Simon Vance

Andrea suspects that these were the children with whom Fremlin had friendships, as Munro put it in 1992. How much did Munro know? Andrea remembers another couple who were friends of Fremlin's contacting Munro around 1978 to inform her that he had exposed himself to their fourteen-year-old daughter. Fremlin denied it, but it's unclear how reassured Munro really was.

Andrea suspects that these were the children with whom Fremlin had friendships, as Munro put it in 1992. How much did Munro know? Andrea remembers another couple who were friends of Fremlin's contacting Munro around 1978 to inform her that he had exposed himself to their fourteen-year-old daughter. Fremlin denied it, but it's unclear how reassured Munro really was.

In 2008, a few years after Thacker's biography appeared, Munro confessed to him that she had sometimes entertained dark thoughts about her partner. According to Andrea, Munro came to suspect that Fremlin was responsible for the rape and murder of Lynn Harper, a 12-year-old girl whose body was discovered in a woodlot near Clinton in 1959.

In 2008, a few years after Thacker's biography appeared, Munro confessed to him that she had sometimes entertained dark thoughts about her partner. According to Andrea, Munro came to suspect that Fremlin was responsible for the rape and murder of Lynn Harper, a 12-year-old girl whose body was discovered in a woodlot near Clinton in 1959.

Though Munro later learned that Framlin had been elsewhere, the fact remains. She thought he had it in him. Whatever thoughts she entertained, Monroe never acted on them. Instead, they were sublimated in her fiction. Like Bea in Vandals, she was unable to become someone firm and serious, a hard and fast, clean-sweeping sort of woman.

Though Munro later learned that Framlin had been elsewhere, the fact remains. She thought he had it in him. Whatever thoughts she entertained, Monroe never acted on them. Instead, they were sublimated in her fiction. Like Bea in Vandals, she was unable to become someone firm and serious, a hard and fast, clean-sweeping sort of woman.

When Andrea first read the story around the time that it came out, and later saw the title of the book it was collected in, Open Secrets, 1994, she felt briefly hopeful that her mother had begun to reckon with what happened. I thought it was perhaps a route to more truth-telling. A step, she told me.

When Andrea first read the story around the time that it came out, and later saw the title of the book it was collected in, Open Secrets, 1994, she felt briefly hopeful that her mother had begun to reckon with what happened. I thought it was perhaps a route to more truth-telling. A step, she told me.

When this proved not to be the case, she came to feel her mother's fiction was something like the reverse. A way of sustaining a life built on lies. In a Substack essay this summer, the novelist and critic Mary Gatesgill, who has written of her own experience of sexual abuse, posited that Monroe composed Vandals as a kind of alternate reality healing, and not just for herself.

When this proved not to be the case, she came to feel her mother's fiction was something like the reverse. A way of sustaining a life built on lies. In a Substack essay this summer, the novelist and critic Mary Gatesgill, who has written of her own experience of sexual abuse, posited that Monroe composed Vandals as a kind of alternate reality healing, and not just for herself.

Sometimes the inability to deal with a real situation turbocharges the need to deal with it in some other way, which can drive the making of art that is gloriously transpersonal. Like so many of Munro's stories, Vandals seems to give us back our lives more abundantly by naming the world and resensitizing our perceptions of it. Fiction is autonomous and irreducible.

Sometimes the inability to deal with a real situation turbocharges the need to deal with it in some other way, which can drive the making of art that is gloriously transpersonal. Like so many of Munro's stories, Vandals seems to give us back our lives more abundantly by naming the world and resensitizing our perceptions of it. Fiction is autonomous and irreducible.

You can't judge it by how faithfully it sticks to what really happened. In fact, by granting us access to other minds, the best fiction tends to show that what really happened is always an unstable compound of perspectives. This summer, when I began talking to Sheila Munro, she cautioned me that trying to understand her mother's experience through her work was a dubious project.

You can't judge it by how faithfully it sticks to what really happened. In fact, by granting us access to other minds, the best fiction tends to show that what really happened is always an unstable compound of perspectives. This summer, when I began talking to Sheila Munro, she cautioned me that trying to understand her mother's experience through her work was a dubious project.

Honestly, she wrote to me, I feel the only person who could answer those questions is my mother herself, and perhaps she couldn't have either. For me, the importance of the stories is in what they say about human experience in general, specifically women's experience, rather than for what they say about my mother herself.

Honestly, she wrote to me, I feel the only person who could answer those questions is my mother herself, and perhaps she couldn't have either. For me, the importance of the stories is in what they say about human experience in general, specifically women's experience, rather than for what they say about my mother herself.

The complexity of things, the things within things, just seems to be endless, Monroe once said. It is a fine artistic credo. In the context of the recent revelations, it also has the feeling of an alibi. By disguising herself as Bea, who is not Liza's real mother and therefore bears a lesser duty to protect her, Monroe seems to perform what Gateskill calls a genteel elision of reality.

The complexity of things, the things within things, just seems to be endless, Monroe once said. It is a fine artistic credo. In the context of the recent revelations, it also has the feeling of an alibi. By disguising herself as Bea, who is not Liza's real mother and therefore bears a lesser duty to protect her, Monroe seems to perform what Gateskill calls a genteel elision of reality.

That's not to say the story would necessarily have been better or even more truthful had Monroe stuck more closely to the facts, but it does sharpen our awareness of how often in her work she seems to massage or euphemize an intolerable reality. Labour Day dinner from 1981 is a vivid case in point.

That's not to say the story would necessarily have been better or even more truthful had Monroe stuck more closely to the facts, but it does sharpen our awareness of how often in her work she seems to massage or euphemize an intolerable reality. Labour Day dinner from 1981 is a vivid case in point.