Reckoning With Alice Munro’s Darkest Secret

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a mother has her child’s best interests at heart, and that she will put those interests before her own. Nature has made this a necessity: Without constant care and solicitude, an infant will die. If mothers don’t protect their children, who will? How will the they survive? This is baked into us: Regardless of our feminist beliefs, we expect women to be good mothers.

So when we learn that Alice Munro—who so...