PositiveUSA TodayOften Munro's sparsely told stories read like fairy tales where young women who test fate are later in need of rescuing or suffer unexpected and often bitter consequences for their choices. Mythological imagery is woven throughout: a sacrificial goat, Orion and Cassiopeia in the night sky, a gift of a white heifer, a mother mourning her daughter's disappearance, a fateful storm at sea, a funeral pyre, tricksters and virgins, an oracle. All serve to shape the larger inquiry into where and with whom one finds ‘home’ … Throughout Runaway, Munro details difficult life passages involving separations and homecomings, dislocation and the eternal movement of individuals on buses, ferries, trailers, automobiles and trains. Presented with equal weight is what prevents people from fleeing: sickness, caretaking and the intrusion of death.
