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Bluebeard's Egg
By turns humorous and warm, stark and frightening, Bluebeard'S Egg glows with childhood memories, the reality of parents growing old, and the casual cruelty men and women inflict on each other. Here is the familiar outer world of family summers at remote lakes, winters of political activism, and seasons of exotic friends, mundane lives, and unexpected loves. But here too is the inner world of hidden places and all that emerges from them-the intimately personal, the fantastic, the shockingly real...whether it's what lives in a mysterious locked room or the secret feelings we all conceal. In this dramatic and far-ranging collection, Margaret Atwood proves why she is a true master of the genre.
244 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1983
About the author
Margaret Atwood
561 books83.6k followersMargaret Atwood was born in 1939 in Ottawa and grew up in northern Ontario, Quebec, and Toronto. She received her undergraduate degree from Victoria College at the University of Toronto and her master's degree from Radcliffe College.
Throughout her writing career, Margaret Atwood has received numerous awards and honourary degrees. She is the author of more than thirty-five volumes of poetry, children’s literature, fiction, and non-fiction and is perhaps best known for her novels, which include The Edible Woman (1970), The Handmaid's Tale (1983), The Robber Bride (1994), Alias Grace (1996), and The Blind Assassin, which won the prestigious Booker Prize in 2000. Atwood's dystopic novel, Oryx and Crake, was published in 2003. The Tent (mini-fictions) and Moral Disorder (short stories) both appeared in 2006. Her most recent volume of poetry, The Door, was published in 2007. Her non-fiction book, Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth in the Massey series, appeared in 2008, and her most recent novel, The Year of the Flood, in the autumn of 2009. Ms. Atwood's work has been published in more than forty languages, including Farsi, Japanese, Turkish, Finnish, Korean, Icelandic and Estonian. In 2004 she co-invented the Long Pen TM.
Margaret Atwood currently lives in Toronto with writer Graeme Gibson.
Associations: Margaret Atwood was President of the Writers' Union of Canada from May 1981 to May 1982, and was President of International P.E.N., Canadian Centre (English Speaking) from 1984-1986. She and Graeme Gibson are the Joint Honourary Presidents of the Rare Bird Society within BirdLife International. Ms. Atwood is also a current Vice-President of PEN International.
Throughout her writing career, Margaret Atwood has received numerous awards and honourary degrees. She is the author of more than thirty-five volumes of poetry, children’s literature, fiction, and non-fiction and is perhaps best known for her novels, which include The Edible Woman (1970), The Handmaid's Tale (1983), The Robber Bride (1994), Alias Grace (1996), and The Blind Assassin, which won the prestigious Booker Prize in 2000. Atwood's dystopic novel, Oryx and Crake, was published in 2003. The Tent (mini-fictions) and Moral Disorder (short stories) both appeared in 2006. Her most recent volume of poetry, The Door, was published in 2007. Her non-fiction book, Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth in the Massey series, appeared in 2008, and her most recent novel, The Year of the Flood, in the autumn of 2009. Ms. Atwood's work has been published in more than forty languages, including Farsi, Japanese, Turkish, Finnish, Korean, Icelandic and Estonian. In 2004 she co-invented the Long Pen TM.
Margaret Atwood currently lives in Toronto with writer Graeme Gibson.
Associations: Margaret Atwood was President of the Writers' Union of Canada from May 1981 to May 1982, and was President of International P.E.N., Canadian Centre (English Speaking) from 1984-1986. She and Graeme Gibson are the Joint Honourary Presidents of the Rare Bird Society within BirdLife International. Ms. Atwood is also a current Vice-President of PEN International.
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April 20, 2014
If someone were to ask me to encapsulate Margaret Atwood's writing style in three sentences or less, I would show them the first two lines of the first story in Bluebeard's Egg:
"When my mother was very small, someone gave her a basket of baby chicks for Easter. They all died."
BOOM. Welcome to Margaret Atwood, motherfuckers. You're going to like it here. Oh, and happy Easter.
I've only read a few of Atwood's short story collections, and I never find them quite as satisfying as her novels - I prefer it when she has a few hundred pages to fully explore her ideas and characters - but this collection was quite lovely. The stories are fairly long, so there are only twelve here (it made me kind of miss The Tent, which included stories that were less than a page long but still managed to pack a significant emotional punch). The title story was one of my favorites, as was the story that included the above line ("Significant Moments in the Life of My Mother") and the one that followed it, "Hurricane Hazel." I think I liked these two the most because, even if they weren't fully autobiographical, they definitely felt like it, and I always like getting glimpses into Margaret Atwood's formative years. Another good one is "Two Stories About Emma" which starts like this:
"There are some women who seem to be born without fear, just as there are people who are born without the ability to feel pain. The painless ones go around putting their hands on hot stoves, freezing their feet to the point of gangrene, scalding the linings of their throats with boiling coffee, because there is no warning anguish. Evolution does not favor them. So too perhaps with the fearless women, because there aren't very many of them around. I myself have known only two."
The writing is all beautiful, and also has little bits of unexpected humor to remind you that Atwood is actually really funny, as shown in these lines that are almost Dorothy Parker-esque:
"Religious people of any kind made her nervous; they were like men in raincoats who might or might not be flashers."
"(Mort, on the other hand, introduced himself by asking if she knew that if you cut the whiskers off cats they would no longer be able to walk along fences, which should have been a warning of some kind to Alma, but was not.)"
All in all, a nice collection. Vintage, classic Atwood.
"When my mother was very small, someone gave her a basket of baby chicks for Easter. They all died."
BOOM. Welcome to Margaret Atwood, motherfuckers. You're going to like it here. Oh, and happy Easter.
I've only read a few of Atwood's short story collections, and I never find them quite as satisfying as her novels - I prefer it when she has a few hundred pages to fully explore her ideas and characters - but this collection was quite lovely. The stories are fairly long, so there are only twelve here (it made me kind of miss The Tent, which included stories that were less than a page long but still managed to pack a significant emotional punch). The title story was one of my favorites, as was the story that included the above line ("Significant Moments in the Life of My Mother") and the one that followed it, "Hurricane Hazel." I think I liked these two the most because, even if they weren't fully autobiographical, they definitely felt like it, and I always like getting glimpses into Margaret Atwood's formative years. Another good one is "Two Stories About Emma" which starts like this:
"There are some women who seem to be born without fear, just as there are people who are born without the ability to feel pain. The painless ones go around putting their hands on hot stoves, freezing their feet to the point of gangrene, scalding the linings of their throats with boiling coffee, because there is no warning anguish. Evolution does not favor them. So too perhaps with the fearless women, because there aren't very many of them around. I myself have known only two."
The writing is all beautiful, and also has little bits of unexpected humor to remind you that Atwood is actually really funny, as shown in these lines that are almost Dorothy Parker-esque:
"Religious people of any kind made her nervous; they were like men in raincoats who might or might not be flashers."
"(Mort, on the other hand, introduced himself by asking if she knew that if you cut the whiskers off cats they would no longer be able to walk along fences, which should have been a warning of some kind to Alma, but was not.)"
All in all, a nice collection. Vintage, classic Atwood.
June 16, 2023
I really struggled to give a fig about any of these shorts, for me Atwood's skill lies mostly with long form novel writing. It still really hurts to give a Margaret Atwood book Two Stars! Even more annoying I just read the book's Wiki entry and it sounds interesting. Reread coming.
2016 read
2016 read
June 8, 2010
How I saw Sex And The City 2 after reading Bluebeard's Egg
Carrie wonders why she's so unhappy. She's spent her life pursuing excess, and now she's acquired everything on her list. She's a famous writer. She shares a beautiful apartment in the best part of Manhattan with the handsome, successful man she spent years snaring into marriage. She's got a walk-in closet full of expensive designer shoes. She eats out most evenings at the city's finest restaurants, and attends its most exclusive parties. She's close to her three longtime girlfriends, Charlotte, Miranda and Samantha. She'd do anything for them, and she knows they'd do anything for her. But she's miserable.
She's invited to a wedding. Her gay best friend has unexpectedly decided to marry Charlotte's gay best friend. She does her best to enjoy it, but she feels out of place. At the reception, a woman comes up to her. She says she is a huge fan. Then she asks Carrie why she has no children. Carrie doesn't know why. She can't explain it even to herself.
At breakfast, Carrie sits with her friends. Charlotte has her baby and her young daughter with her. Samantha counts out vitamin and hormone pills from a huge box. She takes nearly fifty pills every morning.
"I'm tricking my body into thinking it's younger," she says, and explains that the pills will allow her to stay beautiful forever. At that moment, Charlotte's nanny arrives. She's in her early 20s, and radiates health and vitality. She has lovely breasts, and it's obvious that she is not wearing a bra. The men all gaze at her appreciatively, ignoring Samantha.
Samantha is attending a movie première with her ex. Carrie goes shopping with her to buy a dress. The assistant tells Samantha that the dress is too young for her. Samantha puts her down magnificently. At the première, another, younger woman is wearing the same dress. The cameras are all directed towards her. For a moment, Samantha looks helpless and pathetic. Then the younger woman relents. She puts her arm around Samantha, and they pose for the journalists together. Disaster is averted.
Afterwards, at the party, Carrie discovers that her husband has disappeared. She looks around, and eventually finds him talking with a beautiful dark-haired woman played by Penélope Cruz.
"Every night, I go down on my knees and pray that it will stay up," Penélope is saying. Carrie's husband laughs, a real laugh. He notices Carrie and invites her to join them. He says that Penélope is a high-powered banker from Madrid. They have been talking about the stock market, which is constantly on the brink of crashing.
"Your husband is very funny," says Penélope, but without explaining what he said that was so amusing. Carrie suddenly hates the party. She tells her husband that they are leaving. When they get home, they have a small and inconclusive quarrel.
The four friends are invited on an all-expenses-paid trip to Abu Dhabi. They each have their own chauffeur-driven limousine and their own butler. The hotel is absurdly luxurious even by their standards. At breakfast, the table in their private suite contains more cordon bleu food than the whole buffet at a normal hotel. But they only take a little fruit, because they are afraid they will gain weight.
They try their hardest to appreciate the gifts that are being showered on them. They sigh orgasmically as each new delight is revealed, but they know they're faking it. Samantha's hormones have been confiscated by the customs officials. She is pursued by the thought that her body will tip over into menopause. She consults Google, then gorges herself on foods that are claimed to be rich in oestrogen. Charlotte is obsessed with the idea that her husband is sleeping with the nanny, and spends all her time trying to call him.
The women behave badly. Carrie bumps into an old flame at the market. She goes out to dinner with him, wearing her most provocative outfit. She kisses him, then feels guilty about it. Despite Miranda's warnings, Samantha refuses to acknowledge the strict Muslim rules. She is arrested for behaving immorally in public. The women are nearly lynched by an angry mob, and have to leave precipitously for New York.
Carrie arrives home to an empty apartment. She wonders if it's all over. But, after several agonizing hours, her husband turns up. He has a present for her, a ring with an unusual stone.
"Why a black diamond?" asks Carrie.
"Because you're not like anyone else," says Big, but she knows he's not telling her the truth.
She has a sudden glimpse of the future. Samantha's pills have ceased to work, and she is old and ugly. The market has crashed for real. Big has lost his job, and there are broken windows in the gleaming facades of Wall Street. It's ten years away, or maybe five, or maybe next year. She is like everyone else, and her country is like every other country, and this realization is both terrifying and strangely comforting.
Carrie wonders why she's so unhappy. She's spent her life pursuing excess, and now she's acquired everything on her list. She's a famous writer. She shares a beautiful apartment in the best part of Manhattan with the handsome, successful man she spent years snaring into marriage. She's got a walk-in closet full of expensive designer shoes. She eats out most evenings at the city's finest restaurants, and attends its most exclusive parties. She's close to her three longtime girlfriends, Charlotte, Miranda and Samantha. She'd do anything for them, and she knows they'd do anything for her. But she's miserable.
She's invited to a wedding. Her gay best friend has unexpectedly decided to marry Charlotte's gay best friend. She does her best to enjoy it, but she feels out of place. At the reception, a woman comes up to her. She says she is a huge fan. Then she asks Carrie why she has no children. Carrie doesn't know why. She can't explain it even to herself.
At breakfast, Carrie sits with her friends. Charlotte has her baby and her young daughter with her. Samantha counts out vitamin and hormone pills from a huge box. She takes nearly fifty pills every morning.
"I'm tricking my body into thinking it's younger," she says, and explains that the pills will allow her to stay beautiful forever. At that moment, Charlotte's nanny arrives. She's in her early 20s, and radiates health and vitality. She has lovely breasts, and it's obvious that she is not wearing a bra. The men all gaze at her appreciatively, ignoring Samantha.
Samantha is attending a movie première with her ex. Carrie goes shopping with her to buy a dress. The assistant tells Samantha that the dress is too young for her. Samantha puts her down magnificently. At the première, another, younger woman is wearing the same dress. The cameras are all directed towards her. For a moment, Samantha looks helpless and pathetic. Then the younger woman relents. She puts her arm around Samantha, and they pose for the journalists together. Disaster is averted.
Afterwards, at the party, Carrie discovers that her husband has disappeared. She looks around, and eventually finds him talking with a beautiful dark-haired woman played by Penélope Cruz.
"Every night, I go down on my knees and pray that it will stay up," Penélope is saying. Carrie's husband laughs, a real laugh. He notices Carrie and invites her to join them. He says that Penélope is a high-powered banker from Madrid. They have been talking about the stock market, which is constantly on the brink of crashing.
"Your husband is very funny," says Penélope, but without explaining what he said that was so amusing. Carrie suddenly hates the party. She tells her husband that they are leaving. When they get home, they have a small and inconclusive quarrel.
The four friends are invited on an all-expenses-paid trip to Abu Dhabi. They each have their own chauffeur-driven limousine and their own butler. The hotel is absurdly luxurious even by their standards. At breakfast, the table in their private suite contains more cordon bleu food than the whole buffet at a normal hotel. But they only take a little fruit, because they are afraid they will gain weight.
They try their hardest to appreciate the gifts that are being showered on them. They sigh orgasmically as each new delight is revealed, but they know they're faking it. Samantha's hormones have been confiscated by the customs officials. She is pursued by the thought that her body will tip over into menopause. She consults Google, then gorges herself on foods that are claimed to be rich in oestrogen. Charlotte is obsessed with the idea that her husband is sleeping with the nanny, and spends all her time trying to call him.
The women behave badly. Carrie bumps into an old flame at the market. She goes out to dinner with him, wearing her most provocative outfit. She kisses him, then feels guilty about it. Despite Miranda's warnings, Samantha refuses to acknowledge the strict Muslim rules. She is arrested for behaving immorally in public. The women are nearly lynched by an angry mob, and have to leave precipitously for New York.
Carrie arrives home to an empty apartment. She wonders if it's all over. But, after several agonizing hours, her husband turns up. He has a present for her, a ring with an unusual stone.
"Why a black diamond?" asks Carrie.
"Because you're not like anyone else," says Big, but she knows he's not telling her the truth.
She has a sudden glimpse of the future. Samantha's pills have ceased to work, and she is old and ugly. The market has crashed for real. Big has lost his job, and there are broken windows in the gleaming facades of Wall Street. It's ten years away, or maybe five, or maybe next year. She is like everyone else, and her country is like every other country, and this realization is both terrifying and strangely comforting.
April 7, 2024
I read the first half of these stories back in December, and I don’t feel that I remember enough to judge the collection as a whole. But, judging from my highlights, it’s the first half that spoke to me, especially the story “Significant Moments in the Life of My Mother,” which seems at least semi-autobiographical, as do the other stories about the aging parents of first-person narrators.
Despite those highlights, I think it’s only the title story I'd reread one day. It's told from the point-of-view of a third wife taking a folklore class and contemplating writing a Bluebeard story with her husband as inspiration. Helen Oyeyemi cites it as an inspiration for Mr. Fox and that's the reason I picked up this book in the first place.
Despite those highlights, I think it’s only the title story I'd reread one day. It's told from the point-of-view of a third wife taking a folklore class and contemplating writing a Bluebeard story with her husband as inspiration. Helen Oyeyemi cites it as an inspiration for Mr. Fox and that's the reason I picked up this book in the first place.
February 28, 2022
A collection of short stories by Margaret Atwood. Of the twelve, I have listed the ones I found exceptional below. There were a couple of mediocre ones (or perhaps just ones I didn't relate to as well). But, as I usually find with Atwood, the writing was universally superb.
Significant Moments in the Life of My Mother
A woman’s memories of her mother, which struck me as both poignant and true.
“I used to think that my mother, in her earlier days, led a life of sustained hilarity and hair-raising adventure. (That was before I realized that she never put in the long stretches of uneventful time that must have made up much of her life: the stories were just punctuation.)”
Betty
Told from an adolescent point of view, this is the story of Betty and Fred, the couple who live in the cottage next door during a beach summer. Betty is sweet, he is charming, and the young girls are crazy for him. What the girl, looking back, reflects on is how Betty was the nice one, but Fred was preferred. She comes to realize that Fred was just like a million others, while Betty was unique.
Bluebeard’s Egg
This becomes a bit of a retelling of a fairytale. The fairytale is one in which Bluebeard’s wives break their promise not to enter a forbidden room and pay by being butchered by him. He is then deceived into believing his final wife is honest and true, when in fact she is only clever. The parallel is the story of Ed and Sally. Ed is also not true or honest, only clever, but the fairytale is reversed, Sally is the victim not the Bluebeard.
The Sin Eater
This is the story of our narrator and her psychiatrist, Joseph. They talk about sin eaters before his death and she dreams of being asked to eat his sins after he unexpectedly dies in an accident that might be a suicide.
“This world is all we have, says Joseph. It’s all you have to work with. It’s not too much for you. You will not be rescued.”
The stories are full of beautiful prose and imagery and Atwood’s moments of proverbial wisdom.
“One of my sons has just reached the shower-and-shave phase, the other one hasn’t, but both of them leave a deposit every time they pass through a room. A sort of bathtub ring of objects–socks, paperback books left face-down and open in the middle, sandwiches with bites taken out of them, and, lately, cigarette butts.”
“The sunrise is not a thing, but only an effect of the light caused by the positions of two astronomical bodies in relation to each other. The sun does not really rise at all, it is the earth that turns. The sunrise is a fraud.”
Significant Moments in the Life of My Mother
A woman’s memories of her mother, which struck me as both poignant and true.
“I used to think that my mother, in her earlier days, led a life of sustained hilarity and hair-raising adventure. (That was before I realized that she never put in the long stretches of uneventful time that must have made up much of her life: the stories were just punctuation.)”
Betty
Told from an adolescent point of view, this is the story of Betty and Fred, the couple who live in the cottage next door during a beach summer. Betty is sweet, he is charming, and the young girls are crazy for him. What the girl, looking back, reflects on is how Betty was the nice one, but Fred was preferred. She comes to realize that Fred was just like a million others, while Betty was unique.
Bluebeard’s Egg
This becomes a bit of a retelling of a fairytale. The fairytale is one in which Bluebeard’s wives break their promise not to enter a forbidden room and pay by being butchered by him. He is then deceived into believing his final wife is honest and true, when in fact she is only clever. The parallel is the story of Ed and Sally. Ed is also not true or honest, only clever, but the fairytale is reversed, Sally is the victim not the Bluebeard.
The Sin Eater
This is the story of our narrator and her psychiatrist, Joseph. They talk about sin eaters before his death and she dreams of being asked to eat his sins after he unexpectedly dies in an accident that might be a suicide.
“This world is all we have, says Joseph. It’s all you have to work with. It’s not too much for you. You will not be rescued.”
The stories are full of beautiful prose and imagery and Atwood’s moments of proverbial wisdom.
“One of my sons has just reached the shower-and-shave phase, the other one hasn’t, but both of them leave a deposit every time they pass through a room. A sort of bathtub ring of objects–socks, paperback books left face-down and open in the middle, sandwiches with bites taken out of them, and, lately, cigarette butts.”
“The sunrise is not a thing, but only an effect of the light caused by the positions of two astronomical bodies in relation to each other. The sun does not really rise at all, it is the earth that turns. The sunrise is a fraud.”
January 10, 2017
I enjoyed all of these short stories! And I'm so happy to be able to write that, because the last few short story collections I've read, have been quite disappointing, with just one or two stories each that was really good. But Atwood gives you quality all the way.
Her short stories are very character driven. They are not necessarily heavy on plot, but you get to know some very interesting characters and relationships. It's easy to get into each new story, it rarely took me more than a page or two, and every story are developed enough to give you a real and deep world to dive into.
My favorites were the title story, Bluebeard's Egg, and Loulou; or, The Domestic Life of the Language, but all were very well done. I found one of the stories just a little boring, but still likeable.
Atwood writes beautiful prose, as always. It’s not easy to find a book of such a good quality that at the same time is so easy and comfortable to read. Atwood carries you along, effortlessly; reading her is like drifting down a calm river in summer. Although the stories often include suffering or sorrow of some kind, this was still a book of fulfilling and meaningful comfort reads.
Her short stories are very character driven. They are not necessarily heavy on plot, but you get to know some very interesting characters and relationships. It's easy to get into each new story, it rarely took me more than a page or two, and every story are developed enough to give you a real and deep world to dive into.
My favorites were the title story, Bluebeard's Egg, and Loulou; or, The Domestic Life of the Language, but all were very well done. I found one of the stories just a little boring, but still likeable.
Atwood writes beautiful prose, as always. It’s not easy to find a book of such a good quality that at the same time is so easy and comfortable to read. Atwood carries you along, effortlessly; reading her is like drifting down a calm river in summer. Although the stories often include suffering or sorrow of some kind, this was still a book of fulfilling and meaningful comfort reads.
August 27, 2012
There was once a request for a day's absence from office that went like this :
My wife delivered baby. As I am the only father, I request you to declare holiday today !!
This at a moment of insane happiness is what a father wrote to his boss asking for a day off ! What should ideally have been written as :
I am now a proud father. I would like to take a day off and spend time with my family in this time of happiness.
This became something totally different in the hands of another English user didn't it ? While totally exaggerated and off the mark, I somehow found this to be true in the case of Atwood for her usage of the English language is what sets her apart from most writers. The prose she employs is way different in eloquence and articulation from what another writer might have used in a similar circumstance.
This book is a collection of short stories which are not quite earth shaking in their content. Women who mull over why their marriages are crumbling apart around them, a man who tries to reconnect with an old flame and fails at it, a teenager who for the thrill of the moment gets herself involved with a guy for whom she barely feels any passion thereafter and so on. Looking at them all, I can say that it is about human beings trying to figure out what went wrong in the rhythm of their lives. Into this humdrum of common place and bland situations, Atwood pours the brilliance of her prose. The outcome is what would otherwise have been downright boring anecdotes become well crafted stories. My favorites from the collection were the stories Hurricane Hazel and Uglypuss which were to me easy to identify with in some way. The other good one which I very much felt a connect with was Spring Song of the Frogs but it did not have an ending that left me satisfied.
After all this praise, you might be wondering where the one star vanished to. The reason for the 4-star rating was that none of the stories themselves appeared exceptional to me and while the prose was brilliant, the content was weak. It's like a luke warm thriller with a brilliant set of action sequences and no story to drive it onward.
My wife delivered baby. As I am the only father, I request you to declare holiday today !!
This at a moment of insane happiness is what a father wrote to his boss asking for a day off ! What should ideally have been written as :
I am now a proud father. I would like to take a day off and spend time with my family in this time of happiness.
This became something totally different in the hands of another English user didn't it ? While totally exaggerated and off the mark, I somehow found this to be true in the case of Atwood for her usage of the English language is what sets her apart from most writers. The prose she employs is way different in eloquence and articulation from what another writer might have used in a similar circumstance.
This book is a collection of short stories which are not quite earth shaking in their content. Women who mull over why their marriages are crumbling apart around them, a man who tries to reconnect with an old flame and fails at it, a teenager who for the thrill of the moment gets herself involved with a guy for whom she barely feels any passion thereafter and so on. Looking at them all, I can say that it is about human beings trying to figure out what went wrong in the rhythm of their lives. Into this humdrum of common place and bland situations, Atwood pours the brilliance of her prose. The outcome is what would otherwise have been downright boring anecdotes become well crafted stories. My favorites from the collection were the stories Hurricane Hazel and Uglypuss which were to me easy to identify with in some way. The other good one which I very much felt a connect with was Spring Song of the Frogs but it did not have an ending that left me satisfied.
After all this praise, you might be wondering where the one star vanished to. The reason for the 4-star rating was that none of the stories themselves appeared exceptional to me and while the prose was brilliant, the content was weak. It's like a luke warm thriller with a brilliant set of action sequences and no story to drive it onward.
August 12, 2017
No more short story collections for me. If I'm going to read a short story or a novella I'm going to cherry pick them and not read the whole book , ie I have The birds and other stories by Daphne Du Maurier, I'm only going to read The birds.
I think my problem with them is that they can be so hit and miss. I like a couple in this book but that's not enough really. Also I like to immerse myself in the story, get to know the characters etc and the only time I've done that with short stories is with the wonderful In the land of armadillos By Helen Maryles Shankman , those stories were all connected so it didn't feel like a separation.
Also I have the excellent Brothers Grimm edition that I just got and I will dip into those beautiful stories when I want some fairytale magic in my day.
So that's that then. 😏
I think my problem with them is that they can be so hit and miss. I like a couple in this book but that's not enough really. Also I like to immerse myself in the story, get to know the characters etc and the only time I've done that with short stories is with the wonderful In the land of armadillos By Helen Maryles Shankman , those stories were all connected so it didn't feel like a separation.
Also I have the excellent Brothers Grimm edition that I just got and I will dip into those beautiful stories when I want some fairytale magic in my day.
So that's that then. 😏
May 19, 2010
I have only read the short story "BlueBeard's Egg" so far, here is what I thought.
Within the pages of “BlueBeard's Egg” by Margaret Atwood we are introduced into a world of metafiction and intertexuality. Atwood spins the retelling of the fairytale of BlueBeard's Egg for the reader. Atwood does this through the narration of the man character Sally. Atwood wanders down the path of the complexities of the ordinary life, through the inner narration of the main character Sally. Atwood's main literary weapon that she uses to take the reader down this path is through the retelling of the fairytale. We are lead down the path with Sally into her inner universe that is in contrast within her own reality, which is the reality within her own mind. Sally's own fairytale is spun for the reader. Through the text we as readers must become active readers. We must try understand within the text the blurred lines of writer and reader.
In “BlueBeard's Egg” we as readers exist within the center of the multiple identities of Sally. Sally as the storyteller, the wife, the puzzle solver, and Sally as the princess.
Sally's mental universe is a creation of her own making, just like the tales she has spun. A major theme in “Bluebeard's Egg”, which correlates with the work of postmodern literature. The theme of whose reality is actual reality. The reality that we read within “Bluebeard's Egg” begins to blur. Are we reading the authors reality? Are we reading the inner reality of Sally? Or are we reading the reality of a retold fairytale? Perhaps all three questions can be answer with a yes, if so where does this leave us as readers? Atwood is very subtle within her use of breaking the fourth wall in “Bluebeard's Egg”, to address the reader, a very traditional postmodern trait. Atwood address the reader though the musing of Sally, as Sally sits down to retell a traditional fairytale. Sally is trying to figure out how to rewrite her fairytale: “What would she put in the forbidden room, in her present-day realistic version. . . She wanted to do something more clever.” (175). As readers we can see this message from Atwood, she wanted to be clever in her retelling of BlueBeard.
Atwood wants the reader to understand that they are reading fiction, and constantly reminds the reader of this as we read “Bluebeard's Egg”. Being a postmodern story, the writing of “Bluebeard's Egg”the reader receives direction from the author. Atwood uses metafiction as a theme of irony throughout “Bluebeard's Egg,” to make sure the reader is never unaware that they are reading fiction, the questions of whose reality the reader is reading constantly be questioned. Atwood plays with the reader in pushing at the readers mind, pushing at the traditional method of how the reader views a central narration in a story: “But how can there be a story from the egg's point of view, if the egg is so closed and unaware?”(176). The reader can not help but think that Atwood is poking fun at her audience and at the traditional concept of reading fiction. Atwood wants us to be active readers in our understanding of the fairytale that she has laid out before us. The concept that we are reading fiction is never forgotten, as the theme of metafiction in “Bluebeard's Egg” is ever persistent.
Another aspect that makes “Bluebeard's Egg” postmodern is the ending that Atwood has created for her reader. Perhaps it would be more accurate to state the lack of an ending in “Bluebeard's Egg”, makes the piece postmodern. We are left with a question at the end the story: “ . . . the egg is alive, and one day it will hatch. But what will come out of it?” (184). The active readers has to almost wonder if Atwood is speaking to her audience in the ending. As readers will we one day hatch from our traditional concepts of reading literature. Will we one day hatch from our inner egg?
We are lead down the path with Sally into Sally's inner universe that is in contrast within her own reality, which reality is true, Sally's own fairytale is spun for the reader. We must try understand within the text the blurred lines of writer and reader. The theme of intertexuality and metafiction are every present with “BlueBeard's Egg” and from central narration of Sally. As active readers we must escape from the traditional ideas of how as readers of literature, we must break free of our mental egg.
Within the pages of “BlueBeard's Egg” by Margaret Atwood we are introduced into a world of metafiction and intertexuality. Atwood spins the retelling of the fairytale of BlueBeard's Egg for the reader. Atwood does this through the narration of the man character Sally. Atwood wanders down the path of the complexities of the ordinary life, through the inner narration of the main character Sally. Atwood's main literary weapon that she uses to take the reader down this path is through the retelling of the fairytale. We are lead down the path with Sally into her inner universe that is in contrast within her own reality, which is the reality within her own mind. Sally's own fairytale is spun for the reader. Through the text we as readers must become active readers. We must try understand within the text the blurred lines of writer and reader.
In “BlueBeard's Egg” we as readers exist within the center of the multiple identities of Sally. Sally as the storyteller, the wife, the puzzle solver, and Sally as the princess.
Sally's mental universe is a creation of her own making, just like the tales she has spun. A major theme in “Bluebeard's Egg”, which correlates with the work of postmodern literature. The theme of whose reality is actual reality. The reality that we read within “Bluebeard's Egg” begins to blur. Are we reading the authors reality? Are we reading the inner reality of Sally? Or are we reading the reality of a retold fairytale? Perhaps all three questions can be answer with a yes, if so where does this leave us as readers? Atwood is very subtle within her use of breaking the fourth wall in “Bluebeard's Egg”, to address the reader, a very traditional postmodern trait. Atwood address the reader though the musing of Sally, as Sally sits down to retell a traditional fairytale. Sally is trying to figure out how to rewrite her fairytale: “What would she put in the forbidden room, in her present-day realistic version. . . She wanted to do something more clever.” (175). As readers we can see this message from Atwood, she wanted to be clever in her retelling of BlueBeard.
Atwood wants the reader to understand that they are reading fiction, and constantly reminds the reader of this as we read “Bluebeard's Egg”. Being a postmodern story, the writing of “Bluebeard's Egg”the reader receives direction from the author. Atwood uses metafiction as a theme of irony throughout “Bluebeard's Egg,” to make sure the reader is never unaware that they are reading fiction, the questions of whose reality the reader is reading constantly be questioned. Atwood plays with the reader in pushing at the readers mind, pushing at the traditional method of how the reader views a central narration in a story: “But how can there be a story from the egg's point of view, if the egg is so closed and unaware?”(176). The reader can not help but think that Atwood is poking fun at her audience and at the traditional concept of reading fiction. Atwood wants us to be active readers in our understanding of the fairytale that she has laid out before us. The concept that we are reading fiction is never forgotten, as the theme of metafiction in “Bluebeard's Egg” is ever persistent.
Another aspect that makes “Bluebeard's Egg” postmodern is the ending that Atwood has created for her reader. Perhaps it would be more accurate to state the lack of an ending in “Bluebeard's Egg”, makes the piece postmodern. We are left with a question at the end the story: “ . . . the egg is alive, and one day it will hatch. But what will come out of it?” (184). The active readers has to almost wonder if Atwood is speaking to her audience in the ending. As readers will we one day hatch from our traditional concepts of reading literature. Will we one day hatch from our inner egg?
We are lead down the path with Sally into Sally's inner universe that is in contrast within her own reality, which reality is true, Sally's own fairytale is spun for the reader. We must try understand within the text the blurred lines of writer and reader. The theme of intertexuality and metafiction are every present with “BlueBeard's Egg” and from central narration of Sally. As active readers we must escape from the traditional ideas of how as readers of literature, we must break free of our mental egg.
August 5, 2019
3.5 stars
Bluebeard’s Egg is a collection that offers up classic Atwood in short story form. Some of them were a tad forgettable, but always enjoyable when you were doing the actual reading, and there were some truly Atwoodian gems in here.
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As usual, she provides her unique take on themes such as nature, gender roles, friendships, mother/daughter relationships, and of course, the relationship between men and women. Also present is her classic wit, which seethes just below the surface and never makes you outright laugh but evokes a smirk that may seem more like a grimace as she strips down her subjects and characters to the bone.
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One of my favourites was the first story, where the narrator’s mother’s life is laid bare in a series of anecdotes and stories she likes to tell depending on which company she’s with, showing the various facets of our personalities that are revealed depending on who we’re interacting with. I also loved Scarlet Ibis, the story of a family where husband and wife are trying to reconnect on a family trip to Trinidad, culminating in a seemingly disastrous trip to see a rare bird.
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Others as I said were quite forgettable, but there’s always something to appreciate there, some nugget of Atwood wit or wisdom to sink your teeth into.
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In terms of people looking to get into Atwood or maybe try one of her short story collections, I don’t think I’d recommend this one over Stone Mattress or Wilderness Tips, but it’s still a solid collection!
Bluebeard’s Egg is a collection that offers up classic Atwood in short story form. Some of them were a tad forgettable, but always enjoyable when you were doing the actual reading, and there were some truly Atwoodian gems in here.
.
As usual, she provides her unique take on themes such as nature, gender roles, friendships, mother/daughter relationships, and of course, the relationship between men and women. Also present is her classic wit, which seethes just below the surface and never makes you outright laugh but evokes a smirk that may seem more like a grimace as she strips down her subjects and characters to the bone.
.
One of my favourites was the first story, where the narrator’s mother’s life is laid bare in a series of anecdotes and stories she likes to tell depending on which company she’s with, showing the various facets of our personalities that are revealed depending on who we’re interacting with. I also loved Scarlet Ibis, the story of a family where husband and wife are trying to reconnect on a family trip to Trinidad, culminating in a seemingly disastrous trip to see a rare bird.
.
Others as I said were quite forgettable, but there’s always something to appreciate there, some nugget of Atwood wit or wisdom to sink your teeth into.
.
In terms of people looking to get into Atwood or maybe try one of her short story collections, I don’t think I’d recommend this one over Stone Mattress or Wilderness Tips, but it’s still a solid collection!
November 8, 2019
Reinstates my faith in one of my all time favorite writers.
Am not a fan of the anthology genre, and I plunged into this collection due to the following reasons :
Came upon it on storytel while surfing through my next audio to listen,
It was by Atwood and it was a long time since I read something by her
And I never regretted it.
Each story was good in it's own way , and none were less than 4 star material .
Am not going to touch upon any story as I feel I am not capable of it.
I was lost in many different worlds .
I marvel at her story telling abilities
Will surely read it again, this time via book media
Am going to recommend this one to my niece when she grows up
This book makes me think to start a shelf called
" Recos for my precious niece "
Am not a fan of the anthology genre, and I plunged into this collection due to the following reasons :
Came upon it on storytel while surfing through my next audio to listen,
It was by Atwood and it was a long time since I read something by her
And I never regretted it.
Each story was good in it's own way , and none were less than 4 star material .
Am not going to touch upon any story as I feel I am not capable of it.
I was lost in many different worlds .
I marvel at her story telling abilities
Will surely read it again, this time via book media
Am going to recommend this one to my niece when she grows up
This book makes me think to start a shelf called
" Recos for my precious niece "
May 1, 2013
Point me to the nearest Lesbian Separatist Feminist Commune, will you? What a lot of heterosexual angst this book has. The male characters are cads and the women are in love with them and unhappy.
I realize this is a book of its time, and the stories are about realistic women in realistic situations, but it has not aged well. Or maybe I just don't care for Margaret Atwood's writing. All of the stories were depressing except the last one, which was more of a personal memory and very sweet and lovely.
I realize this is a book of its time, and the stories are about realistic women in realistic situations, but it has not aged well. Or maybe I just don't care for Margaret Atwood's writing. All of the stories were depressing except the last one, which was more of a personal memory and very sweet and lovely.
March 30, 2022
Sin necesidad de grandes tramas, en estos doce cuentos Atwood examina a fondo a sus personajes, o hace que se examinen a sí mismas. Poco a poco, convierte sus observaciones y descripciones en historias. Su estilo es sutil, detallista y quizás un poco lento, pero le sirve para indagar en aspectos de lo femenino que se esconden en los pliegues de lo cotidiano.
En estos cuentos hay guiños y discrepancias entre generaciones de madres e hijas; hay una mirada a fondo en los recovecos de la vida en pareja, con sus desencuentros y su belleza, y hay, sobre todo, una capacidad impresionante pare meterse bajo la piel de sus protagonistas.
Mis favoritos: “El huevo de Barba Azul” y “El jardín de sal”.
En estos cuentos hay guiños y discrepancias entre generaciones de madres e hijas; hay una mirada a fondo en los recovecos de la vida en pareja, con sus desencuentros y su belleza, y hay, sobre todo, una capacidad impresionante pare meterse bajo la piel de sus protagonistas.
Mis favoritos: “El huevo de Barba Azul” y “El jardín de sal”.
October 23, 2014
If you're a woman, and you're having a shitty relationship with a man, this book will either depress the hell out of you or it will make you feel better to know that someone else knows how it feels to be a woman in a shitty relationship.
But not every story was centered around relationships between women and men. "Significant Moments in the Life of My Mother" and "Unearthing Suite" focus on parents seen through the eyes of their progeny. It's interesting to note how the entire book which largely deals with women and their relationships with men, is sandwiched between two stories that deal with parents. There's definitely a sense of a generation gap when you compare stories. In "Unearthing Suite," the parents have their relationship down. They're together. They make it work. The rest of the stories reflect how shitty relationships between men and women are at present.
These stories are harsh and brutal, almost agonizing to read. "Uglypuss" and "Bluebeard's Egg" in particular deal with unfaithful men and their betrayal of their relationships with their significant others. In "Uglypuss," I was thinking it was awesome how Becka was seeking her revenge, but at the same time, it wasn't. It was sad and terrible how it really turned out.
"The Sunrise" was probably my favorite of all the stories. I think I relate to this one the most. Yvonne's an independent female artist who has become so disillusioned with men that she can't love anymore. She just doesn't have the energy. She keeps a razor blade in her paintbox. Her landlords speculate about her personal life. It's really nothing what they imagine.
Margaret Atwood is a stellar writer and this book pulls you into the sights, sounds, and scents of cottages in the woods or disordered urban apartments. I would only say that the stories, while beautiful, are also a bit of a downer (or at least most of them are). Atwood deeply understands with the utmost sensitivity the disappointment and heartache of failed relationships and the lapse in communication between people.
Writing with this much depth of perception, she must have had many personal experiences of her own.
But not every story was centered around relationships between women and men. "Significant Moments in the Life of My Mother" and "Unearthing Suite" focus on parents seen through the eyes of their progeny. It's interesting to note how the entire book which largely deals with women and their relationships with men, is sandwiched between two stories that deal with parents. There's definitely a sense of a generation gap when you compare stories. In "Unearthing Suite," the parents have their relationship down. They're together. They make it work. The rest of the stories reflect how shitty relationships between men and women are at present.
These stories are harsh and brutal, almost agonizing to read. "Uglypuss" and "Bluebeard's Egg" in particular deal with unfaithful men and their betrayal of their relationships with their significant others. In "Uglypuss," I was thinking it was awesome how Becka was seeking her revenge, but at the same time, it wasn't. It was sad and terrible how it really turned out.
"The Sunrise" was probably my favorite of all the stories. I think I relate to this one the most. Yvonne's an independent female artist who has become so disillusioned with men that she can't love anymore. She just doesn't have the energy. She keeps a razor blade in her paintbox. Her landlords speculate about her personal life. It's really nothing what they imagine.
Margaret Atwood is a stellar writer and this book pulls you into the sights, sounds, and scents of cottages in the woods or disordered urban apartments. I would only say that the stories, while beautiful, are also a bit of a downer (or at least most of them are). Atwood deeply understands with the utmost sensitivity the disappointment and heartache of failed relationships and the lapse in communication between people.
Writing with this much depth of perception, she must have had many personal experiences of her own.
August 27, 2015
This collection of short stories has come to represent “comfort” reads to me. Many of them feel quite autobiographical and realistic, with contemplative notes. Included are musings on (her?) parents, (her?) childhood, motherhood, and gender roles. They seem to have roots sunk deep in the reality of memory and nostalgia. There was none of the touch of surrealism I think I’ve detected in some of her other work, and yet also no grim reality either. I highly recommend this!
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October 27, 2022
This was a wonderful collection of short stories. However my favourite was Bluebeard's Egg and my review will focus on it.
I really enjoyed this re-telling by Margaret Atwood of Bluebeard. At surface level, it does not appear to be a feminist text, or a feminist account of the original story. It seems at first, to be the tale of a middle-aged wife's everyday worries and concerns. However, Sally becomes a vehicle in which readers are provided with an alternative lenses to view society. Atwood uses Sally, as the narrator, in Bluebeard’s Egg, to subtly weave a tale in which we can examine how women are not only viewed within a patriarchal society but how it can manifest within women who are raised in such a society + the role of internalized misogyny in further perpetuating harmful stereotypes of gender.
It reminds of the women who wish to go back to the past, when women had few rights. Who actively are against women's liberation. These rich/upper middle class women who actively are against their own interest and for what? It's quite disturbing to think about sometimes.
Sally places herself above the women who were previously married to Ed. Refers to his previous wives as sinkholes and quagmires that she had to rescue Ed from despite not having any fundamental interactions with them. She paints a picture of naivety and innocence regarding Ed and juxtaposes him with his previous wives as sinister. While Ed seems not to want to delve into why his last marriage fell apart when he is confronted, Sally seems quick to take sides and blame the two women without having all the information.
The casual way Sally defines middle age, and the double standard she has regarding it, further highlights her internalized misogyny. For Sally, middle-aged means any woman older than her by five years.; However, she is quick to add that this only applies to women, and Ed, while more senior than her by a considerable amount, is not. The irony however, is that they are both a middle-aged couple.
Sally is reactive and cautious towards women who appear to disrupt or potentially disrupt the neat world she has created for herself. Through Sally I believe Atwood provides us with an unsettling and alternative way of examining patriarchy and misogyny using the Legend of Bluebeard.
Margaret Atwood never fails to unsettle me with her words and stories and this collection a was no different.
I am going through past reads and reviewing them or making comments if I can not recall the story
I really enjoyed this re-telling by Margaret Atwood of Bluebeard. At surface level, it does not appear to be a feminist text, or a feminist account of the original story. It seems at first, to be the tale of a middle-aged wife's everyday worries and concerns. However, Sally becomes a vehicle in which readers are provided with an alternative lenses to view society. Atwood uses Sally, as the narrator, in Bluebeard’s Egg, to subtly weave a tale in which we can examine how women are not only viewed within a patriarchal society but how it can manifest within women who are raised in such a society + the role of internalized misogyny in further perpetuating harmful stereotypes of gender.
It reminds of the women who wish to go back to the past, when women had few rights. Who actively are against women's liberation. These rich/upper middle class women who actively are against their own interest and for what? It's quite disturbing to think about sometimes.
Sally places herself above the women who were previously married to Ed. Refers to his previous wives as sinkholes and quagmires that she had to rescue Ed from despite not having any fundamental interactions with them. She paints a picture of naivety and innocence regarding Ed and juxtaposes him with his previous wives as sinister. While Ed seems not to want to delve into why his last marriage fell apart when he is confronted, Sally seems quick to take sides and blame the two women without having all the information.
The casual way Sally defines middle age, and the double standard she has regarding it, further highlights her internalized misogyny. For Sally, middle-aged means any woman older than her by five years.; However, she is quick to add that this only applies to women, and Ed, while more senior than her by a considerable amount, is not. The irony however, is that they are both a middle-aged couple.
Sally is reactive and cautious towards women who appear to disrupt or potentially disrupt the neat world she has created for herself. Through Sally I believe Atwood provides us with an unsettling and alternative way of examining patriarchy and misogyny using the Legend of Bluebeard.
Margaret Atwood never fails to unsettle me with her words and stories and this collection a was no different.
I am going through past reads and reviewing them or making comments if I can not recall the story
June 11, 2024
This is my new favourite short story collection by Margaret Atwood. I liked Wilderness Tips, but this one was even better. Great observations about body image, femininity, sexism, power dynamics in male-female relationships ... she's just so smart, and I resonate with so much of what she touches on in her work. The story "Spring Song of the Frogs" was especially haunting -- it's a depiction of female body image through a man's eyes, as he watches the women around him shrink and become somehow smaller/quieter than before. The women in the story seem defiant, somehow, and do not return the man's advances -- yet their defiance is undermined by their shrinking bodies. When we conform to society's beauty ideals, we take up less space, and it's sad and misguided, but such a reality -- even years after this novel was published.
"Bluebeard's Egg", too, was an interesting exploration of gender power dynamics. Sally is a suppressed housewife, obsessed with her husband, and extremely curious about his inner life. She thinks about him constantly, yet seems unwilling to actually find out the truth about who he is. By the end of the story, it seems she may have set herself free, by walking into a room (symbolic!) and witnessing her husband be unfaithful to her. We aren't sure if she will ultimately take action -- but one can only hope.
Anyway, I liked this one a lot. I love feminist writing!! Sry if it scares the Hinge men.
C u next time <3
"Bluebeard's Egg", too, was an interesting exploration of gender power dynamics. Sally is a suppressed housewife, obsessed with her husband, and extremely curious about his inner life. She thinks about him constantly, yet seems unwilling to actually find out the truth about who he is. By the end of the story, it seems she may have set herself free, by walking into a room (symbolic!) and witnessing her husband be unfaithful to her. We aren't sure if she will ultimately take action -- but one can only hope.
Anyway, I liked this one a lot. I love feminist writing!! Sry if it scares the Hinge men.
C u next time <3
January 5, 2020
Margaret Atwood’s characters, the white women from Ontario of a certain age always make me feel like I’m contemplating women who could be my relatives. The small towns, Toronto, the nature background - my Nana and Grandpa and the cottage they built in a semi-swamp and the beach they dug out of the lake and their huge backyard garden in North York, for example, were recalled by that last story.
Some of my love for her comes from that sense of learning more about my people, even now that those people aren’t around.
She also writes such incredibly lonely characters, and I find that interesting, the interior lives of these characters who feel so cut off from others.
A few of this collection didn’t hit for me, but there were some I really loved.
In one story a mother imagines in great detail a house that she’d go to if there was a nuclear attack. She thinks about how she’d feed her child, who else might go there with them, etc. It was fascinating to me because after Kait was born and again after Maddie, I’d have these dreams/daydreams about the power failing, like the TV show Revolution, and how Wyatt and I would handle that. They were also super detailed, including how we’d get and store food and other supplies and who else might end up in our compound-like home.
Some of my love for her comes from that sense of learning more about my people, even now that those people aren’t around.
She also writes such incredibly lonely characters, and I find that interesting, the interior lives of these characters who feel so cut off from others.
A few of this collection didn’t hit for me, but there were some I really loved.
In one story a mother imagines in great detail a house that she’d go to if there was a nuclear attack. She thinks about how she’d feed her child, who else might go there with them, etc. It was fascinating to me because after Kait was born and again after Maddie, I’d have these dreams/daydreams about the power failing, like the TV show Revolution, and how Wyatt and I would handle that. They were also super detailed, including how we’d get and store food and other supplies and who else might end up in our compound-like home.
December 29, 2011
I am soooooo happy right now. Not because the book is finally over, but because I am fulfilled by the very reading of it. This touching book is 13 of me. 13 beautiful, amazing, perfectly-shaped pictures of a woman I know as self and as friend and as human. Soft electric humanity. I. Love. It.
November 12, 2013
Atwood, I'm giving you another chance.
August 13, 2022
Loved the final story, but regarding the whole collection, I'm coming to the conclusion that I don't get along with realistic-fiction short stories.
Read
September 18, 2013sigh. this book is why there is a tv show about 1960s ad agencies in new york and not a tv show about 70s era canadian hippies. canadians aren't always terribly exciting and the me generation wasn't necessarily as earthshatteringly special as books like this would like you to think.
disconnected tales of disconnected souls in toronto, a city undesigned in order to be disconnecting and dislocated.
like most things canadian, it bashes capitalism and shies away from being blatantly sexy. I say this because I was forced to watch a semester of quality canadian film and I'm still very bitter about it. I was forced to confront things about my own culture that I did not like as much as america and that's never happened before.
*should I be blunt about what I don't like about you anymore?
disconnected tales of disconnected souls in toronto, a city undesigned in order to be disconnecting and dislocated.
like most things canadian, it bashes capitalism and shies away from being blatantly sexy. I say this because I was forced to watch a semester of quality canadian film and I'm still very bitter about it. I was forced to confront things about my own culture that I did not like as much as america and that's never happened before.
*should I be blunt about what I don't like about you anymore?
Shelved as 'unfinished-or-abandoned'
July 20, 2024i abandoned this collection of short stories by Margaret Atwood half way through. the stories were well observed and well written, but didn't really engage me, I suspect largely because they seemed universally white, heteronormative, middle class, North American. they didn't really interest or speak to me.
I was briefly hopeful when I read lulu and the poets - that had some nice layers to it :)
but the stories went back to the same afterwards, and i stopped reading a couple stories later.
I was briefly hopeful when I read lulu and the poets - that had some nice layers to it :)
but the stories went back to the same afterwards, and i stopped reading a couple stories later.
September 30, 2020
I was wondering if there would be a really good set of short stories by Ms. Atwood as ones I previously read were disappointing, but these, with the exception of Bluebeard's Egg, were outstanding.
October 20, 2017
Maravilhoso, como sempre ❤️ Acho que foi meu livro de contos preferido dela (e top 5 livros de contos já lidos). Recomendado!
January 9, 2020
Esta colección de relatos gira entorno a las mujeres, al amor, sobre todo, a ese amor no alcanzado en ninguna relación; a la sexualidad, en otros la sexualidad mezclado con la muerte.
Pensaba que estaría mejor de lo que es. Solo uno de los relatos me resultó fascinante.
Pensaba que estaría mejor de lo que es. Solo uno de los relatos me resultó fascinante.
July 10, 2015
disappointed! so many of the stories revolve around women who are entangled in crappy relationships with crappy guys! stop! give me interesting women, exciting women, imaginative scornful women, women who don't give a damn! i don't want women who stick with cads in lousy arrangements! if this is to be a reflection of real life then i despair (and most of the stories really do read with a horrifyingly placid sort of reality)
of course the prose was excellent and the tone was consistent but nothing struck me as /exceptional/
side note: i strongly advise skipping all the way to the second last bc that was, imo, the best (although betty and bluebeard's egg were... passable)
of course the prose was excellent and the tone was consistent but nothing struck me as /exceptional/
side note: i strongly advise skipping all the way to the second last bc that was, imo, the best (although betty and bluebeard's egg were... passable)
January 3, 2015
How the heck does she do it? There are entire worlds in each story within this collection, and each one has something in it that speaks directly to my heart. Atwood is one of the only authors for whom I break out my highlighter--I know I will need to revisit certain passages. I want to copy them down on paper and give them to my loved ones: "Here, read this and understand me."
August 31, 2017
I loved Atwood from the very first short story I read from her. I just connected with her on so many levels and she kinda pictured above he human nature, specifically the females, in its true form, ugly and beautiful both at the same time.
I couldn't finish this book, but I'd one day get back to it. I'm sure.
I couldn't finish this book, but I'd one day get back to it. I'm sure.
May 19, 2020
Margaret Atwood is a great writer and I have enjoyed most of her books, especially the Oryx series. Best thing about short-story collections is you don't have to read every one. I liked the first two, which felt less like fiction and more like memoir. Other stories were pretty good too, though many were just not what I was looking for and I would drop them at a certain point if they weren't pleasing me. Still, I think I liked about half the stories, which is pretty good for most collections. I'd say I enjoyed this as much as GOOD BONES and DANCING GIRLS, maybe a bit better than THE TENT. She has a few other collections, I think, and I will give them a try at some point.
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