Munro Discussion Questions

The title of the story looms over the entire narrative, as it’s not until the last page that we learn who the husband is — it turns out it’s someone who, until that last page, we haven’t even met. So that’s my first puzzle: why did Munro give this story that title? What game is she playing with that structure and our expectations? It’s surely not just a ha-ha-gotcha ploy.

The second puzzle is this: why are so many of the people in the story pretending to occupy roles they don’t? First, we have the Peebles, who have recently moved to the country but who, according to our narrator, will always be city people. We have Alice Kelling, a woman who is chasing her fiancé around the region, trying to pin him down — and he will just keep moving on to get away from her. We have that husband we meet on the last page, who unknowingly assumes the role of the man being chased, though the narrator was not paying attention. And then we have the narrator herself, fifteen-year-old Edie, who does similar things throughout the story: most obviously, she tries on one of Mrs. Peebles’
The narrative itself is relatively straightforward. Young Edie is away from home for the first time, working as a hired-girl for Dr. and Mrs. Peebles, who have recently moved to a country farm, not to work it but just to live there. When the story begins, a plane is landing in the field next to the Peebles’ home. Terrified, they think it is crash landing, perhaps into their home. The plane lands safely, of course, but the “crash landing” may still be appropriate: the pilot is a man named Chris Watters. Back from the war, he’s looking to earn some money by giving folks around the region rides in the sky. He comes to the Peebles’ place to get water, and he doesn’t hesitate to flirt a bit with Edie at their first meeting when he sees her wearing Mrs. Peebles’ dress. Edie is young and admits she didn’t have the first clue how to