One of the world's most celebrated authors, Margaret Atwood has written a collection of smart and entertaining fictional essays, in the genre of her previous books, "Good Bones" and "Murder in the Dark". Chilling and witty, prescient and personal, delectable and tart, these highly imaginative tales tackle a broad range of subjects, reflecting the times we live in with deadly accuracy and knife-edge precision. Punctuated with wonderful illustrations by the author, they are vintage Atwood.
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Why the hunger for these? LIFE STORIES
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(@BloomsburyBooks, 1 October 2007, paperback, 336 pages, given as a gift)
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Atwood is one of my favourite writes and I still have a few titles from her back catalogue to read. This was a Secret Santa present from work. The Tent contains a mixture of flash fiction, short fictional essays and one or two poems. I really enjoyed reading them. They use Atwood's trademark style and themes, many of them are clearly inspired by fairytales, myth and fables. Most of the pieces are 1-3 pages long with the odd slightly longer piece which makes the collection nicely paced and easy to get into. As to be expected from Atwood, many of the stories, even those that appear light and frivolous have a darker tone. The best stories are Impenetrable Forest, Orphan Stories, Winter's Tales, Our Cat Enters Heaven and Heritage House.
