The Tent

This work is entitled "The Tent." It is a container for a lot of things that are only loosely related. And, yes, it's a little uneven. But what else would it be? It's not a novel or a set of short stories. It seems to be designed as a loose, jangly collection of shorter and longer vignettes. If you want short stories, read short stories. On the other hand, if you are in the mood for some startling, interesting, thought-provoking creations of Margaret Atwood's mind, in chunks and longer passages of her appealing, readable prose, read this.

The stories are mostly very short and filled with edgy on the mark ideas. Quick to read and compelling. It's hard to group/encapsulate the variety of stories... so many ideas written darkly, crisply, playfully, clearly...with such a controlled intent-- tempered with the wisdom of life experience. Margaret Atwood just playes with words and ideas so brilliantly. I don't know if everyone will LIKE each and every story but they will come away thinking about them-- so a good discussion is likely.

I have done my master's degree on Margaret Atwood's The Edible Woman and the way Atwood critizes our male ruled society is brilliant. She refuses to portray women as victims of our society and she believes in the interaction of men and women in a "healthy" way. In The Tent Atwood gives us a variety of texts that deal with human rights, feminism, ecology and she also discusses a bit on the process of writing. I had the pleasure of meeting Atwood in Brazil and besides being extremely competent as a writer she is really kind with everyone. Buy this book now! If you liked Writing With Intent as much as I did, The Tent will add more wood to the fire! In The Tent you'll find the Atwoodian sense of humor on its best. Congratulations Ms.Atwood. I'm your #1 Brazilian fan.

Never one to rest on her artistic laurels, Margaret Atwood, author of THE BLIND ASSASSIN and THE HANDMAID'S TALE, has compiled a clever sketchbook of images and ideas; short, imaginative prose pieces, one long-form poem, all complemented by her own illustrations. Poking fun at the archaic views of conventions such as motherhood, science and love, Atwood turns these ideas on their ear, as in her piece, "Chicken Little Goes Too Far," where the well-known nervous character who proclaims that the sky is falling gets a modern twist in this version. Here, he takes his announcement to the media and forms an environmentally conscious group, only to be assassinated by the head of a large development company who builds retirement communities in the sky. Atwood's feminist sensibilities shine through in the prose-like poem "Bring Back Mom: An Invocation." An ungrateful child pines for the way his/her old-fashioned mother used to be: a mom with shiny red hair, always with a hearty meal at the ready --- a creation the men of Stepford would have been proud of --- who ultimately gives in to despair to become yet another victim of the suburban American Dream: "Mom, whose husband left her For his secretary and paid alimony Mom, who drank in solitude.... Who was carted away and locked up, because one day she began screaming and wouldn't stop." "Salome Was a Dancer" harkens back to Atwood's earlier works, like THE EDIBLE WOMAN, as she tells the story of a young girl who is blessed with the looks and wiles to drive men wild. As a fellow classmate, the narrator extols just how young Salome seduces the Religious Studies teacher in order to get a better grade. When their affair is brought to light, Salome claims she was attacked by the young teacher. The teacher maintains that he was the one who was taken advantage of, but of course the school sides with Salome and her powerful father, and the young, impressionable teacher is fired and later is seen panhandling in the subway. In "Horatio's Version," Hamlet's dear friend and confidante sets the record straight, not just on the atrocities at Elsinore, but also on the violence that always has been pervasive in our society. Through Atwood, Horatio functions as a sort of moral watchdog: "Somehow I no longer wanted to tell Hamlet's story. I wanted to tell something a little more --- what's the term? Human, inhuman? Something bigger. But statistics pall after a time. We're not programmed to register more than a hundred corpses. In heaps they simply become a landscape feature." THE TENT displays the broad range of Atwood's many talents --- the lyrical portrayal of even the most mundane or distasteful aspects of life, the wonders of science and nature --- all with her trademark wit and biting commentary, doled out here in this collection as tiny, thought-provoking morsels in true Atwood style. --- Reviewed by Bronwyn Miller

When the profound and prolific Margaret Atwood speaks, I listen. Beyond the fact that her superlative fiction has entertained me for years, Atwood writes with an incisive wit and sophistication that is bred of experience. Generational, perhaps, but such sage wisdom and pithy comments on the state of the world and personal imagination are welcome in any context. In a series of deceptively short pieces, Atwood discourses on diverse topics, herself a central figure, with intimate knowledge of this territory: "Encouraging the Young"; "Orphan Stories"; "It's Not Easy Being Half-Divine"; "Chicken Little Goes Too Far", all invitations to an exploration of self and the modern world, the conventions that define our civilization and the fables we embrace. Past, future, fable, myth- all are pliable in this author's hands, replete with rampant imagery, nothing wasted, each with a twist of insight to pique our complacent intellects, an undercurrent of hope that all is not lost. The title piece, "The Tent", is an allegory of us and them, one man's damnation another man's salvation: "you can't be exact about the truth and you don't want to go out there, out into the wilderness to see for yourself". Chicken Little wears more modern garb as he goes about trumpeting his anxiety that the sky is falling. Indeed it is, but who has time to address his concerns, everyone caught in the busy work of special interests. Besides, "whining is so unattractive". To be taken seriously, he is forced to start his own web site, TSIF- The Sky Is Falling. The world goes backwards in "The Animals Reject Their Names", de-evolving, species to cell, vague memories of God dissolving by the moment: "because God has bitten his own tongue/ and the first bright word of creation/ hovers in the formless void/ unspoken." From the quirky retelling of fable to trenchant observations of a conflicted culture, each entry prods and stimulates: a paean to the mothers we have loved and reviled ("Bring Back Mom: An Invocation"), the idealized mother seen as icon with feet of clay, once expendable, but now a necessary component of out lives: "trying with all her might/ not to sink below the line/ between chin up and despair"; she is, incredibly, indispensable, so that "the holes in the world will be mended". In "Orphan Stories", Atwood displays the subtle wit that infuses her work: "Orphans have bad experiences...because they're so tempting... because they're so damaged... because they're so easily broken... because no one will believe what they say". Not to worry, no insult implied: "It is you, not we, that have always been the children of the gods." A wonderful collection, a worthy gift for self or cherished others. Luan Gaines/ 2006.