What do we do about Alice Munro now?

🌈 Abstract

The article discusses the revelation of a dark secret about the late Nobel Prize-winning Canadian author Alice Munro, whose daughter Andrea Robin Skinner revealed that Munro's husband, Gerald Fremlin, sexually assaulted Skinner when she was 9 years old in 1976. The article explores how this revelation casts Munro's literary work in a different light and raises questions about the complexities of love, family, and moral responsibility.

🙋 Q&A

[01] The Revelation and Its Impact

1. What is the dark secret that Alice Munro's daughter revealed?

• In 1976, when Skinner was 9 years old, Munro's husband, Gerald Fremlin, sexually assaulted her.
• Skinner eventually told her mother the truth when she was an adult, but Munro chose to side with and protect her husband for decades thereafter.

2. How does this revelation impact the perception of Munro's literary work?

• Munro's work, which often explored themes of women's repression, silencing, and abuse by men, now reads "shockingly differently" in light of her failure to protect her own daughter from her husband's abuse.
• The article suggests that Munro's decision to stay with and protect her daughter's abuser feels like a betrayal of the themes and perspectives she explored in her writing.

3. What are some examples of Munro's stories that are recast in a darker light?

• The short stories "Wild Swans" and "Vandals" are discussed as potentially reflecting Munro's own struggles with her husband's abuse and her failure to protect her daughter.

[02] Munro's Response and the Family Dynamics

1. How did Munro respond when Skinner told her about the abuse?

• Munro treated Fremlin's abuse as an infidelity and a betrayal from both him and her daughter. She left Fremlin briefly but then went back to him, defending her decision with a "faux-feminist" argument.
• Munro brushed off Skinner's concerns about the damage the abuse had caused her, saying "But you were such a happy child."

2. How did the family dynamics play out in the aftermath of the revelation?

• Fremlin threatened to kill both himself and Skinner and to make public inappropriate photos of Skinner as a child.
• The abuse became an "unspoken secret" that the family knew about but refused to discuss for over a decade.

[03] The Lasting Impact and Reckoning

1. When did Skinner finally go public with her story?

• Skinner waited until after both Fremlin and Munro had died (Fremlin in 2013 and Munro in 2024) to take her story to the Toronto Star.

2. What does the article suggest about the importance of facing the truth about Munro's actions?

• The article argues that Munro and her legacy must be "faced" and that the knowledge of what happened to Skinner should not be used to "destroy Munro's legacy" but to create a "more robust understanding of who she was as a writer."
• The article suggests that reckoning with Munro's flaws and failures, even as we continue to appreciate her literary achievements, is necessary to fully understand her as a person and an artist.