Old Babes in the Wood

 

 I received a copy of this release from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Title: Old Babes in the Wood: Stories

Author: Margaret Atwood

Publisher: Doubleday

Release Date: 3.7.23

Publisher’s Summary 

A dazzling collection of short stories from the internationally acclaimed, award-winning author of The Handmaid's Tale and The Testaments, stories that look deeply into the heart of family relationships, marriage, loss and memory, and what it means to spend a life together

Margaret Atwood has established herself as one of the most visionary and canonical authors in the world. This collection of fifteen extraordinary stories--some of which have appeared in The New Yorker and The New York Times Magazine--explore the full warp and weft of experience, speaking to our unique times with Atwood's characteristic insight, wit and intellect.

The two intrepid sisters of the title story grapple with loss and memory on a perfect summer evening; "Impatient Griselda" explores alienation and miscommunication with a fresh twist on a folkloric classic; and "My Evil Mother" touches on the fantastical, examining a mother-daughter relationship in which the mother purports to be a witch. At the heart of the collection are seven extraordinary stories that follow a married couple across the decades, the moments big and small that make up a long life of uncommon love--and what comes after.

Returning to short fiction for the first time since her 2014 collection Stone Mattress, Atwood showcases both her creativity and her humanity in these remarkable tales which by turns delight, illuminate, and quietly devastate.

My Review

“Old Babes in the Wood” first appeared in The New Yorker (April 19, 2021) and "My Evil Mother" was released as an Amazon Original Story (April 1, 2022.) This collection features each of those stories and several others, some independent and some linked. Ranging from an alien helping quarantined groups pass the time to wise-cracking old women joking about breast implants, these stories are kooky, smart, and sharp-tongued. Atwood's writing is extensive (fiction, nonfiction, graphic novel, children's novels, anthologies, short stories, etc etc etc) and I've barely made a dent in reading her work. In addition to this short story collection and her Dearly poetry collection, my reading has mainly focused on her novels. 

I've read:

The Handmaid's Tale 
Cat's Eye 
The Robber Bride 
Alias Grace 
The Blind Assassin 
Oryx and Crake 
The Penelopiad 
The Year of the Flood 
MaddAddam 
The Heart Goes Last 
The Testaments 

Atwood novels I want to read:

The Edible Woman
Surfacing
Lady Oracle
Up in the Tree
Life Before Man
Bodily Harm

For the Birds

The Labrador Fiasco

Hag-Seed

Bottle

Have you read any of these?