"Who Do You Think You Are" by Alice Munro (1978) (A Collection of Short Stories)

Who do you think you are? What a great question. That’s really what this collection of short stories is all about. Every story lets the reader into another portion of the life of a woman named Rose. Starting out in Hanratty, Ontario, we see moments from her childhood, her married life, and her unending search for love, as she moves around the country and pursues her acting career. It is the final story in the collection where the question is finally posed. Who does Rose think she is? Is she small-town, the way she was raised? Is she city, like how she lived with her husband? Is she a mother? Is she a caretaker? Is she an intellectual, or is she uneducated? She seems to spend her whole life in limbo, a mix of many things.
A subtle theme winds its way through the volume; old and new collide. When the new smashes into the old, we can often find ourselves attached to both and unsure which to accept. Alice Munro nailed it with Rose. It is difficult to know who we are when we belong to both worlds.

Munro has a gift for bringing the details of places to life through the characters she puts in them. For the first four stories she jam-packs Hanratty with colourful neighbours and village people, showing the impoverished side of Rose’s life. Death and rape are discussed, not in a taboo manner, but as facts.  Even in these early days of Rose’s life she collides with who she is and who she wants to be. In “Half a Grapefruit” we see her desire to identify with those who are wealthier, and to appear as an intellectual before her father.

When she meets her husband Patrick in “The Beggar Maid” she passes herself as a scholar, and then as weak in order to be what he wants. While married, she is unsatisfied and searches for another kind of love.

“Mischief” is one of my favourite stories in the collection. Its atmosphere is so fun and interesting. Munro takes us right into the 1960s and into the party scene during the time of beatniks, modern art, and avant-garde. Rose desperately searches for who she is, dragging her husband Patrick into this world with her.

Another story of note is “Spelling” which tragically describes Rose’s step-mother’s decent into old age and a nursing home.

Give this volume a read. Short stories aren't as intimidating as they look. These ones almost read like a novel.

Contents of the Book:

-Royal Beatings

-Privilege

-Half a Grapefruit

-Wild Swans

-The Beggar Maid

-Mischief

- Providence

-Simon’s Luck

-Spelling

-Who Do you Think you Are?

Note: In the United States and elsewhere this book was published under the title of "The Beggar Maid"

Bibliography: 
Munro, Alice. Who Do You Think You Are? Toronto: The Macmillan Company Of Canada Limited, 1978. Print.