Last year on of the books of Margaret Atwood was read in the Highly Rated Book Group. Then I decided not to join, as I was to busy and did already have so many unread books on my shelves. But the reaction triggered my attention for this writer.

The tent is a book with short stories. That still is something I'm not very good at. But the stories triggered me and I am planning to read more of her.

http://boekenwijs.blogspot.com/2009/1... ( )

A publisher’s blurb on the back cover of the paperback edition calls this book “A delightfully pointed mélange of fictional pieces.” But I disagree. These short – sometimes funny, sometimes sad, but always poignant – pieces are far too poetic to deserve the title of “fictional pieces.”

I love Margaret Atwood. I have loved her since I read The Handmaid’s Tale some 20 plus years ago. I loved her when I drove six hours in an old, beat-up Chevy toting a pile of books to hear her read at the Harvard Book Store Café in Boston. She graciously signed all eight, and she smiled, and she thanked me, and I loved her more.

Shamefully, I have not read much by her the last couple of years, but The Tent is the first step in remedying that situation. This slim volume contains so many of her thoughts and musings, her streams of consciousness, so much of her humor, her intelligence, I hardly know where to begin describing anything on these pages.

My favorite piece is the eponymous entry, and it begins:

“You’re in a tent. It’s vast and cold outside, very vast, very cold. It’s a howling wilderness…But you have a candle in your tent. You can keep warm” (143).

“The trouble is, your tent is made of paper. Paper won’t keep anything out. You know you must right on the walls, on the paper walls, on the inside of your tent. You must write upside down and backwards, you must cover every available space on the paper with writing” (144).

“Wind comes in, your candle tips over and flares up, and a loose tent-flap catches fire, and through the widening black-edged gap you can see the eyes of the howlers, red and shining in the light from your burning paper shelter, but you keep on writing anyway because what else can you do?” (146).

I guess the paper tent could not protect her from fans toting bags of books either. Get this book and read it now. That’s an order! 5 stars.

--Jim, 6/21/09 ( )

The Tent is a slim, 155 page volume of short stories - sketches, really - and a few poems, all of which demonstrate an Atwood who is at the top of her game. These pieces aren't long; most are only two or three pages. In such a short space, Atwood still manages to make the reader think, really think, about life. She comments on childhood and youth, on aging, on writing, and on numerous other topics - yet she manages to somehow link them all together into a collection that makes sense.

The titular story comes near the end of the book, and it makes the preceding pages all make sense. Here, Atwood writes about writing; the reason for writing, the drive to write, and the futility of writing. It is one of the most effective pieces in The Tent, and the one that I immediately reread.

This is a book that, after reading once, I know I will look to periodically for inspiration. It furthers my admiration for Atwood, and shows that a book does not have to be hundreds of pages to make you think. ( )

witty, ascerbic, wide-ranging ( )

Witty, enlightening, entertaining and sometimes confusing, The Tent by Margaret Atwood was a collection of essays and prose with that famous Atwoodian look at life. Each essay stood individually as its own; however, one can sense a theme of self-exploration and concern for the state of “humanness” throughout all of the stories.

Admittedly, several of the pieces went right over my head, but overall, most were succinct but profound. My favorite essay was one about cat heaven, where a family cat died, met God and asked if he could catch the “mice” in the field. God corrected the cat, saying they were actually human souls that he should capture and torture as long as he can: “Our heaven is their hell, said God. I like a balanced universe.” (page 65). Perhaps it’s my dry humor, but I found that line laugh-out-loud funny (perhaps because I have cats who love to play with my head here on earth).

The Tent is a nice companion book to Atwood’s fiction, revealing another side to the dynamic writing of Margaret Atwood. This is a must-read for Atwood fans. ( )