
The air seemed to grow thick with loathing. All over a matter that could never be resolved. They went to bed speechless, parted speechless the next morning, and during the day were overtaken by fear - hers that he would never come home, his that when he did she would not be there. Their luck held, however. They came together in the late afternoon pale with contrition, shaking with love, like people who had narrowly escaped an earthquake and had been walking around in naked desolation.”
― Alice Munro, quote from Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage: Stories
“And now such a warm commotion, such busy love.”
― Alice Munro, quote from Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage: Stories
“What made more sense was that the bargain she was bound to was to go on living as she had been doing. The bargain was already in force. Days and years and feelings much the same, except that the children would grow up, and there might be one or two more of them and they too would grow up, and she and Brendan would grow older and then old.
It was not until now, not until this moment, that she had seen so clearly that she was counting on something happening, something which would change her life. She had accepted her marriage as one big change, but not as the last one.
So, nothing now but what she or anybody else could sensibly foresee. That was to be her happiness, that was what she had bargained for, nothing secret, or strange.
Pay attention to this, she thought. She had a dramatic notion of getting down on her knees. This is serious...
It was a long time ago that this happened. In North Vancouver, when they lived in the Post and Beam house. When she was twenty-four years old and new to bargaining.”
― Alice Munro, quote from Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage: Stories
“There was a danger whenever I was on home ground. It was the danger of seeing my life through other eyes than my own.
Seeing it as an ever-increasing roll of words like barbed wire, intricate, bewildering, uncomforting—set against the rich productions, the food, flowers, and knitted garments, of other women’s domesticity. It became harder to say that it was worth the trouble.”
― Alice Munro, quote from Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage: Stories
“They spoke like caricatures, it was unbearable.”
― Alice Munro, quote from Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage: Stories
“The job she had to do, as she saw it, was to remember everything—and by “remember” she meant experience it in her mind, one more time—then store it away forever. This day’s experience set in order, none of it left ragged or lying about, all of it gathered in like treasure and finished with, set aside.”
― Alice Munro, quote from Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage: Stories
“Fiona had never learned her mother's language and she had never shown much respect for the stories that it preserved-the stories that Grant had taught and written about, and still did write about, in his working life. She referred to their heroes as "old Njal" or "old Snorri." But in the last few years she had developed an interest in the country itself and looked at travel guides. She read about William Morris's trip, and Auden's. She didn't really plan to travel there. She said the weather was too dreadful. Also-she said-there ought to be one place you thought about and knew about and maybe longed for-but never did get to see.”
― Alice Munro, quote from Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage: Stories
“I did not understand why Alfrida looked at him with such a fiercely encouraging smile. All of my experience of a woman with men, of a woman listening to her man, hoping and hoping that he will establish himself as somebody she can reasonably be proud of, was in the future.”
― Alice Munro, quote from Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage: Stories
“When you died, of course, these wrong opinions were all there was left”
― Alice Munro, quote from Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage: Stories
“Sometimes that’s just the way it is. You never really know until you try something on. The thing is,” she said, with a new, more moderate conviction”
― Alice Munro, quote from Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage: Stories
“They went bowling and curling and regularly joined other couples for coffee and doughnuts at Tim Horton’s.”
― Alice Munro, quote from Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage: Stories
“Maybe the man in the moon will walk in here and fall in love with me and then I'll be all set!”
― Alice Munro, quote from Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage: Stories
“She felt herself connected at present with the way people felt when they had to write certain things down - she was connected by here feelings of anger, of petty outrage, and her excitement at what she was doing to Neal, to pay him back. But the life she was carrying herself into might not give her anybody to be angry at, or anybody who owned her anything, anybody who could possibly be rewarded or punished or truly affected by what she might do. Her feelings might become of no importance to anybody but herself, and yet they would be bulging up inside her, squeezing her heart and breath.
She was not, after all, somebody people flocked to in the world. And yet she was choosy, in her own way.
The bus was still not in the sight when she got up and walked home.”
― Alice Munro, quote from Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage: Stories
“never in her life had this silly feeling of being enhanced by what she had put on herself.”
― Alice Munro, quote from Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage: Stories
“Porém ela sabia agora que havia épocas em que o feio e o bonito serviam exatamente para o mesmo propósito, quando qualquer coisa para a qual se olha é apenas um gancho onde pendurar as sensações descontroladas de seu corpo e os bocados e pedaços de sua mente.”
― Alice Munro, quote from Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage: Stories
“E, ainda assim, uma euforia. A euforia indizível que se sente quando um desastre galopante guarda a promessa de libertar a pessoa de toda a responsabilidade de sua própria vida.”
― Alice Munro, quote from Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage: Stories
“Sometimes that’s just the way it is. You never really know until you try something on. The thing is,” she said, with a new, more moderate conviction growing in her voice, “the thing is you have a fine figure, but it’s a strong figure. You”
― Alice Munro, quote from Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage: Stories
Alice Munro
Born place: in Wingham, Ontario, Canada
Born date July 10, 1931
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“She was a real quiet woman. But maybe we just weren't listening.”
― Brian Malloy, quote from The Year of Ice
“You worry about hurting me, but you never seem to worry about me hurting you. And I’m the one with the killer touch.”
― Jennifer L. Armentrout, quote from Cursed
“For the girls the regular comings and goings restored their superior sense of self, a superiority they had received intact from Moran and which was little acknowledged by the wide world in which they had to work and live. That unexplained notion of superiority was often badly shaken and in need of restoration by the time they came home.”
― John McGahern, quote from Amongst Women
“How many people throughout history suffered from my disease and others like it but went untreated? This question is made more pressing by the knowledge that even though the disease was discovered in 2007, some doctors I spoke to believe that it’s been around at least as long as humanity has.”
― Susannah Cahalan, quote from Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness
“Мы расслаблялись, развалившись на моей кровати. Виски размазывал края наших тел и мозгов лужицами жидкой грязи.
– Восхитительно, – сказала Вайда.
«Я не знаю, где ваша мать и, честно говоря, могу процитировать Кларка Гейбла из "Унесенных ветром": "мне глубоко плевать"».
«Он назвал мою мать Кларком Гейблом!» – заорала она и собралась дать мне пощечину. Но я уже все понял и перехватил руку в полете, развернул ее всем корпусом и хорошенько подтолкнул к выходу. Она выпорхнула из двери, точно летучий мусорный бак.
«Отпустите мою мать на свободу! – вопила она. – Мою мать! Мою мать!»
Я начал было закрывать дверь. Тут на меня будто дремота навалилась. Я не знал, просыпаться мне или хорошенько дать этой стерве по мозгам.
Она ринулась было к двери, поэтому пришлось выйти наружу и проводить ее вниз по ступенькам. По дороге мы немножко повздорили, но я приподнажал ей на руку, и она малость поостыла, а я одновременно, как истинный джентльмен, предложил сломать ее цыплячью шейку, если она сейчас же не припустит по дороге туда, куда ее только донесут эти вешалки, приспособленные вместо ног.
Напоследок она еще орала: «До чего я дошла? Что я делаю? Что это со мной? Что я мелю?» И при этом выдирала из книжки страницы и подбрасывала их над головой, как невеста на свадебном пиру.
Мы нисколько не отдохнули, но и не нервничали, что было бы естественно в начале такого дня, нас охватило той мягкой волной шока, когда легче делать одну маленькую вещь за другой, один хрупкий шаг за другим, пока большое и трудное дело, чем бы оно ни было, не завершится само собой.
Когда подступают трудности, которые во что бы то ни стало нужно преодолеть, нам обычно достает сил, чтобы наполнить свою жизнь новыми мимолетными ритуалами и просто их исполнять.
Мы превращаемся в театры.
Я переводил взгляд с бурлящего кофейника на Вайду в ванне. День будет очень длинным, но, к счастью, мы пройдем его – одно мгновение за другим.
В море металла статуя выглядела покойно. Стальная штука с тонкой мозаикой и мраморными людьми сверху. Люди пытались нам что-то сказать. К сожалению, у нас не было времени слушать.
Мы путешествовали так быстро, что через несколько мгновений нас не стало.
Поэтому я хорошенько рассмотрел его физиономию в зеркале. Похоже, его избили до смерти винной бутылкой – но не самой бутылкой, а содержимым.
Его улыбка достигла десяти баллов. Наверное, дочь его работает стюардессой.
Он отодвинул жалюзи и показал нам отличный вид на стоянку – впечатляет, если вы никогда раньше не видели стоянок.
Пограничные городки – не самые приятные места. Они высвечивают худшее в обеих странах, и все американское торчит там неоновой болячкой.
Выточенной из серого камня фигуре было явно не по себе. Она возвышалась над самим зданием. Изображала доколумбова бога или какого-то другого парня, который занимался тем, что не доставляло ему никакой радости.
Вайда лежала нежно и неподвижно, словно мраморная пыль на постели.
По ночам все иначе. Дома и городки далеко внизу требуют свою красоту и получают её в виде крошечных огоньков, мерцающих с невероятной страстью. Мы опустились в Лос-Анджелес, словно в кольцо с бриллиантами.
Священнику не хотелось выходить в Лос-Анджелесе, но пришлось, потому что именно сюда он и летел. Возможно, Вайда ему кого-то напоминала. Возможно, красавицей была его мама, он не знал, как к этому относиться, и ушел в духовенство, а теперь красота Вайды будто вихрем унесла его назад сквозь зеркала времени.
Возможно, он думал о чем-то совершенно не похожем на то, о чем в своей жизни мог подумать я, – и мысли его были самые что ни на есть возвышенные, из них следовало отлить статую... возможно. Говоря словами Фостера, «на свете слишком много "возможно", а людей не хватает».
Я снова стал думать о библиотеке и пропустил тот миг, когда священник поднялся и ушел, чтобы влиться в Лос-Анджелес, добавить к его размерам свою долю и забрать воспоминания о Вайде в свое что бы там ни было.”
― Richard Brautigan, quote from The Abortion
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