Eleanor Wachtel on her first interview with Alice Munro

In honour of Alice Munro's85thbirthday on July 10,Eleanor Wachtelreflects on herfirst interview with the Canadian literary giant. At the time,Writers & Companywas just starting outand Munrowas busy collecting accolades for her collectionFriend of My Youth.Listen to the archive interview above, and readEleanor's recollection of that meeting below:

It was September 1990: Alice Munro had recently won the$50,000 Molson Prize in honour of her work and the Trillium Award for her seventh collection,Friend of My Youth. We met in Toronto at the reading of a mutual friend and total fan that I was(and am), I asked her if she'd consider an interview for the new CBC literary programI'dlaunched, Writers &Company. She agreed for the next morning.

The title story of Friend of My Youth is about a woman who's thinking about her mother, whodied young about the"bitter lump of love"she has held in relation to her. I recalled that one ofher earliest stories, "Peace of Utrecht,"wasinspired by the death of her mother and that this newcollection was dedicated to her memory. So I askedabout their relationship.

Munro replied,"It was a very difficult relationship. Mothers and daughters generally have fairlycomplex relationships,and ours was made much more so by Mother's illness. She hadParkinson's disease, which was notdiagnosed for a long time...All that made me very self-protective, because for one thing I didn't want to get trapped.Infamilies like ours it is the oldest daughter's job to stay home and look after people when they'rein thatsituation, until they die. Instead, I got a scholarship and went to university. There isenormous guilt about doingthat, but at the time you're so busy protecting yourself that yousimply push it under, and then you suffer from itlater."

She added, "I don't think that much about my relationship with my mother and what it did to me. Isometimes feelterrible regret about her, what her life must have been like. Often, when I'menjoying something, I think of howmeagre her rewards were and how much courage, in a way, she needed to goon living."

I followed up by asking Munro what she was trying to figure out in the story"Friend of MyYouth."

She said, "I was trying to figure out why I needed to write this story! I knew I wasstruggling with the subject matterofmy mother. I hadn't thought I'd tackle that part of my lifeagain."

At the end of our conversation, I asked Alice Munro to read from the story and when she came tothe phrase "the bitterlump of love I have carried all this time,"her voice caught ever so slightly.Just a beat and she recovered; youcouldn't hear it on the air. Afterwards she expressed surprise that it could affect her still.

I was so moved by her willingness to speak with such candourand insight about a profoundrelationship anyone canrelate to. I remember a psychologisttelling me she referred to thoseobservations the interview was published inmy first book, Writers &Company with her clients.

The conversation, the story, the collection were an inspiration to me.

Eleanor Wachtel, July 2016

Writers & Company will broadcastEleanor's 2004 conversation with Alice Munro on July 10, her 85th birthday.