Old Babes in the Wood: Stories

Although I often say I don't really like short stories, there are some authors for which I make an exception. Margaret Atwood is certainly one of those.
I really enjoyed this collection of stories that she wrote after her life partner, Graeme Gibson, died. Many of the stories deal with widowhood. There are a number of stories about Tig and Nell, a married couple, mainly told from Nell's point of view. Some of these are sad but Atwood's characteristic humour also shines through. The title story is about Nell and her sister spending a week in the family's cabin and there are some funny bits but it ends with Nell finding a note that Tig wrote which is a plaintive reminder of their life together. The middle section of the book contains show more stories about other people (and even an alien). My favourite of these was "The Dead Interview" which Atwood narrates herself. In it, Atwood interviews the dead writer, George Orwell, through the services of a medium. I could almost picture this scene although I'm sure Atwood has never consulted a medium. It is very funny especially when Atwood has to explain modern times to Orwell.

In addition to Atwood, there are a number of narrators. Some of the names, like Kimberly Farr and Bahni Turpin, are familiar but the audiobook doesn't reveal who is reading individual stories until the last. Atwood, of course, is unmistakable. show less

I am not a big fan of short stories, but when I saw this offering by Margaret Atwood, I couldn’t pass it up, both because of the title and the author. Some of these fifteen stories have previously appeared in periodicals such as The New Yorker. Topics include friend and family relationships, particularly between husband and wife, sisters, and mothers and daughters, as well as the aging process and all that accompanies it.

The stories are entertaining….humorous and heartbreaking. I enjoyed some of the stories more than others, finding those that touched on sci fi and fantasy less appealing than those focusing on the aging Nell. That said, the one story involving a mother who is known to practice witchcraft was quite amusing along show more with its poignancy and the one in which Atwood uses a medium to interview George Orwell was delightful.

As a woman facing the waning years of life in family, friends, and self, many of Atwood’s stories really resonated with me. There are some in this collection that I definitely will go back and read again. This was a five star read and I think it would be a great selection for book clubs.

Thanks to #netgalley and #doubleday for the ARC. show less

I have really enjoyed many of Margaret Atwood’s writings: fiction, poetry, and non-fiction. I have read several collections of her short stories, and although there are always or two stories that I really enjoy and may even blow me away, many of her short stories just don’t satisfy me.

This collection was the same. I loved the short story Morte de Smudge where the writer is rewriting Tennyson’s Morte de Arthur as on ode to her cat that recently died. This one has a stunning twisty ending.

Although there are fifteen stories altogether, Mort de Smudge is actually the first of seven interconnected stories of married couple Nell and Tig as they age. The last one, bearing the name of the book, involves cleaning out their summer cottage show more during the last visit there.

Perhaps I’ve had too much loss in my own life, losing both my mother and father in the last few years, as well as starting my own sorting of life’s accumulations. But this whole sequence just seemed overwhelmingly sad to me – which definitely speaks to Ms Atwood’s proficiency as a writer, but struck me as so sad, I wouldn’t want to reread these.

On the other hand, I did enjoy the totally unrelated My Evil Mother which I saw released as a free download recently. show less

Old Babes in the Wood from Margaret Atwood is a charming and at times startling collection of short stories.

This is a collection of some previously published stories along with new stories. I had read two of these when they were in periodicals and found them to be, as I have come to expect from her short work, wonderful. The rest of the pieces here did not disappoint.

I admit to being one of those who enjoy Atwood's work in both long and short form, so there is a little bias here. But these largely exceeded what I was expecting. Part of the enjoyment for me, I think, may have been hearing her voice from her MasterClass lectures while I was reading.

Whether you want a bit of darkness or a chuckle or two, this collection delivers. There show more are characters here who will stay with you, even if they didn't even make it through the story. You'll also see yourself in many of these characters. Not completely, of course, but little things.

Highly recommended for both Atwoods fans and those who simple enjoy good short stories. Lucky for me I qualify under both umbrellas.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley. show less

A mixed bag of stories from the last few years, but she still is idiosyncratic, eclectic and interesting.
Many of these stories are about memory and aging. I didn't connect with all of them, but on the whole I found the quality level still pretty high considering just how long she has been writing short stories.

This was a deeply moving book, and I almost cried in public as I finished it in the Pinney brach of the Madison Public Library. This was the Platteville Public Library's August book, which I shamefully did not finish for the book club meeting last month. I wish I had -- this was a deeply moving collection of short stories, many of which resonated with me (see: Dusty Lunch). Nevertheless, while I wish that I had finished it for the meeting, this was also a great cool-down book after reading Misery. This tethered me in reality again.

This collection sees Margaret Atwood at her typical wit and insight, but the final few stories (and not just the Nell & Tig section) are reflective, looking on her life as a notable writer and intellectual who is finding herself older, and dealing with the loss of a long-term partner. While some of the stories here didn't quite hit for me, all in all Atwood is as good as ever here.