Nobel Prize Day: "Free Radicals" by Alice Munro

In someone else's hands, the tale of a widow who has just survived a bout of cancer could be depressing. Alice Munro's "Free Radicals" however, is a keenly observed short story with a very intriguing character at the center, one who you won't soon forget. Read the full text here.

Canadian author Alice Munro was awarded the 2013 Nobel Prize in Literature. Munro is known for her moving short stories.
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. diligent
    quietly and steadily persevering in detail or exactness
    (She had been such a diligent wine drinker that many forgot that she was now forbidden to drink at all.)
  2. stricken
    grievously affected especially by disease
    She held them off, without sounding nobly grief-stricken or unnaturally cheerful or absent-minded or confused.
  3. elicit
    call forth, as an emotion, feeling, or response
    She had not even informed the people who lived at a distance, to elicit such notes.
  4. estranged
    caused to be unloved
    Not Rich’s ex-wife in Arizona or his semi-estranged brother in Nova Scotia, though those two might have understood, perhaps better than the people near at hand, why she had proceeded with the non-funeral as she had done.
  5. unseemly
    not in keeping with accepted standards of what is proper
    Her younger friends found this sort of talk unseemly and evasive.
  6. evasive
    avoiding or escaping from difficulty or danger
    Her younger friends found this sort of talk unseemly and evasive.
  7. quirk
    a strange attitude or habit
    Playing his favorite music, holding hands together, telling stories that praised Rich while touching humorously on his quirks and forgivable faults.
  8. scanty
    lacking in extent or quantity
    She puts on lipstick and pencils her eyebrows, which are now very scanty, and out of her lifelong respect for a narrow waist and moderate hips she checks on the achievements she has made in that direction, though she knows that the proper word for all parts of her now might be “scrawny.”
  9. moderate
    marked by avoidance of extravagance or extremes
    She puts on lipstick and pencils her eyebrows, which are now very scanty, and out of her lifelong respect for a narrow waist and moderate hips she checks on the achievements she has made in that direction, though she knows that the proper word for all parts of her now might be “scrawny.”
  10. scrawny
    being very thin
    She puts on lipstick and pencils her eyebrows, which are now very scanty, and out of her lifelong respect for a narrow waist and moderate hips she checks on the achievements she has made in that direction, though she knows that the proper word for all parts of her now might be “scrawny.”
  11. procession
    the act of moving forward, as toward a goal
    At one time, she thought that she could not live without coffee, but it turned out that it was really just the large warm mug she wanted in her hands, that was the aid to thought or whatever it was she practiced through the procession of hours, or of days.
  12. ruckus
    the act of making a noisy disturbance
    The usual ruckus followed, trite and painful, and ended with Bett going off to California, then Arizona, Nita quitting her job at the suggestion of the registrar, and Rich missing out on becoming dean of arts.
  13. trite
    repeated too often; overfamiliar through overuse
    The usual ruckus followed, trite and painful, and ended with Bett going off to California, then Arizona, Nita quitting her job at the suggestion of the registrar, and Rich missing out on becoming dean of arts.
  14. rudimentary
    being in the earliest stages of development
    Nita did not inherit the smaller carpenter’s apron, but she read her books cheerfully in the midst of construction and disorder, made rudimentary dinners on a hot plate, and went for long exploratory walks, coming back with ragged bouquets of tiger lilies and wild carrot, which she stuffed into empty paint cans.
  15. ragged
    being or dressed in clothes that are worn or torn
    Nita did not inherit the smaller carpenter’s apron, but she read her books cheerfully in the midst of construction and disorder, made rudimentary dinners on a hot plate, and went for long exploratory walks, coming back with ragged bouquets of tiger lilies and wild carrot, which she stuffed into empty paint cans.
  16. lissome
    moving and bending with ease
    Later, when she and Rich had settled down, she felt somewhat embarrassed to think how readily she had played the younger woman, the happy home-wrecker, the lissome, laughing, tripping ingénue.
  17. ingenue
    an artless innocent young girl
    Later, when she and Rich had settled down, she felt somewhat embarrassed to think how readily she had played the younger woman, the happy home-wrecker, the lissome, laughing, tripping ingénue.
  18. verge
    the limit beyond which something happens or changes
    One time, when she was on the verge of menopause, Nita had teased Rich into making love up there—not on the ties, of course, but on the narrow grass verge beside them—and they had climbed down inordinately pleased with themselves.
  19. efficiency
    skillfulness in avoiding wasted time and effort
    Rich had seemed to her such a tower of efficiency and competence, so vigorous and firm a presence that she had always believed, quite unreasonably, that he would survive her.
  20. competence
    the quality of being adequately or well qualified
    Rich had seemed to her such a tower of efficiency and competence, so vigorous and firm a presence that she had always believed, quite unreasonably, that he would survive her.
  21. immersion
    the act of wetting something by submerging it
    Not just with Rich’s death but with her own immersion in illness.
  22. inquisitor
    a questioner who is excessively harsh
    Sometimes she tried to explain why, to an imaginary inquisitor.
  23. genial
    diffusing warmth and friendliness
    The body, as she saw it now, was certainly skinny but more wasted than boyish, affecting a genial slouch.
  24. prominent
    conspicuous in position or importance
    His face was long and rubbery, with prominent light-blue eyes.
  25. persistence
    the act of continuing or repeating
    A jokey look, but a persistence, too, as if he generally got his way.
  26. spite
    meanness or nastiness
    And, in spite of all that bulge of flesh, an expression of some satisfaction and cunning.
  27. cunning
    showing inventiveness and skill
    And, in spite of all that bulge of flesh, an expression of some satisfaction and cunning.
  28. swathe
    wrap in or as if in strips of cloth
    The sister had fallen forward, so there was no face to be seen, just her great flowery swathed knees and dark hair with its elaborate and outdated coiffure.
  29. coiffure
    the arrangement of the hair
    The sister had fallen forward, so there was no face to be seen, just her great flowery swathed knees and dark hair with its elaborate and outdated coiffure.
  30. prolonged
    relatively long in duration; tediously protracted
    “Don’t want my life prolonged if it means drinkin’ junk like that.
  31. rheumatic
    of or pertaining to arthritis
    She was one of those girls who had rheumatic fever as a child and coasted along on it, couldn’t play sports or do anything much, always having to sit down and have a rest.
  32. quiver
    shake with fast, tremulous movements
    When it did, the room quivered.
  33. benign
    kind in disposition or manner
    Such as the poisonous aspects of certain familiar and generally benign plants.
  34. provincial
    associated with an administrative district of a nation
    It was a policeman, not the one from the village but one of the provincial traffic police.
  35. culvert
    a transverse and enclosed drain under a road or railway
    The driver rolled it down into the culvert and totalled it.
Created on Thu Oct 10 09:00:55 EDT 2013 (updated Tue Apr 09 14:35:02 EDT 2019)

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