OLD BABES IN THE WOODS - Margaret Atwood

 It's been a few years since I read some of Margaret Atwood's short fiction but it was her collection Bluebeard's Egg, that I read after reading The Handmaid's Tale back in the 1980's, that endeared me to her writing and to the brilliance of a well-written short story. Some forty years later and she's still producing terrific work.

There are recurring characters in a number of the stories - Nell and Tig - an older married couple who look back at their lives and the people they've interacted with.  Then some of the later stories in the collection feature only Nell, reflecting on a life that has changed with Tig's death.

It is often said about Shakespeare that he wrote so well about what it means to be human, but I think the same thing can be said about Margaret Atwood. These might be short works of fiction, but it would be easy to mistake these for essays. More than once I thought the voice of the narrator was Atwood's. I felt this way the most, I think, with the story titled "My Evil Mother" which follows a mother/daughter relationship through many years and shows us how, sometimes sadly, we become our parents.

Perhaps it's just because the last pet in my house died during my reading of this book, making this the first time in 30+ years that I've been pet-less, but the story "Morte de Smudgie" in which Nell grieves the loss of her cat, definitely touched a note with me.

"The Dead Interview" - where Margaret Atwood interviews George Orwell - was fun and almost believable (When did she meet Orwell ... oh, wait, she didn't - this is fiction!). But perhaps my favorite story in the collection was "Bad Teeth."

There aren't any duds here - Atwood is too good a writer and too well established in her career to publish anything that isn't up to her standard - but, odd as it might sound, given my long history with science fiction, the stories that are much for scifi in nature were my least favorites here.  "Metempsychosis" has a snail's soul inhabiting a human body. While well written, I couldn't connect with this.

If you've never been interested in reading short stories I'd highly recommend starting with a Margaret Atwood collection, and this is as fine as any she's published.

This book contains the following:

Tig & Nell
"first aid"
"Two scorched men"
"morte de smudgie"
My Evil Mother
"My Evil Mother"
"The Dead Interview"
"Impatient Griselda"
"Bad Teeth"
"Freeforall"
"Metempsychosis: or, The Journey of the Soul"
"Airborne: A Symposium"
"Death by Clamshell"
Nell & Tig
"A Dusty Lunch"
"Widows"
"Wooden Box"
"Old Babes in the Woods"

Looking for a good book? Old Babes in the Woods in a collection of short stories by Margaret Atwood. Each of the stories is a reflection on what it means to be human. This collection is highly recommended.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

4-1/2 stars

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Old Babes in the Woods

author: Margaret Atwood

publisher: Doubleday

ISBN: 9780385549073

hardcover, 272 pages