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How I Met My Husband
How I Met My Husband is a short story written by Alice Munro, first published in 1974 as a part of her collection Something I've Been Meaning to Tell You.
14 pages, Unknown Binding
First published January 1, 1974
6 people are currently reading
145 people want to read
About the author
Alice Munro
243 books6,659 followersCollections of short stories of noted Canadian writer Alice Munro of life in rural Ontario include
Dance of the Happy Shades
(1968) and
Moons of Jupiter
(1982); for these and vivid novels, she won the Nobel Prize of 2013 for literature.
People widely consider her premier fiction of the world. Munro thrice received governor general's award. She focuses on human relationships through the lens of daily life. People thus refer to this "the Canadian Chekhov."
(Arabic: أليس مونرو)
(Persian: آلیس مانرو)
(Russian Cyrillic: Элис Манро)
(Ukrainian Cyrillic: Еліс Манро)
(Bulgarian Cyrillic: Алис Мънро)
(Slovak: Alice Munroová)
(Serbian: Alis Manro)
People widely consider her premier fiction of the world. Munro thrice received governor general's award. She focuses on human relationships through the lens of daily life. People thus refer to this "the Canadian Chekhov."
(Arabic: أليس مونرو)
(Persian: آلیس مانرو)
(Russian Cyrillic: Элис Манро)
(Ukrainian Cyrillic: Еліс Манро)
(Bulgarian Cyrillic: Алис Мънро)
(Slovak: Alice Munroová)
(Serbian: Alis Manro)
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews
July 14, 2023
Read with the Short Story Club
I loved the volume of short stories called Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage and I was looking forward to reading more stories written by Alice Munro. She has an amazing talent to make the story come alive in front of us, the characters are rounded which is so difficult to do in a few pages. Unfortunately, I did not think How I Met My Husband met the standards to which I was already accustomed to. It is a good story but I did not feel that the two above qualities, that I admire of the author, were present here. At least, not as much as I hoped.
A woman remembers the first time she fell in love, at 15 years old, with a young pilot who was offering airplane rides to tourists. The pilot has recently moved near the place Edie was working as domestic help. They develop a relationship but then the fiancée shows up.
I loved the volume of short stories called Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage and I was looking forward to reading more stories written by Alice Munro. She has an amazing talent to make the story come alive in front of us, the characters are rounded which is so difficult to do in a few pages. Unfortunately, I did not think How I Met My Husband met the standards to which I was already accustomed to. It is a good story but I did not feel that the two above qualities, that I admire of the author, were present here. At least, not as much as I hoped.
A woman remembers the first time she fell in love, at 15 years old, with a young pilot who was offering airplane rides to tourists. The pilot has recently moved near the place Edie was working as domestic help. They develop a relationship but then the fiancée shows up.
May 19, 2023
I've enjoyed Munro before (see below), but this one not quite as much. While it was introspective scene-setting, it was excellent. When it became more plot-oriented, I liked it a little less, and the secondary characters were rather clichéd (nosy neighbour with a feckless husband and lots of children, a bored suburban wife and mother, and a frantic fiancée).
I was initially immersed in the time (I assume the recent war was WW2), the place (a small town in rural Canada), and especially the mind of Edie (a 15-year old high-school dropout). She's a live-in home help for Dr and Mrs Peebles, and their children, aged seven and nine.
“Mrs Peebles said she couldn’t make pie crust, the most amazing thing I ever heard a woman admit.”
Edie is joyously entranced by unfamiliar luxuries like piped hot water (but not wanting to have a bath more than once a week, to avoid “risking making it less wonderful”), automatic washer and dryer, fluorescent lights, and endless ice for drinks.
Image: Ice cubes - luxury (Source)
She’s a shrewd observer of social interplay, class distinctions, and the differences between longtime farming folk and incomers. Like any girl her age, she’s intrigued by the forbidden mysteries of love and sex: sometimes she likes to appear knowledgeable, and other times she hides behind euphemisms - but she did grow up on a farm.
My enjoyment started to fade when a pilot came to town: he camped out at the old fairground and charged for short rides above the town.
“Sunday was a busy flying day in spite of it being preached against from two pulpits.”
Communication
This is the crux of the story.
Eventually, hard truth dawns and Edie makes a decision:
“If there were women all through life waiting, and women busy and not waiting, I knew which I had to be.”
I realised Munro wouldn't go for the cliché, but the “twist” felt lame.
Looking back
“I like for people to think what pleases them and makes them happy.”
The story is told by Edie, years later - perhaps around 1974, when this was published. She’s become more worldly-wise, and that quote, and her hindsight, raise questions about the balance of her naivety and knowingness at the time of the story.
Munros I enjoyed more
See my reviews of:
• The Lives of Girls and Women, 5*, HERE
• Dear Life, 4*, HERE
• Runaway, 3*, HERE
How I met my husband
At university - what a cliché. But we dated for a term and a half of my first year and then he graduated and went away. I know about waiting for, and writing, letters.
Short story club
I reread this as one of the stories in The Art of the Short Story, by Dana Gioia, from which I'm aiming to read one story a week with The Short Story Club, starting 2 May 2022.
You can read this story here.
You can join the group here.
I was initially immersed in the time (I assume the recent war was WW2), the place (a small town in rural Canada), and especially the mind of Edie (a 15-year old high-school dropout). She's a live-in home help for Dr and Mrs Peebles, and their children, aged seven and nine.
“Mrs Peebles said she couldn’t make pie crust, the most amazing thing I ever heard a woman admit.”
Edie is joyously entranced by unfamiliar luxuries like piped hot water (but not wanting to have a bath more than once a week, to avoid “risking making it less wonderful”), automatic washer and dryer, fluorescent lights, and endless ice for drinks.
Image: Ice cubes - luxury (Source)
She’s a shrewd observer of social interplay, class distinctions, and the differences between longtime farming folk and incomers. Like any girl her age, she’s intrigued by the forbidden mysteries of love and sex: sometimes she likes to appear knowledgeable, and other times she hides behind euphemisms - but she did grow up on a farm.
My enjoyment started to fade when a pilot came to town: he camped out at the old fairground and charged for short rides above the town.
“Sunday was a busy flying day in spite of it being preached against from two pulpits.”
Communication
This is the crux of the story.
Eventually, hard truth dawns and Edie makes a decision:
“If there were women all through life waiting, and women busy and not waiting, I knew which I had to be.”
I realised Munro wouldn't go for the cliché, but the “twist” felt lame.
Looking back
“I like for people to think what pleases them and makes them happy.”
The story is told by Edie, years later - perhaps around 1974, when this was published. She’s become more worldly-wise, and that quote, and her hindsight, raise questions about the balance of her naivety and knowingness at the time of the story.
Munros I enjoyed more
See my reviews of:
• The Lives of Girls and Women, 5*, HERE
• Dear Life, 4*, HERE
• Runaway, 3*, HERE
How I met my husband
At university - what a cliché. But we dated for a term and a half of my first year and then he graduated and went away. I know about waiting for, and writing, letters.
Short story club
I reread this as one of the stories in The Art of the Short Story, by Dana Gioia, from which I'm aiming to read one story a week with The Short Story Club, starting 2 May 2022.
You can read this story here.
You can join the group here.
May 2, 2023
How I Met My Husband is a delightful 10-pager from Alice Munro. I have only come across this author once before. A few years back I read Family Furnishings - collected short stories 1995-2014 and gave that collection 5-stars - review here - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... I absolutely loved it.
One thing I recall was the simplicity of her writing.
This story is set sometime soon after WWII and we follow young Edie – she does not do well in high school, so her parents push her into employment as the help in a country house owned by a veterinarian and his wife and two kids. Edie bakes cakes, does the washing and various other chores and her employers are decent enough.
One day an airplane comes scuttling overhead and lands in an adjacent field, previously occupied by a fairground. Chris, the pilot – he learned to fly during the war – sets up joy-flights for this small community. One day Edie meets Chris – I won’t say exactly how they met and what Edie was doing when they met – but meet they did.
Anyway, after this ‘coming together’ our story unravels. There is nothing particularly sordid going on here, it is just a normal thing that can happen to anyone – but the situation does contain drama. For me I experienced the usual anxiety when there were risks involved, the potential to be ‘found out’ – also, there is a scorned lover and a wonderful surprise at the end. Oh and of course, being a small township – there is a village gossip, a detestable woman called Loretta Bird. Oh my – I wanted to tell her to shut up.
This was light, breezy and fun. The characters were nicely fleshed out in not much time at all, and it was all quite normal and written in such as way – where there was attention paid to detail, but it was written with such ease.
I like Alice Munro and will immediately scour GRs to find my next one from her.
This was an offering from the GR Short Story Club – it has been a while since I’ve read one from this group, so I need to get back in the saddle. If you like short stories, I suggest you take a peek.
This story can be found here https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
4 Stars
One thing I recall was the simplicity of her writing.
This story is set sometime soon after WWII and we follow young Edie – she does not do well in high school, so her parents push her into employment as the help in a country house owned by a veterinarian and his wife and two kids. Edie bakes cakes, does the washing and various other chores and her employers are decent enough.
One day an airplane comes scuttling overhead and lands in an adjacent field, previously occupied by a fairground. Chris, the pilot – he learned to fly during the war – sets up joy-flights for this small community. One day Edie meets Chris – I won’t say exactly how they met and what Edie was doing when they met – but meet they did.
Anyway, after this ‘coming together’ our story unravels. There is nothing particularly sordid going on here, it is just a normal thing that can happen to anyone – but the situation does contain drama. For me I experienced the usual anxiety when there were risks involved, the potential to be ‘found out’ – also, there is a scorned lover and a wonderful surprise at the end. Oh and of course, being a small township – there is a village gossip, a detestable woman called Loretta Bird. Oh my – I wanted to tell her to shut up.
This was light, breezy and fun. The characters were nicely fleshed out in not much time at all, and it was all quite normal and written in such as way – where there was attention paid to detail, but it was written with such ease.
I like Alice Munro and will immediately scour GRs to find my next one from her.
This was an offering from the GR Short Story Club – it has been a while since I’ve read one from this group, so I need to get back in the saddle. If you like short stories, I suggest you take a peek.
This story can be found here https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
4 Stars
December 16, 2024
4★
“I loved the double sink. So would anybody new-come from washing dishes in a dishpan with a rag-plugged hole on an oilcloth-covered table by light of a coal-oil lamp. I kept everything shining.”
That was fifteen-year-old Canadian girl, Edie, working as a home help in her first job after leaving school with poor grades. The local vet who tended to her family’s livestock, said she looked pretty smart to him, and his wife was looking for help with their two children – would she be interested?
So here she is with a new-fangled washing machine, dryer, a house with heat, a shower screen with flamingos painted on it, and, wonder-of-wonders, never-ending ice in the freezer. During this hot summer, she loves offering to put more ice in people’s drinks.
“Sometimes I thought about the way we lived out at home and the way we lived here and how one way was so hard to imagine when you were living the other way. But I thought it was still a lot easier, living the way we lived at home, to picture something like this, the painted flamingoes and the warmth and the soft mat, than it was for anybody knowing only things like this to picture how it was the other way. And why was that?”
She realises nobody daydreams about how the other half lives if the other half is worse off, so except for the vet, these people don’t know what her farm life is like.
During that summer, a pilot landed a small plane in the field nearby and started offering people joyrides. He came to the house often to fill a pail with water, which he took back to his campsite.
When a woman turns up at the house asking about him and saying she is his fiancée, the gossip begins. Edie sees him most days, because she’s the one at home when he comes for water.
Edie is telling this story as an adult, and it’s really more of a ‘how I met your father’, told for her children. I will leave you here to read it for yourself. It’s short and it’s Munro, which means it may not turn out quite how you expect. She won the Nobel Prize in 2013, which shows how highly her stories are regarded.
You can read it here or download the PDF.
https://dokumen.tips/documents/how-i-...
It is also in her collection Something I've Been Meaning to Tell You
Another from the Short Story Club Group you can join here.
https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...
Small update - Munro herself is not so highly regarded now that her daughter has revealed the story of her abuse by her stepfather. It's had a big impact on Munro's legacy.
“I loved the double sink. So would anybody new-come from washing dishes in a dishpan with a rag-plugged hole on an oilcloth-covered table by light of a coal-oil lamp. I kept everything shining.”
That was fifteen-year-old Canadian girl, Edie, working as a home help in her first job after leaving school with poor grades. The local vet who tended to her family’s livestock, said she looked pretty smart to him, and his wife was looking for help with their two children – would she be interested?
So here she is with a new-fangled washing machine, dryer, a house with heat, a shower screen with flamingos painted on it, and, wonder-of-wonders, never-ending ice in the freezer. During this hot summer, she loves offering to put more ice in people’s drinks.
“Sometimes I thought about the way we lived out at home and the way we lived here and how one way was so hard to imagine when you were living the other way. But I thought it was still a lot easier, living the way we lived at home, to picture something like this, the painted flamingoes and the warmth and the soft mat, than it was for anybody knowing only things like this to picture how it was the other way. And why was that?”
She realises nobody daydreams about how the other half lives if the other half is worse off, so except for the vet, these people don’t know what her farm life is like.
During that summer, a pilot landed a small plane in the field nearby and started offering people joyrides. He came to the house often to fill a pail with water, which he took back to his campsite.
When a woman turns up at the house asking about him and saying she is his fiancée, the gossip begins. Edie sees him most days, because she’s the one at home when he comes for water.
Edie is telling this story as an adult, and it’s really more of a ‘how I met your father’, told for her children. I will leave you here to read it for yourself. It’s short and it’s Munro, which means it may not turn out quite how you expect. She won the Nobel Prize in 2013, which shows how highly her stories are regarded.
You can read it here or download the PDF.
https://dokumen.tips/documents/how-i-...
It is also in her collection Something I've Been Meaning to Tell You
Another from the Short Story Club Group you can join here.
https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...
Small update - Munro herself is not so highly regarded now that her daughter has revealed the story of her abuse by her stepfather. It's had a big impact on Munro's legacy.
May 2, 2023
Short story. An excellent coming of age tale.
I loved fifteen year old Edie with her common sense attitude and her core of inner strength. The setting was post war rural Canada and it was a character in itself. The end was a sudden sharp twist which made me smile. It was all very enjoyable.
This was my first story from this writer and what a lot I have been missing out on!
I loved fifteen year old Edie with her common sense attitude and her core of inner strength. The setting was post war rural Canada and it was a character in itself. The end was a sudden sharp twist which made me smile. It was all very enjoyable.
This was my first story from this writer and what a lot I have been missing out on!
April 29, 2023
I enjoyed how Alice Munro humorously captures the awkwardness of a teenage girl in this coming-of-age story. The story also illustrates the differences in social class. The fifteen-year-old girl learned a lot about life and love during a summer working as a mother's helper, and experiencing her first love interest. After the man left, Edie showed her independent streak and decided to move on in her life to become a confident woman:
"If there were women all through life waiting, and women busy and not waiting, I know which I had to be. Even though there might be things the second kind of woman have to pass up and never know about, it still is better."
The story also has an amusing twist at the end.
"If there were women all through life waiting, and women busy and not waiting, I know which I had to be. Even though there might be things the second kind of woman have to pass up and never know about, it still is better."
The story also has an amusing twist at the end.
May 1, 2023
A smooth read, a coming-of-age story, with a surprise turn.
Edie has left her farming family to go to work as a “hired girl” to keep house and take care of the children of a “town” family that had moved to the country but not to farm, and she has an adventure. The time frame is probably late 1940’s (given that it’s shortly after a war, and her mother still used a wringer washing machine). The contrast in town and country lifestyles was very fun.
“Dessert was never anything to write home about at their place. A dish of Jell-O or sliced bananas or fruit out of a tin. ‘Have a house without a pie, be ashamed until you die,’ my mother used to say, but Mrs. Peebles operated differently.”
Alice Munro’s style, here and in a few other stories I’ve read, feels simple, but underneath the telling there are quiet revelations. She has a distinct voice that reminds me of the Midwestern relatives I used to visit in the 1960’s. I suppose it’s just rural living, “down-home” as my mother used to say--matter-of-fact, not excitable, with a hint of long-suffering.
A very enjoyable story. Can’t wait to read more from this author.
Edie has left her farming family to go to work as a “hired girl” to keep house and take care of the children of a “town” family that had moved to the country but not to farm, and she has an adventure. The time frame is probably late 1940’s (given that it’s shortly after a war, and her mother still used a wringer washing machine). The contrast in town and country lifestyles was very fun.
“Dessert was never anything to write home about at their place. A dish of Jell-O or sliced bananas or fruit out of a tin. ‘Have a house without a pie, be ashamed until you die,’ my mother used to say, but Mrs. Peebles operated differently.”
Alice Munro’s style, here and in a few other stories I’ve read, feels simple, but underneath the telling there are quiet revelations. She has a distinct voice that reminds me of the Midwestern relatives I used to visit in the 1960’s. I suppose it’s just rural living, “down-home” as my mother used to say--matter-of-fact, not excitable, with a hint of long-suffering.
A very enjoyable story. Can’t wait to read more from this author.
May 8, 2023
A short story shared in 17 pages, written by Alice Munro.
’We heard the plane come over at noon, roaring through the radio news, and we were sure it was going to hit the house, so we all ran out into the yard. We saw it come in over the tree tops, all red and silver, the first close-up plane I ever saw. Mrs. Peebles screamed.’
This can be found at: https://www.docdroid.net/Uakxehx/how-...
October 21, 2024
The Short Story Club
This simple story told by a married woman is about a teenage country girl's coming of age and learning the first important life lessons. It is also the best illustration of the saying 'Life is full of surprises'. Overall, it is very positive.
This simple story told by a married woman is about a teenage country girl's coming of age and learning the first important life lessons. It is also the best illustration of the saying 'Life is full of surprises'. Overall, it is very positive.
May 19, 2023
Edie, a young girl of fifteen, was raised on a farm and now works as a household help to Dr. and Mrs. Peebles.
When I went home I would describe to them the work I had to do, and it made everybody laugh. Mrs. Peebles had an automatic washer and dryer, the first I ever saw.
She is enchanted by being able to have a bath in a real bathtub, and having an endless supply of ice.
The Peebles drank ginger ale, or fruit drinks, all day, like water, and I was getting so I did too. Also there was no limit on ice cubes, which I was so fond of I would even put them in a glass of milk.
Beside the Peebleses (I really like the plural of that name), we meet the nosy and uncharitable neighbour, Chris the pilot who is an exciting and seductive novelty, and his fiancée who turns out to be a histerical slut shamer, because of what she thinks happened between Edie and Chris.
Most of the characters seem like caricatures, but I liked this short story nevertheless.
There were women just waiting and waiting by mailboxes for one letter or another. I imagined me making this journey day after day and year after year, and my hair starting to go gray, and I thought, I was never made to go on like that. So I stopped meeting the mail. If there were women all through life waiting, and women busy and not waiting, I knew which I had to be.
When I went home I would describe to them the work I had to do, and it made everybody laugh. Mrs. Peebles had an automatic washer and dryer, the first I ever saw.
She is enchanted by being able to have a bath in a real bathtub, and having an endless supply of ice.
The Peebles drank ginger ale, or fruit drinks, all day, like water, and I was getting so I did too. Also there was no limit on ice cubes, which I was so fond of I would even put them in a glass of milk.
Beside the Peebleses (I really like the plural of that name), we meet the nosy and uncharitable neighbour, Chris the pilot who is an exciting and seductive novelty, and his fiancée who turns out to be a histerical slut shamer, because of what she thinks happened between Edie and Chris.
Most of the characters seem like caricatures, but I liked this short story nevertheless.
There were women just waiting and waiting by mailboxes for one letter or another. I imagined me making this journey day after day and year after year, and my hair starting to go gray, and I thought, I was never made to go on like that. So I stopped meeting the mail. If there were women all through life waiting, and women busy and not waiting, I knew which I had to be.
May 6, 2023
Mrs. Peebles said she couldn't make pie crust, the most amazing thing I ever heard a woman admit.
Munro is masterful here, capturing the voice of a country girl working for a more urbane family, at the time when "the trend was starting of town people buying up old farms, not to work them but to live on them."
The girl is looking back at her youthful innocence, naively observing the types of characters she has learned to identify, and proving less insightful about herself. There are wonderful "country" details here — such as recognizing someone as a member of a particular family based on his face.
I have great respect for Alice Munro, which impels me to approach all her work with a severe fondness.
Munro is masterful here, capturing the voice of a country girl working for a more urbane family, at the time when "the trend was starting of town people buying up old farms, not to work them but to live on them."
The girl is looking back at her youthful innocence, naively observing the types of characters she has learned to identify, and proving less insightful about herself. There are wonderful "country" details here — such as recognizing someone as a member of a particular family based on his face.
I have great respect for Alice Munro, which impels me to approach all her work with a severe fondness.
January 7, 2023
— review to come —
February 22, 2025
Precisely observed story of a 15-year-old girl working as a housekeeper at a country house, and the events one summer when she meets a pilot. Edie is a winning combination of naive, judgmental, and cunning (more than even she realizes). The third Munro story I've read, she's very good at getting at the small moments that will ripple out for years after.
April 30, 2023
Like with so many of Munro's exquisitely crafted short stories, this one was another memorable read for me. The author manages to combine dialogue that informs the reader about the characters' background and the setting with short snippets of information that link up with ease and doesn't let up until the unexpected little twist right at the end. Delightful!
August 19, 2023
"Till it came to me one day there were women doing this with their lives, all over. There were women just waiting and waiting by mailboxes for one letter or another. I imagined me making this journey day after day and year after year, and my hair starting to go gray, and I thought, I was never made to go on like that. So I stopped meeting the mail. If there were women all through life waiting, and women busy and not waiting, I knew which I had to be. Even though there might be things the second kind of women have to pass up and never know about, it still is better."
February 2, 2019
Beautifully ironic - and finally, a short story with a clear and understandable conclusion, for the mentally challenged such as myself.
March 11, 2025
Once I made an apple pie so now I know I'm a real woman. Feeling #assured.
January 1, 2026
این داستان کوتاهِ عزیز رو دیشب خوندم و بارها با خودم گفتم که ای کاش وقتی ۲۰ ساله بودم به دستم رسیده بود تا یاد میگرفتم که انتظار برای نامهای که هرگز نخواهد اومد، بیفایدهست.
February 23, 2026
The story itself was not enticing that much. I felt like its too much cliche, though it was stating some real issue. I guess it's not the problem of the story, just the genre and the idea is pervasively illustrated. I could say the plot is rich, a lot of actions take place and is gonna work if used as a divice to learn plot and structure, as it is in the plot and structure section of Perrine's Literature. But overall, I wouldn't really recommend it.
May 13, 2023
This short story made more sense to me than some do. What it says to me is that life does not always turn out as we expect, and that's okay.
Sometimes it turns out better.
Sometimes it turns out better.
June 11, 2023
This short story, published in 1974, first appeared as part of a collection in “Something I have Been Meaning To Tell You” and has become available as an e book.
Edie, a fifteen-year-old girl living in rural, post-world war Canada, is the narrator of the events which took place many years ago. She comes from a poor farming background and after dropping out of high school is hired by Dr. Peebles, the local veterinarian, to help his wife out at home with cooking, cleaning and child care. The Peebles’ home has many modern conveniences and Edie cannot help but marvel at the beautiful double sink, the automatic washing machine and the luxurious bath tub she uses once a week.
Loretta Bird is the Peebles’s nosy neighbour. Mrs. Peebles, who has only recently arrived from the city, believes Loretta is a hard-working, self-sacrificing mother of seven. Edie, on the other hand knows Loretta is from a lower social class and has a husband with a drinking problem.
Itinerant pilot Chris Watters, lands his plane on the nearby fairground, almost crashing into the house. He has permission to use the land and has set himself up to stay a while and sell plane rides.
While Mrs. Peebles and the children are out, Edie ventures into Mrs. Peebles’s closet to admire her clothes. Seeing a beautiful long evening gown, she tries it on, adds make-up to complete the look and heads to the kitchen. Chris, who has come to ask permission to use water from the pump, catches sight of her from the screen door and asks if she is going to a dance. He tells her she looks beautiful, which embarrasses her but she is also fearful he will tell Mrs. Peebles what she has been up to. That night she visits him and asks that he keep her secret. Chris offers her a cigarette and begins to flirt, but Edie, unsure how to respond, leaves. Over the next days, Chris visits the Peebles’s home often, offering Edie a plane ride and sharing his war time experiences with Mrs. Peebles.
A woman named Alice Kelling arrives, announcing she is Chris’s fiancé. The following day she, Mrs. Peebles and the children leave for a picnic and Mrs. Peebles asks Alice to tell Chris they will be back by five o’clock. Edie makes a crumb cake and visits Chris in his tent to give him the message. When she asks if he is getting married, Chris laughs and says he’ll be gone before Alice returns. He tells Edie he would like to share a long good-bye with her. He kisses her and they lie together on the cot; Edie finds the experience pleasurable. When Chris becomes aroused, he puts an end to the encounter, quickly rises and says he will write to her.
Chris has left by the time the other return and when they ask about his whereabouts, Edie, hoping to give Chris more time to avoid Alice, misleads them about his destination. Alice, suspecting Edie had a sexual liaison with Chris, confronts her and calls her a tramp. Edie admits to the “intimate encounter”, with Chris, naively believing that being intimate meant kissing. Loretta and Alice heap more abuse on Edie, but Mrs. Peebles questions her and learns that Edie and Chris had only kissed.
Edie walks to the mailbox every day, patiently waiting for the letter which she soon realizes will never arrive. Each time, she sees the mailman Carmichael as he passes. When she stops her daily trips, Carmichael calls, asks for a date and two years later they marry. Carmichael enjoys telling their children how Edie went after him, sitting every day by the mailbox, waiting for his arrival. Edie does not correct him, knowing the story makes him happy.
Munroe fashions Edie as a simple country girl, but one who is also spirited, independent and observant of the world around her. Like many young girls of the time, she was naïve, but she is also smart enough to realize that Chris will not write to her and stops waiting for a letter which will never arrive. Instead she chooses to look for happiness where she knows she can find it, with the local mailman.
This early story reflects many of the signature themes Munroe used in her work: an exploration of gender roles, a consciousness of social class and sensitive observations of life in small rural towns.
The story was a very good addition to her large catalogue of work and although not a huge fan of short stories, I enjoyed this one that had a beginning, a middle and an end!
Edie, a fifteen-year-old girl living in rural, post-world war Canada, is the narrator of the events which took place many years ago. She comes from a poor farming background and after dropping out of high school is hired by Dr. Peebles, the local veterinarian, to help his wife out at home with cooking, cleaning and child care. The Peebles’ home has many modern conveniences and Edie cannot help but marvel at the beautiful double sink, the automatic washing machine and the luxurious bath tub she uses once a week.
Loretta Bird is the Peebles’s nosy neighbour. Mrs. Peebles, who has only recently arrived from the city, believes Loretta is a hard-working, self-sacrificing mother of seven. Edie, on the other hand knows Loretta is from a lower social class and has a husband with a drinking problem.
Itinerant pilot Chris Watters, lands his plane on the nearby fairground, almost crashing into the house. He has permission to use the land and has set himself up to stay a while and sell plane rides.
While Mrs. Peebles and the children are out, Edie ventures into Mrs. Peebles’s closet to admire her clothes. Seeing a beautiful long evening gown, she tries it on, adds make-up to complete the look and heads to the kitchen. Chris, who has come to ask permission to use water from the pump, catches sight of her from the screen door and asks if she is going to a dance. He tells her she looks beautiful, which embarrasses her but she is also fearful he will tell Mrs. Peebles what she has been up to. That night she visits him and asks that he keep her secret. Chris offers her a cigarette and begins to flirt, but Edie, unsure how to respond, leaves. Over the next days, Chris visits the Peebles’s home often, offering Edie a plane ride and sharing his war time experiences with Mrs. Peebles.
A woman named Alice Kelling arrives, announcing she is Chris’s fiancé. The following day she, Mrs. Peebles and the children leave for a picnic and Mrs. Peebles asks Alice to tell Chris they will be back by five o’clock. Edie makes a crumb cake and visits Chris in his tent to give him the message. When she asks if he is getting married, Chris laughs and says he’ll be gone before Alice returns. He tells Edie he would like to share a long good-bye with her. He kisses her and they lie together on the cot; Edie finds the experience pleasurable. When Chris becomes aroused, he puts an end to the encounter, quickly rises and says he will write to her.
Chris has left by the time the other return and when they ask about his whereabouts, Edie, hoping to give Chris more time to avoid Alice, misleads them about his destination. Alice, suspecting Edie had a sexual liaison with Chris, confronts her and calls her a tramp. Edie admits to the “intimate encounter”, with Chris, naively believing that being intimate meant kissing. Loretta and Alice heap more abuse on Edie, but Mrs. Peebles questions her and learns that Edie and Chris had only kissed.
Edie walks to the mailbox every day, patiently waiting for the letter which she soon realizes will never arrive. Each time, she sees the mailman Carmichael as he passes. When she stops her daily trips, Carmichael calls, asks for a date and two years later they marry. Carmichael enjoys telling their children how Edie went after him, sitting every day by the mailbox, waiting for his arrival. Edie does not correct him, knowing the story makes him happy.
Munroe fashions Edie as a simple country girl, but one who is also spirited, independent and observant of the world around her. Like many young girls of the time, she was naïve, but she is also smart enough to realize that Chris will not write to her and stops waiting for a letter which will never arrive. Instead she chooses to look for happiness where she knows she can find it, with the local mailman.
This early story reflects many of the signature themes Munroe used in her work: an exploration of gender roles, a consciousness of social class and sensitive observations of life in small rural towns.
The story was a very good addition to her large catalogue of work and although not a huge fan of short stories, I enjoyed this one that had a beginning, a middle and an end!
May 5, 2023
It has been a while since I read Alice Munro. There is pleasure in being secure in an author’s story-telling skills and knowing I will not be disappointed.
Edie, now happily married, looks back on her adolescent years and recalls how she met her husband. At age 15, Edie who did poorly in high school, became a domestic worker for Dr and Mrs Peebles and their two young children. Having lived on a farm all her life, Elie was entranced by the luxuries afforded by life at the Peebles home: piped water, fluorescent lights, automatic washer and dryer, a pink bathroom with a three-way mirror in which to admire herself. She especially liked the unlimited supply of ice cubes to put in her milk.
Things changed for Edie the day a WW2 pilot, Chris, landed a plane in an open field across the road. How Edie and Chris met was rather sweet but also anxiety-provoking. As in many stories about girls and women, Munro expertly captured the innocence and curiosity of a teenage girl, her idea of romance, love, and physical intimacy.
Then a woman from out of town showed up at the Peebles house and Edie’s life was steered in new directions. This episode in which a nosy neighbor (Loretta Bird) participated reveals the cattiness women sometimes demonstrate toward each other, especially to someone of a lower social class like Edie. Munro has a talent of revealing the less charitable side of women, especially when it involves matters of the heart.
This story of about 17 pages can be read here: How I Met My Husband
Edie, now happily married, looks back on her adolescent years and recalls how she met her husband. At age 15, Edie who did poorly in high school, became a domestic worker for Dr and Mrs Peebles and their two young children. Having lived on a farm all her life, Elie was entranced by the luxuries afforded by life at the Peebles home: piped water, fluorescent lights, automatic washer and dryer, a pink bathroom with a three-way mirror in which to admire herself. She especially liked the unlimited supply of ice cubes to put in her milk.
Things changed for Edie the day a WW2 pilot, Chris, landed a plane in an open field across the road. How Edie and Chris met was rather sweet but also anxiety-provoking. As in many stories about girls and women, Munro expertly captured the innocence and curiosity of a teenage girl, her idea of romance, love, and physical intimacy.
Then a woman from out of town showed up at the Peebles house and Edie’s life was steered in new directions. This episode in which a nosy neighbor (Loretta Bird) participated reveals the cattiness women sometimes demonstrate toward each other, especially to someone of a lower social class like Edie. Munro has a talent of revealing the less charitable side of women, especially when it involves matters of the heart.
This story of about 17 pages can be read here: How I Met My Husband
May 2, 2023
3.5 rounded to 3. I have always had a problem connecting with Munro. This is my second reading of this story. I’m not sure what it is, but there are so many others to enjoy….
Edie looks back on her time as a 15-year old when she fell in love (that first rushed-into love, would do-anything-for love) with a young pilot who was selling airplane rides near where Edie works as the domestic help. When the pilot’s fiancée shows up, he promises Edie he will write to her with his location and flies off leaving both women behind.
There are lovely details showing Edie’s desire to be a woman. The story fully reminded me of the tough transition between being a teenage girl and wanting to be an adult. Edie also has to suffer the consequences of her social class which is lower than the other women in the story. We get a twisty ending. And most importantly, Edie must decide if she is going to be a woman who waits around on a man or is she going to be a woman who does not wait, but lives?
After all, time waits for no woman.
Edie looks back on her time as a 15-year old when she fell in love (that first rushed-into love, would do-anything-for love) with a young pilot who was selling airplane rides near where Edie works as the domestic help. When the pilot’s fiancée shows up, he promises Edie he will write to her with his location and flies off leaving both women behind.
There are lovely details showing Edie’s desire to be a woman. The story fully reminded me of the tough transition between being a teenage girl and wanting to be an adult. Edie also has to suffer the consequences of her social class which is lower than the other women in the story. We get a twisty ending. And most importantly, Edie must decide if she is going to be a woman who waits around on a man or is she going to be a woman who does not wait, but lives?
After all, time waits for no woman.
May 2, 2023
Read with the Short Story Club.
There is a level on which ‘How I Met My Husband’ is a clever little story with a sweet twist at the end. It is, however, much more than this. It holds within a story of a young girl growing up and becoming more realistic about love and relationships, and this all takes place in a world of unhappy and self-deceiving older women. It was a bit of shock read for me as when I was a teacher, I used to create little stories for my second language students and one of my most popular was ‘Felix and Anna’s Marriage’. It was a story in which Felix sends a love letter to Anna every day, and although Anna begins by hating receiving the letters, she slowly begins to appreciate their arrival. So much for me thinking I might have thought that up myself. Worth the time (her story, not mine), but not overly special.
There is a level on which ‘How I Met My Husband’ is a clever little story with a sweet twist at the end. It is, however, much more than this. It holds within a story of a young girl growing up and becoming more realistic about love and relationships, and this all takes place in a world of unhappy and self-deceiving older women. It was a bit of shock read for me as when I was a teacher, I used to create little stories for my second language students and one of my most popular was ‘Felix and Anna’s Marriage’. It was a story in which Felix sends a love letter to Anna every day, and although Anna begins by hating receiving the letters, she slowly begins to appreciate their arrival. So much for me thinking I might have thought that up myself. Worth the time (her story, not mine), but not overly special.
July 9, 2025
I had to read this story as part of a literature class/club that I signed up for. Prior to reading this story, I knew nothing of this author. Come to find out, she was Canadian and grew up close to a part of Ontario where my family is from.
The story kind of reminded me a little bit of Steinbeck but more so of some of those famous Russian authors that I have yet to fully dive into. The ending of this story really surprised and got me! In 2-3 sentences it was a major plot twist at the end! I would like to read more work by Munro.
The story kind of reminded me a little bit of Steinbeck but more so of some of those famous Russian authors that I have yet to fully dive into. The ending of this story really surprised and got me! In 2-3 sentences it was a major plot twist at the end! I would like to read more work by Munro.
September 19, 2023
How I Met My Husband by Alice Munro - Review
Alice Munro's short story "How I Met My Husband" focuses on themes of social position.
No longer a young maiden, she recalls the times when she was young and worked as a maid in a wealthy family. And there she met a pilot much older than herself. Nothing bad happened. He just flew away, but promised to return.
Here is the link to the text of the story:
https://www.homeworkforyou.com/static...
Alice Munro's short story "How I Met My Husband" focuses on themes of social position.
No longer a young maiden, she recalls the times when she was young and worked as a maid in a wealthy family. And there she met a pilot much older than herself. Nothing bad happened. He just flew away, but promised to return.
Here is the link to the text of the story:
https://www.homeworkforyou.com/static...
May 16, 2024
I liked how the narrator managed to show us the world through the eyes of a teenage girl. The plot was easy-to-follow and pretty straightforward. I find it a good "story of people", that actually teaches you something about people--who they are, how they think, how they act, etc. I wouldn't say it's a GREAT work, but it's definitely worth the while.
July 24, 2024
I just adore how beautifully did Munro use the element of suspense in this short story. I never looked for a moral lesson in a literary piece, but this one rather taught me some important life lessons.
September 14, 2023
I loved so many things about this story, especially the ending and how each character interacted with one another
December 29, 2023
Short coming of age story.
Read as part of Goodreads “The Short Story Club”
Read as part of Goodreads “The Short Story Club”
Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews