我来把剧情给大家全部简单介绍一下吧。
2014-02-28
大家帮我看看语法错误（时态什么的...），然后因为这个剧情介绍是挺简化的版本，大家有什么不懂的地方也欢迎来问。这本书我读了七八遍的样子，所以还是可以跟大家讨论一下的 = =
同书中故事的顺序一致。
The four-part title story “The Love of a Good Woman”, which is one of the most complex stories Munro has written, starts with the description of a red box belonged to the late Mr Willens, the local optometrist before, now in the museum of Walley donated by an anonym. The first part “Jutland”, then, captures an adventure of three boys (named Cece Ferns, Bud Sailer, and Jimmy Box) on a spring Saturday in 1951. A car was found half-sunk in the river, with a dead body of Mr Willens. Readers were then introduced to their family and their process of calling the police. The second part “Heartfailure”, shifts abruptly to a nurse Enid with her youngish patient Mrs Quinn, who was dying of a mysterious kidney failure. Enid was also a classmate and teaser of Mr Rupert Quinn, now a wordless farmer. Being a saintly nurse, for the first time, Enid cannot conquer Mrs Quinn’s viciousness. An episode of Enid’s past was also mentioned. Her father made her promise not to be a nurse for this occupation is “coarse” with the knowledge of men’s bodies. While nursing Mrs. Quinn, Enid also began to have dreams about having sex with unthinkable men. In the third part “Mistake”, Mrs Quinn, with her strength suddenly recovered a little, told Enid a story recalling the details of her husband Rupert murdering Mr Willens. Shocked and half-believed by the story, Rupert decided to take the risk of verifying the story and, if the story was real, helping Rupert to confess by himself. She was uncertain about the story also because the uncertainty the memory of her father flirting with a nurse.
“Jakarta” is a two-part story divided by time. Forty years ago, two young couples made acquaintance with each other during a holiday. The two wives, Kath and Sonje, worked for the same library. They both read a lot and became friends yet their attitudes differs essentially regarding marriage. Now, after forth years, Kent, already divorced with Kath, was visiting Sonje. They recalled their memory of hat holiday, especially the chaotic farewell carnival and a debate with Sonje’s husband Cottar took part in. The two women’s attitudes borne out in their subsequent courses of lives dramatically. Now after forth years, Sonje insisted to go Jakarta to find out the truth whether Cottar dead or not.
“Cortes Island” is a story narrated by an early married young woman whose name we don’t really know beyond her nickname “Little Bride”. Without a job and being unfamiliar with her new role of housewife, she tried to write something after a quantity of books. Her landlady Mrs Gorries, who lived upstairs with her and has a short-spoken son, was somehow embarrassingly friendly and annoying, unaware of boundaries and decorum. But something else about Mrs Gorrie emerged when the Bride is looking after Mr Gorrie, who suffers from intermittent stroke. Mr Gorrie showed the bride an interesting collected piece of news clips — a hint of Mrs Gorrie’s past, also a glimpse of a once wild soul beneath the haggard exterior of Mrs. Gorrie now. A few days later, they moved to a better apartment. But the bride never forgot about the Gorries and kept having erotic dreams about Mr Gorrie.
The story “Save the Reaper” is about Eve’s loneliness. The title comes from Lord Alfred Tennyson’s long poem The Lady of Shalott. Eve, an old actress, was driving in a rural area with her two young grandchildren Philip and Daisy. In the car, her grandson Philip imagined alien space invaders in other cars, which they then followed. The idea of the game came from Eve. She used to play it with her daughter Sophie. But the car they follow led them to a dangerous house full of dragsters and vagrant men. Eve, in spite of her obvious fears, gave a vagrant girl directions to her house on their way back home. Eve had fond memories of her daughter and blamed their past estrangement on Sophie’s husband and mother-in-law. However, her idyllic vacation with Sophie and the grandchildren on the shores of Lake Huron was cut short. Eve learned accidentally that her daughter secretly phoneed her husband, asking him to rescue her. She had to recognize the fact of her loneliness and real relationship with her child.
“The Children Stay” is a story about a young mother’s adulteration affair. Pauline had a feeling of imprisonment about her husband Brian and their tedious marriage. She met a director Jeffrey Toom who was about to putting on a play called Eurydice. Before long Pauline left with Jeffrey and the Brian punished Pauline by depriving her custody of their children. In the end, years later, we discover that the affair with Jeffrey was only a brief moment in her life. But She never got through the burden of guilt and her children have never forgiven her for abandoning them.
“Rich as Stink” is about an eleven year old girl Karin perceiving the dynamic relationship among the adults: her mother Rosemary, Derek the lover of Rosemary, and Ann, Derek’s ex-wife. Last year when Karin came to Toronto, She had a good time getting along with her mother’s boyfriend Derek, a handsome looking man. Karin also saw the quarral between them and Derek’s arrogance and his “cool satisfaction”. Karin prepared to give Derek a surprise when she got off the plane this time, only to know from her mother that they had broken up. A few days later, Karin visited Ann’s house and know that they are selling the land and leaving the place. While helping Derek out, he spoke sarcastically about Karin and her mother by describing them as “rich as stink”. She then knew from Ann Derek’s indifference further yet still want to please the adults with her putting on Ann’s wedding dress. The wedding dress caught fire. Derek and Ann still moved away. Karin learned a lesson of adroitly fending for herself from this life episode.
“Before the Change” is related to the subject matter of abortion. By a epistolary form we were introduce to a young unmarried mother left her fiancé Robin who differentiates “ideas” and “life” and asked her to abort their baby in order to save him from possible adverse impact. She came back to her father’s clinic where she seems needless and readers start to understand her own parenthood: her mother’s death in childbirth, her children unattended by her father. She learned that her father had practicing illegal abortions for year and she experienced being an assistant in a opration by chance. It turned out that her father had an affair with his assistant after his sudden death. She experienced the love underthrough change.
In “My Mother’s Dream”, a girl tells us a story about the history of her mother Jill giving birth and raising her as a baby. Jill was torn by the dilemma between her career as a musician and her role as single mother. “she thought of my birth as bringing something to an end rather than starting something.” She also didn’t quite understand the responsibility and price of raising a baby even after her marriage with Geroge, whose death brought her to live with his family: his senile mother, his sister Iona with a nervous wreck, and his sister Ailsa who was brisk yet authoritative. Jill gave birth to the baby in Geroge’s funeral and “everything changed”. Iona became responsible for the baby because not only Jill had to stay in bed but also out of affection. The baby also chose to accept Iona rather than her careless mother. This eventually led to an almost disastrous consequence — Jill put medicine in the baby’s formula and covered her face with a blanket. Iona thought the baby was dead and broke down. Jill learnt to care about the baby since this mother-child struggle.
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