" Jakarta "

by Alice Munro

 "Jakarta" appeared as the second story in the collection  The Love of a Good Woman (1998).
The book includes the following stories:

• "The Love of a Good Woman"
• "Jakarta"
• "Cortes Island"
• "Save the Reaper"
• "The Children Stay"
• "Rich as Stink"
• "Before the Change"
• "My Mother's Dream"

Story Summary

Kath and Sonje are two friends who have meet around the area. They have noticed each other around at work even thought they never really talked. They were working at the Vancouver public library in two different departments. However Kath still knew who Sonje was. Kath lives with her husband and she just had a baby girl named Noelle. They live on the beach shore in a cottage, where other Monica’s lives.  The Monica’s are mothers with one or more child that also live on the beach shore.

Sonje ‘s character is very shy, she wasn’t the kind of friend to tell you what is going on in her personal life. As a hobby, Kath and Sonje both take pleasure in reading when they go out for lunch. They usually have their lunch on the beach and talk about theirs characters in the novel that they have read.

Kent which is Kath’s husband works for a pharmacist chain line, Cottar witch is Sonje’s husband is a journalist.  He travels all the time to Indonesia, Philippines and other countries, the last trip he had made was to Red China.  It was the voyage who made Sonje renounce to her job. Cottar died in Jakarta, from some tropical bug after thirty three years and was buried even before Sonje found out he was sick.