DANCING GIRLS - and Other Stories: The War in the Bathroom; The Man from… (original 1977; edition 1978)

A series of short stories by Canadian author Margaret Atwood. Each one follows a different person and is a short snap shot into their life. Some are narrated by men but all feature women in a prominent role. ( )

Atwood as always is lyrical, and beautiful in prose. Though I did not love every story, I recognized the beauty in every story. ( )

In this short story collection Atwood explores the mindset of women in a variety of situations. From an isolated grad student to an expectant mother, to a severely disabled girl at summer camp, these stories find women in deceptively ordinary situations, each with a slight twist. This collection is comprised of stories written early in Atwood's career, and that is clearly reflected in the details. Several stories focus on academic environments, with graduate student characters. The protagonist in the collection's namesake, "Dancing Girls," a Canadian graduate student in Cambridge, certainly brings to mind Atwood's own time at Harvard. Together this collection explores the expectations that follow young women in the late-1970s: sometimes restrictive, sometimes depressing, always present. ( )

Collection of short stories that felt like personal explorations of the feminine experience in contemporary society. Some of Atwood's best work is contained within these pages, but also a few that were difficult to get through. ( )