The Priceless Ruby and Nettle Munro's stories abound in such questionable seekers and well-fingered ploys. But they abound also in such insights: within any story, within any human being, there may be a dangerous treasure, a priceless ruby, and a heart's desire.
----Margaret Atwood I. Munro’s narrative mode In traditional narrative mode of novel, such as Chekhov，the whole story is divided into four parts: the beginning, development, the climax and the end. Some critics describe this mode as “Roller Coaster” kind, because the hero or heroine’s life in the story is just like taking a roller coaster—you know there is going to be a big turn but you never know how dangerous or exciting it can be.
But in Munro makes every story looks like a peaceful journey, we can wander with the narrator, to see what is inside her mind and to explore her memory, and we will never expect the big change that is about to happen. In a 2010 interview, Munro said she wanted her readers “to feel something is astonishing—not the ‘what happens’ but the way everything happens”. We readers will trust her and give away our hearts to let her lead us to a sightseeing or maybe take a trip back to the childhood or a “beautiful time” of the narrator’s life, and we will be confronted with the real life—the one that might be bitter compared to the sweet memory, that’s when we realize her theme. In this novel, Nettles, Munro tells us a story about the problem of a middle-aged woman, about her passion, confusion and dilemma that every woman might be confronted with. The sweet memory of childhood with Mike, and the puppy love she had for him, is the priceless ruby to the narrator, and it represents the desire in her heart. However, when Munro takes us back into reality, when we hear the sad story of Mike and unsatisfying life of the narrator, we will come to the belief that the real life