In this collection, love abounds. Unlike Dear Life, which is a later Munro, Hateship focuses more on personal relationship. Marriages and infidelity and love and, yes, friendship are recurring themes. Ms. Munro writes ordinary people living seemingly normal lives, but she slowly peels the surface to reveal the secrets and turmoil within. And their troubles are not really "dramatic" in the sense of secret illegitimate child or secret heiress, but rather, they're everyday problems rooted from middle-class ennui made exquisite by Ms. Munro's prose. The characters are astonishingly human, and sometimes you couldn't quite pinpoint their thoughts or motivation even as you are literally in their mind, and their unpredictableness is what makes Ms. Munro's stories akin to thrillers in the sense that you couldn't quite expect what would happen next.
Short stories are like little windows to a person's life and Ms. Munro utilized the format masterfully, making us feel like we are only here for a little visit, which lends to the air of mystery in the stories and heightens the sense that these characters are 'real' and you're only seeing a small part of their lives. It's no wonder that the Nobel Prize Institution lauded Ms. Munro as a master of the contemporary short story.
There are a few missteps in this collection and I do think that this isn't quite as good as the first Munro I read, Dear Life, but even the worst Munro is still very good in my opinion. I'd recommend this to anyone looking for a "calm" book that nevertheless keeps you on the edge of your seat.
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