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Good Bones
In Good Bones, first published in 1992, Margaret Atwood has fashioned an enthralling collection of parable, monologue, mini-romance and mini-biography, speculative fiction, prose lyric, outrageous recipe and reconfigured fairy tale, demonstrating yet again the play of an unerring wit overseen by a panoramic intelligence.
Good Bones is a cornucopia of good things — precise, witty, wise, and sometimes offbeat Atwood writing, with the funny and the sidelong view of the world which her readers recognize at once.
Good Bones is a cornucopia of good things — precise, witty, wise, and sometimes offbeat Atwood writing, with the funny and the sidelong view of the world which her readers recognize at once.
153 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1992
89 people are currently reading
4282 people want to read
About the author
Margaret Atwood
442 books89.3k followersMargaret Atwood was born in 1939 in Ottawa and grew up in northern Ontario, Quebec, and Toronto. She received her undergraduate degree from Victoria College at the University of Toronto and her master's degree from Radcliffe College.
Throughout her writing career, Margaret Atwood has received numerous awards and honourary degrees. She is the author of more than thirty-five volumes of poetry, children’s literature, fiction, and non-fiction and is perhaps best known for her novels, which include The Edible Woman (1970), The Handmaid's Tale (1983), The Robber Bride (1994), Alias Grace (1996), and The Blind Assassin, which won the prestigious Booker Prize in 2000. Atwood's dystopic novel, Oryx and Crake, was published in 2003. The Tent (mini-fictions) and Moral Disorder (short stories) both appeared in 2006. Her most recent volume of poetry, The Door, was published in 2007. Her non-fiction book, Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth in the Massey series, appeared in 2008, and her most recent novel, The Year of the Flood, in the autumn of 2009. Ms. Atwood's work has been published in more than forty languages, including Farsi, Japanese, Turkish, Finnish, Korean, Icelandic and Estonian. In 2004 she co-invented the Long Pen TM.
Margaret Atwood currently lives in Toronto with writer Graeme Gibson.
Associations: Margaret Atwood was President of the Writers' Union of Canada from May 1981 to May 1982, and was President of International P.E.N., Canadian Centre (English Speaking) from 1984-1986. She and Graeme Gibson are the Joint Honourary Presidents of the Rare Bird Society within BirdLife International. Ms. Atwood is also a current Vice-President of PEN International.
Throughout her writing career, Margaret Atwood has received numerous awards and honourary degrees. She is the author of more than thirty-five volumes of poetry, children’s literature, fiction, and non-fiction and is perhaps best known for her novels, which include The Edible Woman (1970), The Handmaid's Tale (1983), The Robber Bride (1994), Alias Grace (1996), and The Blind Assassin, which won the prestigious Booker Prize in 2000. Atwood's dystopic novel, Oryx and Crake, was published in 2003. The Tent (mini-fictions) and Moral Disorder (short stories) both appeared in 2006. Her most recent volume of poetry, The Door, was published in 2007. Her non-fiction book, Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth in the Massey series, appeared in 2008, and her most recent novel, The Year of the Flood, in the autumn of 2009. Ms. Atwood's work has been published in more than forty languages, including Farsi, Japanese, Turkish, Finnish, Korean, Icelandic and Estonian. In 2004 she co-invented the Long Pen TM.
Margaret Atwood currently lives in Toronto with writer Graeme Gibson.
Associations: Margaret Atwood was President of the Writers' Union of Canada from May 1981 to May 1982, and was President of International P.E.N., Canadian Centre (English Speaking) from 1984-1986. She and Graeme Gibson are the Joint Honourary Presidents of the Rare Bird Society within BirdLife International. Ms. Atwood is also a current Vice-President of PEN International.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 293 reviews
May 26, 2023
Inventive and thought provoking collection of short stories that showcase Atwood's talent with her use of poetic prose. I enjoyed reading this s lot more than I thought I would. 6 out of 12, Three Star read.
2010 read
2010 read
July 20, 2020
Good Bones, Okay Reading
Margaret Atwood is one of those authors who could probably find a publisher – and an audience – for her grocery and laundry lists. At times this book feels like just that.
Released in 1992, it's the second such collection of pieces that are not quite poems, not quite short stories and not quite essays. (The first was Murder in the Dark**.) "Prose poems" is the best description of them. They're the equivalent of literary doodles.
Ever wonder what Hamlet's mom Gertrude was thinking? Atwood has a clever little piece about that. She also deconstructs a familiar fable in "The Little Red Hen Talks Back." Gender is a running concern in vignettes like the contrasting pieces "The Female Body" and "Making A Man"; in "Unpopular Gals" she reflects, among other things, on why women are often the villains in fairy tales.
Some of the strongest pieces are about the environment, which Atwood has been concerned about for much of her career. "Think of the earth as a nineteenth-century lifeboat, adrift in the open sea, with castaways but no rescuers," she writes. "After a while you run out of food, you run out of water. You run out of everything but your fellow passengers."
Another story, "Homelanding," plays with sci-fi tropes but in fact amounts to a very accurate accounting of what it means to be human. The piece "My Life As A Bat" is a whimsical and well-written fantastia about life as a nocturnal winged creature. I think this is my favourite work in the book.
And the title story, which comes at the end, is an affecting piece that touches on aging and death.
Interesting themes, light and imaginative execution... but ultimately not essential Atwood.
** Note: A collection was released in 1994 called Good Bones And Simple Murders. It does not include all the contents of both books. Rather, it's a selection from them.
Margaret Atwood is one of those authors who could probably find a publisher – and an audience – for her grocery and laundry lists. At times this book feels like just that.
Released in 1992, it's the second such collection of pieces that are not quite poems, not quite short stories and not quite essays. (The first was Murder in the Dark**.) "Prose poems" is the best description of them. They're the equivalent of literary doodles.
Ever wonder what Hamlet's mom Gertrude was thinking? Atwood has a clever little piece about that. She also deconstructs a familiar fable in "The Little Red Hen Talks Back." Gender is a running concern in vignettes like the contrasting pieces "The Female Body" and "Making A Man"; in "Unpopular Gals" she reflects, among other things, on why women are often the villains in fairy tales.
Some of the strongest pieces are about the environment, which Atwood has been concerned about for much of her career. "Think of the earth as a nineteenth-century lifeboat, adrift in the open sea, with castaways but no rescuers," she writes. "After a while you run out of food, you run out of water. You run out of everything but your fellow passengers."
Another story, "Homelanding," plays with sci-fi tropes but in fact amounts to a very accurate accounting of what it means to be human. The piece "My Life As A Bat" is a whimsical and well-written fantastia about life as a nocturnal winged creature. I think this is my favourite work in the book.
And the title story, which comes at the end, is an affecting piece that touches on aging and death.
Interesting themes, light and imaginative execution... but ultimately not essential Atwood.
** Note: A collection was released in 1994 called Good Bones And Simple Murders. It does not include all the contents of both books. Rather, it's a selection from them.
June 16, 2019
As a Margaret Atwood fan, I was predisposed to like this (very short) collection of (very short) pieces. If you haven’t read anything by Atwood, I don’t recommend starting here. If you have, and you like her particular brand of sly wit, these amusing musings might be up your street. Bedtime stories for grownups.
November 30, 2021
Whenever you are overwhelmed by world’s bleakness, try laughing. It will fade, eventually, your laugh, but for a while it would give you strength to keep going. This is basically what Good Bones is about, from the image of the angel of misfortune who “When you’re feeling bad (…) scratches at your window” in the first story (Bad News), to the image of the bones as a symbol not only of our ephemerality but also of our inner (literally!) strength, in the last one (Good Bones).
It’s true, the laugh, big in the first stories will dissolve gradually into sadness, as the narrative voice gives up ludic for parodic, sarcastic, grave, resigned, alien, in order to denounce stereotypes, turn upside down myths and literary figures, whilst dealing with themes in the semantic field of misfortune, such as:
- Misunderstanding of the drama clarified by the prosaic point of view of Hamlet’s mother who reduces the tragedy to some domestic discord and finally explains her presumed pathetic gesture: “I am not wringing my hands. I am drying my nails” (Gertrude Talks Back).
- Mistreatment (by the reader) of the ugly sister who proudly understands her narrative importance: “You can wipe your feet on me, twist my motives around all you like, you can dump millstones on my head and drown me in the river, but you can’t get me out of the story. I’m the plot, babe, and don’t ever forget it.” (Unpopular Gals)
- Misogyny vs misandry: if woman is often reduced to a Barbie doll image, the man can also be viewed only as a useful object around the house, that “When worn out, (…) can be re-covered and used as doorstops.” (The Female Body; Making a Man)
- Miscalculation of the adversary: the alienation is double viewed in a sort of dystopia where intelligent insect-like beings study the ugliness and deficiencies of humans whereas the humans, aliens in turn on another planet, try to explain (and understand) their own humanity (Cold-Blooded; Homelanding).
Of course, there are also themes (other than the ‘mis’-words I enjoyed playing with) like alienation, loneliness, war, death, etc. that are put in various forms: monologues, essays, journalistic articles, mixing genres and styles, in a hallucinating merry-go-round of auctorial voices burst out from a wide-open Pandora’s box.
It seems that the only salvation from that disquieting scratch at our window is once again the refuge in art, the Aristotle’s mimetic but cathartic art, which teaches you to cope, that is, to die:
“Ah lepers. If you can dance, even you, why not the rest of us?”
It’s true, the laugh, big in the first stories will dissolve gradually into sadness, as the narrative voice gives up ludic for parodic, sarcastic, grave, resigned, alien, in order to denounce stereotypes, turn upside down myths and literary figures, whilst dealing with themes in the semantic field of misfortune, such as:
- Misunderstanding of the drama clarified by the prosaic point of view of Hamlet’s mother who reduces the tragedy to some domestic discord and finally explains her presumed pathetic gesture: “I am not wringing my hands. I am drying my nails” (Gertrude Talks Back).
- Mistreatment (by the reader) of the ugly sister who proudly understands her narrative importance: “You can wipe your feet on me, twist my motives around all you like, you can dump millstones on my head and drown me in the river, but you can’t get me out of the story. I’m the plot, babe, and don’t ever forget it.” (Unpopular Gals)
- Misogyny vs misandry: if woman is often reduced to a Barbie doll image, the man can also be viewed only as a useful object around the house, that “When worn out, (…) can be re-covered and used as doorstops.” (The Female Body; Making a Man)
- Miscalculation of the adversary: the alienation is double viewed in a sort of dystopia where intelligent insect-like beings study the ugliness and deficiencies of humans whereas the humans, aliens in turn on another planet, try to explain (and understand) their own humanity (Cold-Blooded; Homelanding).
Of course, there are also themes (other than the ‘mis’-words I enjoyed playing with) like alienation, loneliness, war, death, etc. that are put in various forms: monologues, essays, journalistic articles, mixing genres and styles, in a hallucinating merry-go-round of auctorial voices burst out from a wide-open Pandora’s box.
It seems that the only salvation from that disquieting scratch at our window is once again the refuge in art, the Aristotle’s mimetic but cathartic art, which teaches you to cope, that is, to die:
“Ah lepers. If you can dance, even you, why not the rest of us?”
October 25, 2025
Funny, witty and insightful writing. Atwood writes about tree stumps, theology, death to the craziness of human beings and their mindless destruction of the environment to satisfy humankind’s insatiable appetite for worthless material goods.
My favorite story was Stump Hunting. A funny but poignant story about trophy hunting which Ricky Gervais would like. Epaulettes was good and the stupidity of war using generals as beauty contestants. My Life as a Bat was excellent and the perspective of the bat could be applied to any creature. Hardball is about one possible future of humankind living under a dome with of course the rich better off or ‘Think of the earth as a hard stone ball, scraped clean life.’
Alien Territory and a cynical view of men and why women are attracted to stupid, greedy men. Moth aliens, bats from their perspective and making a man to the female body are all stories some absurd, funny, sad and finishing with Good Bones and how we eventually end up with delicate bones.
My favorite story was Stump Hunting. A funny but poignant story about trophy hunting which Ricky Gervais would like. Epaulettes was good and the stupidity of war using generals as beauty contestants. My Life as a Bat was excellent and the perspective of the bat could be applied to any creature. Hardball is about one possible future of humankind living under a dome with of course the rich better off or ‘Think of the earth as a hard stone ball, scraped clean life.’
Alien Territory and a cynical view of men and why women are attracted to stupid, greedy men. Moth aliens, bats from their perspective and making a man to the female body are all stories some absurd, funny, sad and finishing with Good Bones and how we eventually end up with delicate bones.
April 24, 2022
In University, I had the opportunity to pick up some of Margaret Atwood's books - mostly the inter-texts of fairy tales! I fell in love with her writing, and soon after I was binging The Handmaid's Tale and it's sequel. I accidentally stumbled upon this book as a charity book sale and I jumped at the chance to read it. Why wouldn't I? Margaret Atwood is a LEGEND. And after a little bit of research, I found there were more inter-texts hiding in this book too.
This series of short stories is a great read if you want some compelling and intriguing stories by a writer who is the master of the art. The different point of views of fairy tales really got me, and I had to reread some of the stories (alongside reading some other amazing reviews and takes on the book) to get a good grasp on what was going on. I seriously loved deep diving in this book.
I highly recommend it and I definitely am going to be picking up more books by this legend. Her writing is wickedly smart and she sees stories in such a mind boggling way.
Three out of five stars.
This series of short stories is a great read if you want some compelling and intriguing stories by a writer who is the master of the art. The different point of views of fairy tales really got me, and I had to reread some of the stories (alongside reading some other amazing reviews and takes on the book) to get a good grasp on what was going on. I seriously loved deep diving in this book.
I highly recommend it and I definitely am going to be picking up more books by this legend. Her writing is wickedly smart and she sees stories in such a mind boggling way.
Three out of five stars.
February 1, 2020
Atwood's signature dark, witty humour combined with her favourite topics — gender (in)equality, environmentalism, women who reclaim their narratives — make for some great (very short!) short stories. My favourites were: Gertrude Talks Back (Hamlet's mother has some thoughts!), Unpopular Gals (alternative title: Every Fairytale's Evil Stepmother Talks Back), Epaulettes (a beauty pageant like you've never seen before) and Death Scenes (which was surprisingly heartfelt).
February 24, 2015
Some pieces were excellent and others were forgettable. It's very clever, and very amusing for the most part. But I expected more than simply clever and amusing from Margaret Atwood.
This part did give me chills:
“By now you know: I come from another planet. But I will never say to you, "Take me to your leaders." Even I--unused to your ways though I am--would never make that mistake. We ourselves have such beings among us, made of cogs, pieces of paper, small disks of shiny metal, scraps of coloured cloth. I do not need to encounter more of them.
Instead I will say, "Take me to your trees. Take me to your breakfasts, your sunsets, your bad dreams, your shoes, your nouns. Take me to your fingers; take me to your deaths."
These are worth it. These are what I have come for.”
This part did give me chills:
“By now you know: I come from another planet. But I will never say to you, "Take me to your leaders." Even I--unused to your ways though I am--would never make that mistake. We ourselves have such beings among us, made of cogs, pieces of paper, small disks of shiny metal, scraps of coloured cloth. I do not need to encounter more of them.
Instead I will say, "Take me to your trees. Take me to your breakfasts, your sunsets, your bad dreams, your shoes, your nouns. Take me to your fingers; take me to your deaths."
These are worth it. These are what I have come for.”
August 12, 2022
Като всеки сборник с разкази и тук ситуацията беше 50/50. Имаше такива, които много ми харесаха, а имаше и такива, които хич не ми допаднаха. Но никога не отказвам доза Атууд, така че съм доволна.
April 16, 2020
If you haven't read any Atwood yet and your attention span still isn't too great, I can definitely recommend Good Bones as an excellent way of getting a feel for Atwood's style and savage wit! This is a collection of flash fiction, short stories and prose poems, not something I'd usually reach for but, of course, Maggie always delivers.
.
I loved how, in every story, she flipped something on its head - some gender norm or fictional trope. She has such a knack for showing us things we take for granted, or accept as the norm, from a different perspective and opening our eyes to how reductive or damaging something is. Even if you're already aware of how destructive gender roles can be, this collection will still surprise you!
.
Some of my favourites were Epaulettes, where world leaders are chosen in a beauty pageant-esque competition, Alien Territory, which explores the politics of having a body, particularly a male one, and Cold-Blooded, where some insectile alien muses gently on when they will once again rule the earth after humans have destroyed it...
.
A couple didn't leave much of an impression, and Poppies: Three Variations was clever but didn't really fit in with the other stories, which were all gender-based or sci-fi/dystopian-esque (which made me really want to reread Oryx & Crake). But overall, a deft, funny, subversive collection that I recommend!
.
I loved how, in every story, she flipped something on its head - some gender norm or fictional trope. She has such a knack for showing us things we take for granted, or accept as the norm, from a different perspective and opening our eyes to how reductive or damaging something is. Even if you're already aware of how destructive gender roles can be, this collection will still surprise you!
.
Some of my favourites were Epaulettes, where world leaders are chosen in a beauty pageant-esque competition, Alien Territory, which explores the politics of having a body, particularly a male one, and Cold-Blooded, where some insectile alien muses gently on when they will once again rule the earth after humans have destroyed it...
.
A couple didn't leave much of an impression, and Poppies: Three Variations was clever but didn't really fit in with the other stories, which were all gender-based or sci-fi/dystopian-esque (which made me really want to reread Oryx & Crake). But overall, a deft, funny, subversive collection that I recommend!
November 28, 2015
Is there anything that Margaret Atwood can't write?! I like that I can read her superb character portraits in small snippets within this short story anthology. It is great if I don't have long to read and don't want to start a new full-length fiction book. I recommend it, even just for her social commentary within the stories.
October 2, 2024
These crazy little stories were brilliant, some of them were out there. and others pure joy. Atwood never disappoints.
December 4, 2023
look at me go !!! maybe i will actually finish my reading goal this year (despite it only being 10 books) !? fav of the anthology was probs my life as a bat or alien territory or good bones. i love being able to see trends in an authors writing !!!! would recommend
March 25, 2025
Quirky short stories which I enjoyed because I like Atwood’s writing and her wit. Some stories were a little too short and a good few are forgettable. The stronger pieces were about feminism and humanity, my favourites being ‘the female body’, ‘making a man’, epaulettes’, and ‘alien territory’
August 11, 2022
Уау! Само Маргарет Атууд може да ме повлече на такова пътешествие и тотално да изключа от реалността. Съжалявам, че беше толкова кратко. Тези кратки разкази бяха много приятен полъх сред жегата на лятото. Накараха ме да помисля, да се възхищавам, да емпатирам и да обичам. Един от разказите смело се нарежда сред най-добрите неща, които някога съм чел.
August 30, 2025
Good bones and simple murders is an anthology by Margaret Atwood, containing short stories, parables and monologues. The collection encapsulates the gamut of Atwood’s talents with playful and poetic prose. The breadth of the anthology includes reimagining and retelling fairytales, condensed science fiction and eclectic meditations and tales on the mundane.
I read this in close proximity to Old Babes in the Woods and loved it just as much but for slightly different reasons. I think in Good Bones, the focus is much more on language and word play. The book really illustrates how Atwood has conquered writing and you can really see how she brings her background of poetry into this collection.
I really like the way Atwood retells fairytales and brings in other perspectives. So I enjoyed ‘unpopular girls’, ‘the little red hen tells all’ and ‘there was once’. In these she turns classic tales upside down and offers new perspectives.
I also enjoyed the science fiction stories. In particular ‘cold blooded’ written by one of the sisters from The Planet of the Moths. Again, Atwood places herself in the position of something otherworldly to look at our world.
Some of the other stories I enjoyed included ‘murder in the dark’, ‘Stump Hunting’, ‘Making a Man’, ‘Happy Endings’, ‘Homelanding’ and ‘My Life as a Bat’
The short stories are very witty and all have depth, even though the majority are particularly brief.
I read this in close proximity to Old Babes in the Woods and loved it just as much but for slightly different reasons. I think in Good Bones, the focus is much more on language and word play. The book really illustrates how Atwood has conquered writing and you can really see how she brings her background of poetry into this collection.
I really like the way Atwood retells fairytales and brings in other perspectives. So I enjoyed ‘unpopular girls’, ‘the little red hen tells all’ and ‘there was once’. In these she turns classic tales upside down and offers new perspectives.
I also enjoyed the science fiction stories. In particular ‘cold blooded’ written by one of the sisters from The Planet of the Moths. Again, Atwood places herself in the position of something otherworldly to look at our world.
Some of the other stories I enjoyed included ‘murder in the dark’, ‘Stump Hunting’, ‘Making a Man’, ‘Happy Endings’, ‘Homelanding’ and ‘My Life as a Bat’
The short stories are very witty and all have depth, even though the majority are particularly brief.
November 19, 2023
Um ehrlich zu sein, habe ich keine Ahnung, wie ich dieses Buch beschreiben soll. Es handelt sich um 27 Kurzgeschichten, die alle durch den hervorragenden Schreibstil von Margaret Atwood auffallen, und sicherlich auch durch die Übersetzung von Brigitte Walitzek.
Inhaltlich gibt es eher wenige Gemeinsamkeiten, manche Texte haben mir außerordentlich gut gefallen, andere habe ich überhaupt nicht verstanden.
Ein Highlight war für mich die Geschichte "Unpopuläre Frauen", in der Atwood aus der Perspektive von den berühmten Antagonistinnen aus Märchen schreibt: die Kinderfressende Hexe, die missgünstige Schwester, oder die böse Stiefmutter, die sagt: "Ihr könnt euch die Füße an mir abtreten, meine Motive verdrehen so viel ihr wollt, ihr könnt Mühlsteine auf mein Haupt häufen und mich im Fluß ertränken, aber ihr könnt mich nicht aus der Story streichen. Ich bin die Handlung, Leute, vergeßt das ja nicht."
Manche Kurzgeschichten zeigen Moral, andere besonders viel Tiefe oder Humor, insgesamt hat die Mischung mir sehr gut gefallen. Leider waren es im Ganzen doch zu viele Texte, die ich gar nicht einordnen konnte und mich eher ratlos zurückgelassen haben, aber für die paar richtig guten hat es sich dennoch sehr gelohnt. Also unbedingt lesen, wenn ihr die Möglichkeit habt!
Übersetzt von Brigitte Walitzek.
Inhaltlich gibt es eher wenige Gemeinsamkeiten, manche Texte haben mir außerordentlich gut gefallen, andere habe ich überhaupt nicht verstanden.
Ein Highlight war für mich die Geschichte "Unpopuläre Frauen", in der Atwood aus der Perspektive von den berühmten Antagonistinnen aus Märchen schreibt: die Kinderfressende Hexe, die missgünstige Schwester, oder die böse Stiefmutter, die sagt: "Ihr könnt euch die Füße an mir abtreten, meine Motive verdrehen so viel ihr wollt, ihr könnt Mühlsteine auf mein Haupt häufen und mich im Fluß ertränken, aber ihr könnt mich nicht aus der Story streichen. Ich bin die Handlung, Leute, vergeßt das ja nicht."
Manche Kurzgeschichten zeigen Moral, andere besonders viel Tiefe oder Humor, insgesamt hat die Mischung mir sehr gut gefallen. Leider waren es im Ganzen doch zu viele Texte, die ich gar nicht einordnen konnte und mich eher ratlos zurückgelassen haben, aber für die paar richtig guten hat es sich dennoch sehr gelohnt. Also unbedingt lesen, wenn ihr die Möglichkeit habt!
Übersetzt von Brigitte Walitzek.
March 20, 2011
A collection of 27 writings or works i think is the best way to describe them. They are short tales, essay type reads and sometimes others are general thoughts and musings of the author. Sometimes i felt like i was reading a immature diary or notebook,or wandering through a scrapbook of general thoughts and notions.
It is witty and in parts laugh out loud funny.. i particulary enjoyed 'The Red Hen Tells All'
" Everyone wants in on it. Everyone! Not just the cat,the pig and the dog. The horse too, the cow, the rhinoceros, the orang-outang, the horn-toad, the wombat, the duckbilled platypuss, you name it. There's no peace any more and all because of that goddamn loaf of bread. It's not easy, being a hen" I read this paragraph and i knew i was in for something different.
I also enjoyed, 'Gertrude Talks Back' 'There was Once' 'Unpopular Girls' and 'Let Us Now Praise Stupid Women'
This is clever,imaginitve and really cuts to the chase and pefect to read between big tommes or just for some light hearted fun.
It is witty and in parts laugh out loud funny.. i particulary enjoyed 'The Red Hen Tells All'
" Everyone wants in on it. Everyone! Not just the cat,the pig and the dog. The horse too, the cow, the rhinoceros, the orang-outang, the horn-toad, the wombat, the duckbilled platypuss, you name it. There's no peace any more and all because of that goddamn loaf of bread. It's not easy, being a hen" I read this paragraph and i knew i was in for something different.
I also enjoyed, 'Gertrude Talks Back' 'There was Once' 'Unpopular Girls' and 'Let Us Now Praise Stupid Women'
This is clever,imaginitve and really cuts to the chase and pefect to read between big tommes or just for some light hearted fun.
January 18, 2025
My favourite stories from this collection were the ones that made me laugh out loud! Memorable ones are: "Stump Hunting," "Making a Man," "Epaulettes," "My Life as a Bat," "Poppies: Three Variations," "Death Scenes," and "Dance of the Lepers" (the last one of which made me think of Spinalonga, near Elounda where I stayed in Greece and my buddy reader of Molokai, Kalaupapa, as she used to lived in Hawaii).
This collection is between a 3.5 and 4 star read for me. For me, Atwood's writing is 4 stars, and the stories (themes, content, structure, etc...) are a 3.5 stars. I'd read her other collections, so if anyone has a recommendation, please send it my way!
[Ebook, borrowed from library]
This collection is between a 3.5 and 4 star read for me. For me, Atwood's writing is 4 stars, and the stories (themes, content, structure, etc...) are a 3.5 stars. I'd read her other collections, so if anyone has a recommendation, please send it my way!
[Ebook, borrowed from library]
December 25, 2021
— There was once a poor girl, as beautiful as she was good, who lived with her wicked stepmother in a house in the forest.
This collection of stories cunningly play with reader expectations: they tease, they feint, they nick and draw blood. With a surgeon’s knife Atwood dissects common myths and tropes, performs autopsies on literary classics, male fantasies, human foibles and traditional fairytales. Then, reassembling the parts, she fashions tales that forces us to look anew at what we thought was the case.
The two-dozen plus three pieces in this slim volume are in large part succinct, some barely more than a page or so; others, only slightly less succinct, remorsely hammer home their point while pulling your leg; a few havee as their starting or end point a poetic form.
And though some may be seen as taking a feminist standpoint I would argue they are as much humanist, inviting us to take a step back to see not just differences but also similarities, encouraging comprehension more than opposition.
Themes run from story to story. Traditional fairytales can be questioned, as in ‘There Was Once’ in which, anticipating cancel culture, objecting to every motif as politically incorrect can and must lead to a reductio ad absurdum; or in ‘Unpopular Gals’ in which one of Cinderella’s Ugly Sisters rails against being stereotyped. Literary greats are also parodied or put under the microscope: Gertrude reveals who really killed Hamlet’s father, a bat counters the bad press Dracula initiated, Raymond Chandler is partly rehabilitated in spite of his misogyny. There are also two tales with a theological tinge sitting back to back, and three treatments of the war poem ‘In Flanders Fields’.
Atwood warns us at the start of many of these pieces that she is deliberately and stoutly taking a contrary view: the Little Red Hen of the fable is more sarcastic than you expected — or is she? — and in ‘Epaulettes’ it’s suggested that any notion of pacifist world leaders rising to the top is pie-in-the-sky.
One of the most powerful pairings here comes with the litany of ‘Let Us Now Praise Stupid Women’ followed by an exposé of ‘The Female Body’ in its various forms as a male fetish. A couple of pieces on comes the exquisite ‘Making a Man’, disguised as a feature in one of those vintage women’s magazines. Its procedure is best illustrated by enumerating the sections giving readers tips to make, “in their very own kitchens and rumpus rooms, an item that is both practical and decorative”:
1. Traditional Method
2. Gingerbread Method
3. Clothes Method
4. Marzipan Method
5. Folk Art Method
It’s evident that, although each narrative stands on its own feet, there is an echo of a greater narrative arc over them all. The final four or five pieces for example form a loose coda by being meditations on mortality, but they do so from different vantage points: anger in ‘Death Scenes’, fleeting memories of Albert Camus in ‘Four Small Paragraphs’, hunger for a life less finite in ‘We Want it All’, wonder at potential in ‘Dance of the Lepers’ and wonder at approaching old age in the titular story ‘Good Bones’.
While she may wield the scalpel Atwood does so with great wit and humour, with fables, parables and prose poems revealing insights that range from caustic to sympathetic.
May 31, 2020
Witty and highly imaginative, these short stories open up the reader's mind and perception regarding gender and sex. Definitely worth the read, Atwood delivers an entertaining collection.
February 23, 2014
Loved this. But as others of my book club might not have finished it yet, instead of a review, I will write my word-list for this book. (After finishing a book I go through, flipping to pages at random and pointing at one word, then doing it again and find another. This generates word pairs that I put on a list, which somehow, magically perhaps, represents the feel of the work.)
My word list for GOOD BONES:
miniature bodies
man accounts
dry birds
neon waste
muse hammer
outraged plainsong
backyard cavern
primitive corpses
stepmother moths
story stuffed
girl collection
mushroom metal
swollen potatoes
marked devils
embryo behavior
wombat manhole
arduous organs
thousand scenes
My word list for GOOD BONES:
miniature bodies
man accounts
dry birds
neon waste
muse hammer
outraged plainsong
backyard cavern
primitive corpses
stepmother moths
story stuffed
girl collection
mushroom metal
swollen potatoes
marked devils
embryo behavior
wombat manhole
arduous organs
thousand scenes
January 5, 2017
A collection of short pieces which are dry, ironic, strange. Various topics, including Queen Gertrude in Hamlet addressing her son, or the viewpoint of the little red hen, which seems to be from a children's story I'm not familiar with, but all have a common thread of examining misogyny and the roles played by women and men. Well-written and clever, sad, dark in places.
October 23, 2022
I bought a copy of this while I was on vacation in the UK. A very quick read, but... I'm not sure I understood it all. Here's my full review https://tcl-bookreviews.com/2022/10/2...
August 16, 2014
Worth reading for "Gertrude Talks Back". You tell that spoiled son, Gerty.
September 11, 2018
Witty and honest. <3
January 18, 2025
pure, unabated genius. ily margaret
December 29, 2020
Atwood’s writing makes me work too hard here. One of the stories sings the praises of stupid women in literature, and this book made me feel like a stupid woman. The writing feels overly clever, tricky, tongue-in-cheek. It left me hovering around the outside of it, trying to look in.
July 4, 2017
So I'm just going to come out and say it - before this book, I had NEVER read anything by Margaret Atwood. Please don't throw things at me. But, being a Feminist and hearing so many great things about Atwood's style as well as her strong writing on gender roles, I really thought I ought to try her work out. I have been eyeing up her short story collections for a while, a good as place as any to start in order to get a feel for her work, and I have to say I was thoroughly impressed for the most part. Atwood's writing is like poetry but with a purpose, relatable in many ways and carrying a strong message in it's imagery. Atwood certainly seems to be fond of taking well known stories and character archetypes and turning them on their head, something I love to read! She provides a different perspective in a very straight forward, thought-provoking way.
There are so many great stories and pieces of poetry to delve into, and this would definitely be a great book for the casual reader that likes to pick something short up to ponder on every so often. I'm fond of Fairy Tales, Classic literature and of course Shakespeare so stories like 'The Little Red Hen Tells All' (from the perspective of a very disgruntled hen telling her version of the classic children's tale), 'Gertrude Talks Back' (Hamlet's Mother telling her spoilt son to get off his high horse), 'There Was Once' (a modern, thoughtful way of dissecting a fairy tale), and 'Unpopular Gals' (the Ugly Step Sister, Wicked Witch and Evil Step Mother have something to say) were just a few of these great re-imaginings of the original stories we hear so often in our lives. I loved the stories that looked at everyday things in our society and analysed them to the point where they seemed bizarre and almost alien, 'Alien Territory', 'Cold-Blooded' and 'Homelanding' were great examples of this. Atwood dealt with so many different, interesting topics that looked at the bare bones of humanity, gender, war, biology, and class.
There were some stories that didn't appeal to me so much - 'An Angel', 'In Love With Raymond Chandler', 'Dance With The Lepers' and 'Bad News' were a few of them. They dealt with their themes appropriately but I just didn't connect with them in the same way that I connected with other stories in the book. I often found myself completely hooked on one story, then skimming over the next, and that's probably due to the varied topics in this collection. I liked it overall, because of Atwood's writing skill, the detailed character profiles and the chosen presentation of a short story collection with a dash of poetry. The mix of good and uninteresting was a little bizarre at times, but there is certainly a story in here for everyone. I'll definitely be revisiting Atwood's work, particularly to read more of these collections!
There are so many great stories and pieces of poetry to delve into, and this would definitely be a great book for the casual reader that likes to pick something short up to ponder on every so often. I'm fond of Fairy Tales, Classic literature and of course Shakespeare so stories like 'The Little Red Hen Tells All' (from the perspective of a very disgruntled hen telling her version of the classic children's tale), 'Gertrude Talks Back' (Hamlet's Mother telling her spoilt son to get off his high horse), 'There Was Once' (a modern, thoughtful way of dissecting a fairy tale), and 'Unpopular Gals' (the Ugly Step Sister, Wicked Witch and Evil Step Mother have something to say) were just a few of these great re-imaginings of the original stories we hear so often in our lives. I loved the stories that looked at everyday things in our society and analysed them to the point where they seemed bizarre and almost alien, 'Alien Territory', 'Cold-Blooded' and 'Homelanding' were great examples of this. Atwood dealt with so many different, interesting topics that looked at the bare bones of humanity, gender, war, biology, and class.
There were some stories that didn't appeal to me so much - 'An Angel', 'In Love With Raymond Chandler', 'Dance With The Lepers' and 'Bad News' were a few of them. They dealt with their themes appropriately but I just didn't connect with them in the same way that I connected with other stories in the book. I often found myself completely hooked on one story, then skimming over the next, and that's probably due to the varied topics in this collection. I liked it overall, because of Atwood's writing skill, the detailed character profiles and the chosen presentation of a short story collection with a dash of poetry. The mix of good and uninteresting was a little bizarre at times, but there is certainly a story in here for everyone. I'll definitely be revisiting Atwood's work, particularly to read more of these collections!
March 24, 2021
Margaret Atwood has about as much imagination as ten ordinary writers. Each of the short stories in "Good Bones" could be expanded into a novel of it's own, heck, a lesser writer might expand them into a series. Atwood uses a variety of styles, some stories refer to other works like Shakespeare and Bram Stoker, adding to, and making us think about the very structures and basic assumptions underlying their work, other pieces are completely original. What I like most is Atwood's humour, which we don't see so much of in her more serious and better known works like Handmaid's Tale. Margaret signed my copy at a Brisbane Writer's Festival, I'll keep it forever.
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