" Rich as Stink "
by Alice Munro
"Rich as Stink"
appeared as the sixth story in the
collection The Love of a Good Woman (1998).
The book includes the following stories:
Story Summary
There are four principal characters in this story. It has Karin the little girl
that the entire story is about. It has also Rosemary which is the mother of
Karin. Derek is the colleague of Rosemary but he’s also her secret lover. The
fourth character is Ann the wife of Derek.
The story begins when Karin returns at her mother’s house. She passed all the
summer with her dad in Toronto. When she arrives at the airport, her mother
Rosemary was waiting for her but at her despair Derek, the friend of her mother,
was not there. Derek is a writer who work with Rosemary, the mother of Karin.
But it seems that they are more than just colleagues because Derek has a lot of
his personal stuff at her mother’s house and spend a lot of time with Rosemary.
On the other hand, on its return Karin notice that all the stuff of Derek are
not there anymore and Rosemary explains to her that they are not seen each other
anymore.
Karin is really happy to be with her mom again and they spend a lot of time
together. They spend the whole days in pajamas to speaking and reading
magazines.
Throughout the story Karin tells us about the adventures she lived with Derek,
it seems that she miss him. She tells us the time that Derek and she were alone
and they have smoked some weed and they have never told that to her mother.
Karin spent a lot of good time with Derek and she looks like she’s missing him.
On the other hand, she also likes to spend time with Ann. One day Karin and Ann
were doing some housework in the clothes of Ann and they found the wedding dress
of Ann. Karin try it and look very beautiful. The same night, Derek and Ann had
invited Karin and Rosemary to supper. During the supper, Karin wanted to show at
her mom and Derek how she looks beautiful in the wedding dress so she wore the
dress for the supper. Unfortunately the wind pushes the veil on the candles and
start to burn but the veil was attached of his head. When Karin woke up she have
her neck and her hairs burned. Her mother was there but she didn’t found Derek
and Ann. Her mother told her that they were travelling to find a house.
After the accident Karin explain us that she was a new girl. She’s happy that
everything is for the best, her mom is with her, Derek and Ann are together and
they love each other.
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