Alice Munro, the Canadian writer and winner of the Nobel Prize for literature in 2013, is said to have described her daughter’s sexual abuse. In a bitter essay in the Toronto Star, Andrea Robin Skinner accused her mother, who died in May aged 92, of sexually abusing her when she was nine. As an adult, she reported to him. According to the report, the stepfather pleaded guilty at the age of 80 and was sentenced to two years probation. Alice Munro knew about her partner’s crime and other crimes against children and she still stayed with him.
When she was sexually abused by her stepfather, Skinner was living with her father and visiting her mother. Back at home, she confided in her stepbrother, who advised her to tell her father, James Munro, about the crime. But he did nothing. In later years, her stepfather exploited her in front of the girl and repeatedly talked about sex when his daughter visited the Munro home.
Mental problems, eating disorders
Skinner reports how she then developed mental health problems and eating disorders. As a young woman, she finally wrote a letter to her mother and told her about the crime, which she describes as “sexual assault” (often translated as “rape”). Skinner complains that Alice Munro left her partner for a short time, but not for her child, but for herself. The mother behaved as if she had received disbelief.
Nine-year-old “marriage destroyer”?
The reason a trial took place years later was because Skinner kept letters to the family. In it, the stepfather described the then nine-year-old as a “housewrecker” who was “looking for sexual adventures”. He threatened to publish photos of her as a child. The mother remained with her partner after the court ruling and until his death. She told Skinner that she had nothing to do with his “friendship with children”. In an interview she described her partner as very loving. Skinner had been out of touch with her family for years, but is now back in touch with her sisters. Her stepbrother and sisters also sought answers as adults and turned to a center for victims of sexual abuse. Today Andrea Robin Skinner is married, has children and works as a meditation teacher.
Alice Munro became world famous for her short stories, most of them about women. The daughter’s report has been discussed online by many, including authors such as Joyce Carol Oates. What Munro wrote in his collection of short stories “A Chara Saol” (2012) is now quoted: “There are some things we say we can never let go of or forgive. But that’s what we do – we do it all the time.”
Defense heroes against issues
According to Skinner, her mother’s reputation shielded her from critical issues throughout her life. His own story was known to many, influential people, but Munro was never held accountable. Many children are not believed: “I wanted this story, my story, to be part of the stories people tell about my mother.”