Good Bones and Simple Murders

November 1, 2001
If Atwood keeps a journal, perhaps some of the brief selections in this slender volume-postmodern fairy tales, caustic fables, inspired parodies, witty monologues-come from that source. The 35 entries offer a sometimes whimsical, sometimes sardonic view of the injustices of life and the battles of the sexes. Such updated fairy tales as ``The Little Red Hen Tells All'' (she's a victim of male chauvinism) and ``Making a Man'' (the Gingerbread man is the prototype) are seen with a cynical eye and told in pungent vernacular. ``Gertrude Talks Back'' is a monologue by Hamlet's mother, a randy woman ready for a roll in the hay, who is exasperated with her whiny, censorious teenage son. Several pieces feature women with diabolical intentions-witches, malevolent goddesses, etc. There are science fiction scenarios, anthropomorphic confessionals (``My Life as a Bat'') and an indictment of overly aggressive women that out-Weldons Fay Weldon. While each of these entries is clever and sharply honed, readers will enjoy dipping into them selectively; a sustained reading may call up an excess of bile. Atwood has provided striking black-and-white illustrations.

August 1, 1994
Gertrude hounding Hamlet? A bat critiquing Bram Stoker? There's even more in Atwood's witty new collection.

November 1, 1994
This collection of quirky, clever, and devilishly funny sketches, parodies, and fractured fairy tales is a scream. Free from the structural demands of novels, short stories, and poetry, Atwood infuses these bracing little narratives with the full force of her drollness, anger, shrewdness, sass, and humor. Atwood has never forgotten the hard lessons of girlhood, and she continues to question the roots of our assumptions about gender roles, testing our shaky sense of progress toward equality. Her fascination with women's roles in life and literature leads her to muse on the necessity of "stupid women" in stories, to compare men's novels with women's novels, and to revisit old tales such as "Bluebeard" and "The Little Red Hen." In "Making a Man" and "Simmering," men take quite a beating; at one point, she declares, "Men's bodies are the most dangerous things on earth." After further reflections on sex, war, and relationships--and a satire about applying political-correctness standards to literature--Atwood moves on to some devastating views of our species and our future. These marvelously incendiary creations are like sparks thrown off from Atwood's longer works, crackling and popping brightly against the night sky, making us laugh and shiver. ((Reviewed November 1, 1994))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1994, American Library Association.)