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Wilderness Tips
Here are brilliantly rendered stories that explore themes of loss and discovery, of the gap between youthful dreams and mature reality, of how we connect with others and with the sometimes hidden part of ourselves.
In each of these tales Margaret Atwood deftly illuminates the single instant that shapes a whole life: in a few brief pages we watch as characters progress through the passions of youth into the precarious complexities of middle age. By superimposing the past on the present Atwood paints interior landscapes shaped by time, regret and life's lost chances, endowing even the banal with a sense of mystery. Richly layered and disturbing, poignant at times and scathingly witty at others, the stories in Wilderness Tips take us into the strange and secret places of the heart and inform the familiar world in which we live with truths that cut to the bone.
ISBN: 0-7704-2524-0
242 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1991
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12914 people want to read
About the author
Margaret Atwood
668 books90.1k 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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May 10, 2025
We will follow ten short stories about female adventures from the 1950s to the 1990s between their pages. Through each, a secret link unites the protagonists, men and women.
Women of all ages and walks of life struggle to be aware of the female condition of their time. Indeed, there is the one who will have her job stolen by her boss, the one whose jealousy of men will put her in need of revenge, and the one whose man is constantly cheating on her. The one who sleeps easily with men cannot have an abortion, does not want to get married, and loses her best friend, beaten to death by her husband.
The slices of life sometimes make us cringe; we will not come out sad, but a little gloomy between a desperate struggle and the bitterness of the living conditions of women whose lives finally evolve.
Women of all ages and walks of life struggle to be aware of the female condition of their time. Indeed, there is the one who will have her job stolen by her boss, the one whose jealousy of men will put her in need of revenge, and the one whose man is constantly cheating on her. The one who sleeps easily with men cannot have an abortion, does not want to get married, and loses her best friend, beaten to death by her husband.
The slices of life sometimes make us cringe; we will not come out sad, but a little gloomy between a desperate struggle and the bitterness of the living conditions of women whose lives finally evolve.
May 17, 2010
His wife has left Wilderness Tips lying on the coffee table, and he picks it up. Over the last twenty years, several women have told him to read it. He doesn't like to be pushed into things.
Now, though, his curiosity has got the better of him. The first few pages do make him a little uneasy. The scene where the boys are spying on the waitresses' beach party through their binoculars. He also feels like a voyeur. But that soon disappears. He isn't overhearing her private conversations: Margaret is talking directly to him. After a while, he identifies the tune that's started playing in his head. He goes over to the CD shelf, and looks around until he finds the Roches. He skips forward to "The Married Men".
"Did you learn anything useful?" she asks.
He doesn't quite know what to make of her inflection. What was that French expression she likes?
"Mi-figue, mi-raisin," she says. Damn! She's reading his mind again. He wonders what else she discovered there.
"It's okay, honey," she adds softly, as she comes over and sits next to him. "I'm so glad you finally read it," and for some reason he finds that he has tears in his eyes, and she does too.
Now, though, his curiosity has got the better of him. The first few pages do make him a little uneasy. The scene where the boys are spying on the waitresses' beach party through their binoculars. He also feels like a voyeur. But that soon disappears. He isn't overhearing her private conversations: Margaret is talking directly to him. After a while, he identifies the tune that's started playing in his head. He goes over to the CD shelf, and looks around until he finds the Roches. He skips forward to "The Married Men".
One in Louisiana, one who travels aroundHe can hear Margaret's ironic, teasing, sexy voice, as they lie in bed together and she tells him another story. "It's something that happened to a friend," she says, and he wonders if it actually happened to her, or if she made it up. He doesn't care. It's enough just to listen to her.
One of them mainly stays in heart-throb town
I am not their main concern, they are lonely too
I am just an arrow passing through
One of them's got a little boy, other one he's got twoHe's in the middle of "The Bog Man" when he realises that his wife's come in and is looking at him curiously. He has to suppress a guilty start.
one of them's wife is one week overdue
I know these girls they don't like me, but I am just like them
picking a crazy apple off a stem
"Did you learn anything useful?" she asks.
He doesn't quite know what to make of her inflection. What was that French expression she likes?
"Mi-figue, mi-raisin," she says. Damn! She's reading his mind again. He wonders what else she discovered there.
"It's okay, honey," she adds softly, as she comes over and sits next to him. "I'm so glad you finally read it," and for some reason he finds that he has tears in his eyes, and she does too.
November 5, 2018
For readers of Wilderness Tips who didn’t grow up in Canada in the late 20th century, this will seem like another typical, non-SF Atwood book: the short story collection is full of wry observations about interpersonal relationships; the settings are either the wilderness (I count 5, or roughly half) or downtown Toronto (the other half); and the sharp, knowing prose verges on poetry at times, especially in the stories’ startling final lines.
But for Canadians, there are other treats in store!
Atwood has fictionalized several notable Canadian figures in these stories. There’s the pedantic journalist figure in “Uncles,” clearly modelled after Robert Fulford (the physical description alone is him to a T); there’s another journalist, June Callwood, in the book’s final story, “Hack Wednesday,” a tender look at a middle-aged woman’s life; and there’s “George” (not his real name), the charismatic figure of a Hungarian immigrant who is married to one sister and longs for the others in the title story (I did some digging, because it rang a bell, and apparently it’s based on George Jonas, who was a contemporary of Atwood’s).
But the most haunting, and probably the most accurate, of these roman a clef touches is the mysterious, kohl-eyed, precocious teen poet in “Isis In Darkness” called Serena, who’s obviously based on Gwendolyn MacEwan, who was also a contemporary of Atwood’s in the 60s poetry scene in Toronto. Oh, how I wish I had been alive to visit the Bohemian Embassy (here’s a clip from a movie about it; it begins with Atwood, of course, and the ethereal MacEwan is at 0:30).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHkPp...
Of course, there’s more to these stories than mere allusions to Canadian figures.
The book’s most famous story is “Hairball,” about a journalist, Kat, who’s wooed from London back to Toronto to run a new fashion magazine. The title refers to the benign tumour she’s had removed from her body and which she keeps, as a memento of sorts, on her mantelpiece. The item becomes a talisman, especially after a relationship she’s involved in breaks down. I won’t give away the ending, but wow, it’s a whopper. I can imagine Atwood giggling nastily to herself when she dreamed it up, thinking, “This will shock them.” Oh, it does.
A couple of the stories (“The Bog Man,” “The Age Of Lead”) feature long-dead bodies whose discovery or unearthing sheds light on dying relationships. The title story, all puns intended, is a carefully observed tale about a charming and lecherous man who works his way through a well-off Canadian family’s sisters. The opening story, “True Trash,” begins at a summer camp, with its mix of privileged boy campers and the (mostly) working-class young women who are counsellors, and shifts forward to look at how a few of them have turned out.
These stories are all very accessible, and might make atmospheric reading if you’ve got access to a cottage. And a handful – “Hairball,” “Isis In Darkness,” the poignant final story, “Hack Wednesday” – are among the most memorable Atwood has written in the short story form.
But for Canadians, there are other treats in store!
Atwood has fictionalized several notable Canadian figures in these stories. There’s the pedantic journalist figure in “Uncles,” clearly modelled after Robert Fulford (the physical description alone is him to a T); there’s another journalist, June Callwood, in the book’s final story, “Hack Wednesday,” a tender look at a middle-aged woman’s life; and there’s “George” (not his real name), the charismatic figure of a Hungarian immigrant who is married to one sister and longs for the others in the title story (I did some digging, because it rang a bell, and apparently it’s based on George Jonas, who was a contemporary of Atwood’s).
But the most haunting, and probably the most accurate, of these roman a clef touches is the mysterious, kohl-eyed, precocious teen poet in “Isis In Darkness” called Serena, who’s obviously based on Gwendolyn MacEwan, who was also a contemporary of Atwood’s in the 60s poetry scene in Toronto. Oh, how I wish I had been alive to visit the Bohemian Embassy (here’s a clip from a movie about it; it begins with Atwood, of course, and the ethereal MacEwan is at 0:30).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHkPp...
Of course, there’s more to these stories than mere allusions to Canadian figures.
The book’s most famous story is “Hairball,” about a journalist, Kat, who’s wooed from London back to Toronto to run a new fashion magazine. The title refers to the benign tumour she’s had removed from her body and which she keeps, as a memento of sorts, on her mantelpiece. The item becomes a talisman, especially after a relationship she’s involved in breaks down. I won’t give away the ending, but wow, it’s a whopper. I can imagine Atwood giggling nastily to herself when she dreamed it up, thinking, “This will shock them.” Oh, it does.
A couple of the stories (“The Bog Man,” “The Age Of Lead”) feature long-dead bodies whose discovery or unearthing sheds light on dying relationships. The title story, all puns intended, is a carefully observed tale about a charming and lecherous man who works his way through a well-off Canadian family’s sisters. The opening story, “True Trash,” begins at a summer camp, with its mix of privileged boy campers and the (mostly) working-class young women who are counsellors, and shifts forward to look at how a few of them have turned out.
These stories are all very accessible, and might make atmospheric reading if you’ve got access to a cottage. And a handful – “Hairball,” “Isis In Darkness,” the poignant final story, “Hack Wednesday” – are among the most memorable Atwood has written in the short story form.
June 27, 2018
This is my second foray into Atwood’s writing and I think it’s safe to say that she has become a new favourite author of mine! The way she writes is just hypnotizing, it sucks you right in until you feel like you’re living in the pages of the book with the characters. And it’s even more remarkable because she manages to do that even with short stories! I loved every one of these stories and found myself disappointed as each was coming to a close, it wasn’t enough and I wanted more! Which is pretty much how I feel about Atwood’s writing, I want more!
December 27, 2020
"There’s something final about saying you were married once. It’s like saying you were dead once. It shuts them up."
Wilderness Tips is my second collection of short stories by Margaret Atwood and as I have to come to expect from Atwood, the stories follow women - in this case as they try to navigate through the wilderness of everyday life.
Similar to the other collection that I’ve read from Atwood, Stone Mattress, these stories are somewhat light on plot, but heavy on character introspection and memories. There are recurring themes such as the passage of time, the unpredictability of life, missed opportunities and cheating on a spouse. Numerous stories involved time-jumping over several decades as middle-aged women looked back on their younger selves, not recognising themselves anymore.
The standout story for me was Hairball, wherein a woman has a benign tumour removed from her body, which she keeps as a memento on her mantelpiece, fondly referring to it as “Hairball”. I won’t say anymore, but I cackling with glee at the outcome of this story - I just adore Atwood’s sharp wit 🥰
I also loved The Age of Lead, which was a story about mortality and the inevitability of change. This one also had a side-story involving the Franklin Expedition, one of my current obsessions after reading and loving Dan Simmons’ historical fiction novel The Terror earlier this year. So of course I was swept up in that aspect!
All of the stories were enjoyable to some degree, but some I liked more than others, of course. I can’t deny that due to the similar themes, the collection began to feel a little repetitive after a while. But with Atwood there is always something to love in her writing. She never fails to impress me! 4 stars.
Wilderness Tips is my second collection of short stories by Margaret Atwood and as I have to come to expect from Atwood, the stories follow women - in this case as they try to navigate through the wilderness of everyday life.
Similar to the other collection that I’ve read from Atwood, Stone Mattress, these stories are somewhat light on plot, but heavy on character introspection and memories. There are recurring themes such as the passage of time, the unpredictability of life, missed opportunities and cheating on a spouse. Numerous stories involved time-jumping over several decades as middle-aged women looked back on their younger selves, not recognising themselves anymore.
The standout story for me was Hairball, wherein a woman has a benign tumour removed from her body, which she keeps as a memento on her mantelpiece, fondly referring to it as “Hairball”. I won’t say anymore, but I cackling with glee at the outcome of this story - I just adore Atwood’s sharp wit 🥰
I also loved The Age of Lead, which was a story about mortality and the inevitability of change. This one also had a side-story involving the Franklin Expedition, one of my current obsessions after reading and loving Dan Simmons’ historical fiction novel The Terror earlier this year. So of course I was swept up in that aspect!
All of the stories were enjoyable to some degree, but some I liked more than others, of course. I can’t deny that due to the similar themes, the collection began to feel a little repetitive after a while. But with Atwood there is always something to love in her writing. She never fails to impress me! 4 stars.
February 15, 2024
Having had this on the shelves for some time, I picked this up with the mistaken belief that it was a novel, an impression not corrected by the cover copy which consisted of quotes about other books by Atwood. So when I came to the end of the first short section, I was taken aback when the next item was about totally different characters in a different situation. This was partly due to the anticlimactic nature of what turned out to be the ending of the first story, especially as that story, about teenage waitresses at a summer camp and the younger boys who spy on them, moves around a lot in the chronology of some of the characters. I had been keen to read on and find out what happened - then found out that was it.
Quite a few stories in this book are like that. On the whole, they are well written though most share a world-weary viewpoint about the unreliability, even treachery, of most men which makes them a bit samey. The best is Death by Landscape which I realised part way through I had read somewhere before (not in this book, which came shrink-wrapped from a book club) but still enjoyed. Whether coincidentally or not, this is one of the few that does not dwell on women's disillusionment with men, and instead is about a haunting experience from a woman's childhood. The theme of the collection seems to be disillusionment, sometimes in childhood, sometimes as in Uncles occurring later in life. Probably it is best dipped into rather than read all the way through in one go.
Quite a few stories in this book are like that. On the whole, they are well written though most share a world-weary viewpoint about the unreliability, even treachery, of most men which makes them a bit samey. The best is Death by Landscape which I realised part way through I had read somewhere before (not in this book, which came shrink-wrapped from a book club) but still enjoyed. Whether coincidentally or not, this is one of the few that does not dwell on women's disillusionment with men, and instead is about a haunting experience from a woman's childhood. The theme of the collection seems to be disillusionment, sometimes in childhood, sometimes as in Uncles occurring later in life. Probably it is best dipped into rather than read all the way through in one go.
January 10, 2009
"He is English and Jewish, both at once. To Marcia he seems more English; still, she isn't sure whether his full name is Augustus or Gustav or something else entirely. Possibly he is also gay; it's hard for her to tell with literate Englishmen. Some days they all seem gay to her, other days they all seem not gay. Flirtation is no clue, because Englishmen of this class will flirt with anything. She's noticed this before. They will flirt with dogs if nothing else is handy. What they want is a reaction: they want their charm to have an effect, to be reflected back to them."
Mmm, classic Atwood.
Mmm, classic Atwood.
June 11, 2020
Ezeknek a novelláknak a nagy része nőkről szól és hát nyilván a hozzájuk tartozó férfiakról is, környezetről, szülőkről stb, de elsősorban mégiscsak nőkről. Hősei mindennapiak, ám egyben különlegesek is, lett légyen szó nyári idénymunkásról az ötvenes években (True Trash), táborozó kislányról (Death by Landscape), újságírókról (Hairball, Hack Wednesday, Uncles) vagy akár '56-os magyar bevándorlóról a kötet címadó írásában (Wilderness Tips), szerelmén merengő egyetemistáról (The Bog Man) és élete legjobb barátját elveszítő nőről (The Age of Lead). Biztosan rendkívül elcsépelten hat, de szerintem a legunalmasabb, előre bejáratott minták szerint leélt életek is mind-mind egyéniek és izgalmasak. Ilyenek valamilyen szinten Atwood novellái is. Nincs bennük semmi világrengető (ennek ellenére a Hairball befejezése azért nem feltétlenül a várakozásoknak megfelelően alakul, sőt!), különösebb indulatok nélkül lett itt megírva élet, halál, megcsalás, kiábrándulás, elhanyagolás, az embernek egyenesen az az érzése, hogy ezek az életek csakis ilyenek lehettek, még véletlenül sem másak. Az előbb azt írtam, hogy a Hairball befejezése váratlan, de igazából mindegyikük más kissé, mint ahogy az ember azt a felvezető után képzelné. És ez jól van így. Nagyon szeretem Atwoodot a társadalmi érzékenységéért, azért, mert az ő női nem csak konyhatündérek, családanyák, azért, mert úgy ír nőkről mintha az természetes volna. Happy times!
A novellák jelentésrétege nyilván mélyebb egy kanadai vagy a kanadai kultúrában jártas olvasó számára, egy ilyen olvasó például valószínűleg tudná, amit én nem, hogy az Isis in Darkness költő-főhőséhez Gwendolyn MacEwen szolgált alapul (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gwendol...), aki Atwood kortársa és ismerőse volt. A magyar bevándorló a Wilderness Tipsből George Jonas volt, szintén Atwood kortársa. Ugyanígy felismerhetőek a conoisseurök számára a novellákban felbukkanó újságírók stb. Én sajnos azok közé a tengerentúliak közé tartozom, akiknek ezek a nevek nagyjából semmit sem mondanak, így simán csak saját jogán élvezhettem a novellákat, s mivel azok nagyon jóknak bizonyultak, így bizton kijelenthető, hogy Atwood novellistaként is kiváló, de hát ez valójában nem meglepő. Nekem újdonság ez csupán, hiszen ez az első novelláskötetem tőle. Őszintén sajnálom, hogy magyarul nincsenek Atwood-novellák, feltételezhetően ez többek között annak is köszönhető, hogy az emberek nagy része valamiért nem szereti ezt a műfajt. Nekem a szívem csücske, különlegesen jó érzés viszonylag rövid időn és egyetlen köteten belül elmerülhetni legalább egytucatnyi különböző sorsban.
A novellák jelentésrétege nyilván mélyebb egy kanadai vagy a kanadai kultúrában jártas olvasó számára, egy ilyen olvasó például valószínűleg tudná, amit én nem, hogy az Isis in Darkness költő-főhőséhez Gwendolyn MacEwen szolgált alapul (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gwendol...), aki Atwood kortársa és ismerőse volt. A magyar bevándorló a Wilderness Tipsből George Jonas volt, szintén Atwood kortársa. Ugyanígy felismerhetőek a conoisseurök számára a novellákban felbukkanó újságírók stb. Én sajnos azok közé a tengerentúliak közé tartozom, akiknek ezek a nevek nagyjából semmit sem mondanak, így simán csak saját jogán élvezhettem a novellákat, s mivel azok nagyon jóknak bizonyultak, így bizton kijelenthető, hogy Atwood novellistaként is kiváló, de hát ez valójában nem meglepő. Nekem újdonság ez csupán, hiszen ez az első novelláskötetem tőle. Őszintén sajnálom, hogy magyarul nincsenek Atwood-novellák, feltételezhetően ez többek között annak is köszönhető, hogy az emberek nagy része valamiért nem szereti ezt a műfajt. Nekem a szívem csücske, különlegesen jó érzés viszonylag rövid időn és egyetlen köteten belül elmerülhetni legalább egytucatnyi különböző sorsban.
March 4, 2013
Poignant!
I have been waiting a long time to use this word in a review. I really liked this collection and it comes as no surprise considering I am Atwood’s fangirl and have been for a long time.
I feel everyone will something else to speak to them in these stories. Some people might like the descriptions of the changes in Toronto over decades. Some might find this mood of melancholy particularly moving.
To me it was the summer camps which play an important in two of the stories: True Trash and Death by Landscape. As a child who spent all her summers at various camps by forests and lakes this was something I could somehow relate to. In True Trash all the boys from the camp are fascinated by the waitresses who serve them food, they spy on them when they’re sunbathing and fantasise about the sort of things teenage boys are prone to fantasising about. It reminded me of one camp I went to many years ago. It was a camp ran by army people and our ‘waiters’ were 19 year old boys in uniforms who were doing their military service (obligatory in Poland back then). Essentially the camp was full of 14 year old city girls and 19 year old tanned farm boys with crew cuts and uniforms. I will leave you with that picture.
The most powerful story in the collection is undoubtedly the rather grisly ‘Hairball’, best emphasising the loss of trust which seems to be the theme of the collection. Although I did enjoy the whole book I felt that in some of the other stories Atwood was pulling her punches.
I also liked her observations on class in the UK:
“She had an advantage over the English women, though: she was of no class. She had no class. She was in a class of her own. She could roll around among the English men, all different kinds of them, secure in the knowledge that she was not being measured against the class yardsticks and accent-detectors they carried around in their back pockets, was not subject to the petty snobberies and resentments that lent such richness to their inner lives.”
Sometimes I feel like that too.
I have been waiting a long time to use this word in a review. I really liked this collection and it comes as no surprise considering I am Atwood’s fangirl and have been for a long time.
I feel everyone will something else to speak to them in these stories. Some people might like the descriptions of the changes in Toronto over decades. Some might find this mood of melancholy particularly moving.
To me it was the summer camps which play an important in two of the stories: True Trash and Death by Landscape. As a child who spent all her summers at various camps by forests and lakes this was something I could somehow relate to. In True Trash all the boys from the camp are fascinated by the waitresses who serve them food, they spy on them when they’re sunbathing and fantasise about the sort of things teenage boys are prone to fantasising about. It reminded me of one camp I went to many years ago. It was a camp ran by army people and our ‘waiters’ were 19 year old boys in uniforms who were doing their military service (obligatory in Poland back then). Essentially the camp was full of 14 year old city girls and 19 year old tanned farm boys with crew cuts and uniforms. I will leave you with that picture.
The most powerful story in the collection is undoubtedly the rather grisly ‘Hairball’, best emphasising the loss of trust which seems to be the theme of the collection. Although I did enjoy the whole book I felt that in some of the other stories Atwood was pulling her punches.
I also liked her observations on class in the UK:
“She had an advantage over the English women, though: she was of no class. She had no class. She was in a class of her own. She could roll around among the English men, all different kinds of them, secure in the knowledge that she was not being measured against the class yardsticks and accent-detectors they carried around in their back pockets, was not subject to the petty snobberies and resentments that lent such richness to their inner lives.”
Sometimes I feel like that too.
January 2, 2025
This was my first foray into Atwood's short fiction, and it's obviously a format she excels at just as much as novels. I appreciated the thread that ran through the collection: Most of the stories are set in Canadian wilderness, the ones that aren't take place in Toronto, and several of them contain fictionalized portrayals of Atwood's Canadian literature contemporaries. The themes she explores are both grand and mundane, but always incredibly relatable on a human level: Disillusionment, the passage of time, missed connections, the unpredictability of life. But no matter how ordinary the subject matter, her metaphors are often very extravagant, and each of the stories' endings packed a punch, with some gorgeous, revealing prose skirting close to the line into poetry.
While each story was great on its own, they were a bit of the same, and after about halfway I noticed a sort of... recurring structure that went beyond a simple similarity in theme. Time jumps across several decades were common, the stories often featured middle-aged female protagonists looking back at their younger selves, and she even used very similar metaphors a few times (for instance, two stories feature women reflecting back on a dead relationship, while an unrelated dead body is unearthed in their surroundings). While I don't think this had an impact on my enjoyment of the collection as a whole, I did notice that I rated the first half higher than the second, so perhaps the novelty did wear off. It may also be more correct to refer to these as "vignettes" rather than "stories", because for the most part, there is very little plot going on—the non-endings may leave a lot of people unsatisfied—and the focus lies on the protagonists' memories and introspection.
True Trash · ★★★★
What an excellently crafted story. It's not until the time-jump towards the end that it starts taking shape, and changes from a coming-of-age story set in a summer camp to something more, a real-life True Romance book story and exploration of the Madonna/whore dichotomy with all its nuances.
Hairball · ★★★★★
This story essentially looks at the link between what's seen as "disgusting" about female bodies, and their violation of accepted societal roles. The description of the benign ovarian cyst the protagonist takes home in a jar of formaldehyde to exhibit on her mantelpiece was "gross" enough to drive my partner from the room when I read it aloud, further proving Atwood's point.
Isis in Darkness · ★★★
In this story set over several decades, a middle-aged Professor, who has long since given up writing poetry, finds new inspiration once he begins piecing together the life of eccentric poetess Selena, whom he'd had a crush on as a student. Selena is based on an actual person, Canadian poet Gwendolyn MacEwen.
The Bog Man · ★★★★
On the surface, a melodramatic little tale, noteworthy because it was first published in Playboy, which seems at such odds with Atwood's personal philosophy. It tells the story of a grad student and her affair with her much older, married tutor... someone she's enthralled by at first, but who quickly loses his charm, and is ultimately just a fading ghost in her narrative. A hidden message to the objectified women posing in the magazine's centerfolds?
Death by Landscape · ★★★★½
An old, well-off widow keeps paintings of landscapes in her apartment, although they fill her with unease. She is haunted by nature and wilderness ever since her childhood friend disappeared in the woods while on a canoe trip, and despite not being to blame, she's lived with the grief and guilt all her life. A story about how money can't buy happiness, and how a tragic loss can go on to haunt an entire life when not coped with.
Uncles · ★★★★½
A powerful story about a young female journalist who is given her big break by an older male coworker she considers a mentor and friend. She proceeds to have a stellar career in radio and TV, until he publishes a memoir painting her in horrible light. This was one of my very favorites, and it resonated with me despite never having been in this position, it just rings true. Was it revenge on his part, because an attractive young woman succeeded were he didn't, or did she remember her entire life wrong?
The Age of Lead · ★★★
This stream of consciousness piece alternates between the protagonist's reminiscences of her recently deceased friend, and the excavation of a body preserved in ice from the Franklin Expedition in a TV program she happens to be watching. She reflects on consequences that plunge order into chaos, with pollution and its ultimate consequence, death, being a major theme.
Weight · ★★★
A middle-aged woman pays tribute to her best friend, gruesomely murdered by her husband, by raising money for a shelter for battered women. It's the shortest story included, and the narrative is interjected with alternative meanings for words ("battered: covered in slime, then dipped into hell").
Wilderness Tips · ★★★½
A foreigner immigrated after the war has made his fortune with shady business dealings. This story explores the relationships between him and three sisters and a brother from the family he married into.
Hack Wednesday · ★★½
A story about a middle-aged newspaper columnist and her marriage to an eco-warrior. Overall, a disappointing closer, and my least favorite if I had to pick one, because I didn't truly get it—I feel like you'd need to be acquainted with Canadian 80's politics to fully understand all references and parallels she was drawing.
While each story was great on its own, they were a bit of the same, and after about halfway I noticed a sort of... recurring structure that went beyond a simple similarity in theme. Time jumps across several decades were common, the stories often featured middle-aged female protagonists looking back at their younger selves, and she even used very similar metaphors a few times (for instance, two stories feature women reflecting back on a dead relationship, while an unrelated dead body is unearthed in their surroundings). While I don't think this had an impact on my enjoyment of the collection as a whole, I did notice that I rated the first half higher than the second, so perhaps the novelty did wear off. It may also be more correct to refer to these as "vignettes" rather than "stories", because for the most part, there is very little plot going on—the non-endings may leave a lot of people unsatisfied—and the focus lies on the protagonists' memories and introspection.
True Trash · ★★★★
What an excellently crafted story. It's not until the time-jump towards the end that it starts taking shape, and changes from a coming-of-age story set in a summer camp to something more, a real-life True Romance book story and exploration of the Madonna/whore dichotomy with all its nuances.
Hairball · ★★★★★
This story essentially looks at the link between what's seen as "disgusting" about female bodies, and their violation of accepted societal roles. The description of the benign ovarian cyst the protagonist takes home in a jar of formaldehyde to exhibit on her mantelpiece was "gross" enough to drive my partner from the room when I read it aloud, further proving Atwood's point.
Isis in Darkness · ★★★
In this story set over several decades, a middle-aged Professor, who has long since given up writing poetry, finds new inspiration once he begins piecing together the life of eccentric poetess Selena, whom he'd had a crush on as a student. Selena is based on an actual person, Canadian poet Gwendolyn MacEwen.
The Bog Man · ★★★★
On the surface, a melodramatic little tale, noteworthy because it was first published in Playboy, which seems at such odds with Atwood's personal philosophy. It tells the story of a grad student and her affair with her much older, married tutor... someone she's enthralled by at first, but who quickly loses his charm, and is ultimately just a fading ghost in her narrative. A hidden message to the objectified women posing in the magazine's centerfolds?
Death by Landscape · ★★★★½
An old, well-off widow keeps paintings of landscapes in her apartment, although they fill her with unease. She is haunted by nature and wilderness ever since her childhood friend disappeared in the woods while on a canoe trip, and despite not being to blame, she's lived with the grief and guilt all her life. A story about how money can't buy happiness, and how a tragic loss can go on to haunt an entire life when not coped with.
Uncles · ★★★★½
A powerful story about a young female journalist who is given her big break by an older male coworker she considers a mentor and friend. She proceeds to have a stellar career in radio and TV, until he publishes a memoir painting her in horrible light. This was one of my very favorites, and it resonated with me despite never having been in this position, it just rings true. Was it revenge on his part, because an attractive young woman succeeded were he didn't, or did she remember her entire life wrong?
The Age of Lead · ★★★
This stream of consciousness piece alternates between the protagonist's reminiscences of her recently deceased friend, and the excavation of a body preserved in ice from the Franklin Expedition in a TV program she happens to be watching. She reflects on consequences that plunge order into chaos, with pollution and its ultimate consequence, death, being a major theme.
Weight · ★★★
A middle-aged woman pays tribute to her best friend, gruesomely murdered by her husband, by raising money for a shelter for battered women. It's the shortest story included, and the narrative is interjected with alternative meanings for words ("battered: covered in slime, then dipped into hell").
Wilderness Tips · ★★★½
A foreigner immigrated after the war has made his fortune with shady business dealings. This story explores the relationships between him and three sisters and a brother from the family he married into.
Hack Wednesday · ★★½
A story about a middle-aged newspaper columnist and her marriage to an eco-warrior. Overall, a disappointing closer, and my least favorite if I had to pick one, because I didn't truly get it—I feel like you'd need to be acquainted with Canadian 80's politics to fully understand all references and parallels she was drawing.
December 11, 2023
This is another fine set of short stories from Margaret Atwood, some of which have some connection to the Canadian outdoors, and death figures into most of them. I was particularly struck by the story Death by Landscape, and also by Weight. Atwood is a wonderful interpreter of the relations between men and women, and many of the stories bring her gimlet-eyed view of men to bear. Atwood doesn't dislike men, and she writes male characters extremely well; she is simply realistic about relationships.
April 11, 2019
This was my first book by Margaret Atwood, and I can understand why people love her so much. Her writing is intelligent, sophisticated and deeply moving. All of these short stories are very complex, with a lot of different symbols and interpretations and I think it will take more than one read to fully grasp everything in it.
February 10, 2021
Krājums, kurā es atklāju rakstnieci, kas laikam patiesi ir drīzāk dzejniece nekā romāniste, kā reiz piezīmēja cita Margareta, mana dievinātā Lorensa. Tomēr neko skaistāku, skaudrāku un nesaudzīgāku par "Izīdu tumsā" viņas darbu plašajā klāstā vairs nav izdevies atrast. Varbūt viss vēl priekšā
January 8, 2016
taken me ages to get to this. Review coming, but meanwhile just want to boast. I realised as I opened this book that the story 'The Age of Lead' was in this collection with me!:
here's the table of contents:
sorry, but it's not often you get a contents page that reads Atwood, Barnes, Beard, Boyd... and also includes two of my other favourite authors Munro and Trevor. So, good excuse to display the evidence...
here's the table of contents:
sorry, but it's not often you get a contents page that reads Atwood, Barnes, Beard, Boyd... and also includes two of my other favourite authors Munro and Trevor. So, good excuse to display the evidence...
March 26, 2019
Atwood’s deeply engrossing sense of description of Canada’s photogenic natural and human landscape fleshes into ten short stories- a posy of recollections that come achingly when youth has been lived and left; and now only resides in one’s regret and lost chances. A book to be picked and dusted from the shelf to stir a long lazy afternoon with unfiltered thoughts (read: the author’s characters come across as so self-lived), as you tilt your head at the pages read, in recognition of a nasty/delicious sentiment that might have been lost/hidden in one’s society-doctored mannerisms but now exposed in its real/savage form.
November 18, 2014
Wilderness Tips is a collection of ten short stories by Margaret Atwood and was first published in 1989. I enjoyed reading this somewhat unusual group of stories which are tied together loosely with some common themes.
She writes about summer camps, mental breakdowns, marriage and relationships, death, women’s careers and women’s rights, newspapers and social issues.
Some of the stories have surprise endings, some include graphic medical details, and all of them are reflective about times past.
Here’s a brief description of each story:
“True Trash” takes place at Camp Adanaqui and is a coming-of-age story about a group of boys who spy on the older teenage waitresses at the camp. Ronette is the center of the boys’ attention and Donny defends her honor in his own seemingly powerless adolescent way.
“Hairball” is a strange story of Kat, an angry young woman who faces mental breakdown and exacts revenge on her married lover. Atwood uses the shock of graphic medical details to make a powerful point about mental illness.
In “Isis in Darkness,” Richard is with Mary Jo, a stable librarian, but he obsesses over Selena, a mysterious poet he’s met at a coffee shop. It’s a story about marriage and regrets and of being alone.
In “The Bog Man,” Connor is an archaeology professor, dedicated to uncovering the history of an ancient, perfectly preserved human sacrifice. He’s having an affair with one of his students, Julie, and he brings her to Scotland to “help” with his research. It’s here where Julie learns to assert her own power, much to Connor’s shock.
“Death by Landscape” is a great story about the friendship between two girls at Camp Manitou, and an irreversible tragedy. Lois spends a lifetime trying to cope with her loss and at the end of the story, Atwood reveals the mystery behind a collection of landscape paintings.
In “Uncles,” Mae is a young girl who has no father, but she’s greatly admired by her three uncles. This story starts out flat and bland, but don’t let that trick you. Mae becomes a successful journalist, but she faces jealousy and resentment and the ending is dark and bitter.
“The Age of Lead” is a story about the Franklin Expedition of 1845, a British voyage through the Arctic in search of the Northwest Passage. Jane is fascinated by the modern discovery of a frozen man, John Torrington, who died during the expedition. She compares the frozen man to her close childhood friend, Vincent, whose death has left her empty.
“Weight” describes the deep loyalty between female friends. Molly has been beaten to death by her husband and her best friend does what she can to raise money and awareness for battered women, using whatever means she has left.
“Wilderness Tips” is one of my favorites from this collection. It’s a terrific look at the dynamics between three sisters, their brother Roland and George, a Hungarian refugee, who made fast money in Canada. He’s married one of the sisters, but there’s deception going on.
“Hack Wednesday” takes place in the late 1980s and is a look at the changing times, social issues, and growing older. Marcia is a newspaper columnist, but she’s being squeezed out. Her husband, Eric, fights for all the causes, but his career is slowing down. It’s a story about trudging through middle age.
I liked all these stories, but my favorites were “True Trash,” “Death by Landscape,” “Uncles” and “Wilderness Tips.” While not always upbeat, all of the endings are either surprising, satisfying, or though-provoking, the things I enjoy most from great fiction!
She writes about summer camps, mental breakdowns, marriage and relationships, death, women’s careers and women’s rights, newspapers and social issues.
Some of the stories have surprise endings, some include graphic medical details, and all of them are reflective about times past.
Here’s a brief description of each story:
“True Trash” takes place at Camp Adanaqui and is a coming-of-age story about a group of boys who spy on the older teenage waitresses at the camp. Ronette is the center of the boys’ attention and Donny defends her honor in his own seemingly powerless adolescent way.
“Hairball” is a strange story of Kat, an angry young woman who faces mental breakdown and exacts revenge on her married lover. Atwood uses the shock of graphic medical details to make a powerful point about mental illness.
In “Isis in Darkness,” Richard is with Mary Jo, a stable librarian, but he obsesses over Selena, a mysterious poet he’s met at a coffee shop. It’s a story about marriage and regrets and of being alone.
In “The Bog Man,” Connor is an archaeology professor, dedicated to uncovering the history of an ancient, perfectly preserved human sacrifice. He’s having an affair with one of his students, Julie, and he brings her to Scotland to “help” with his research. It’s here where Julie learns to assert her own power, much to Connor’s shock.
“Death by Landscape” is a great story about the friendship between two girls at Camp Manitou, and an irreversible tragedy. Lois spends a lifetime trying to cope with her loss and at the end of the story, Atwood reveals the mystery behind a collection of landscape paintings.
In “Uncles,” Mae is a young girl who has no father, but she’s greatly admired by her three uncles. This story starts out flat and bland, but don’t let that trick you. Mae becomes a successful journalist, but she faces jealousy and resentment and the ending is dark and bitter.
“The Age of Lead” is a story about the Franklin Expedition of 1845, a British voyage through the Arctic in search of the Northwest Passage. Jane is fascinated by the modern discovery of a frozen man, John Torrington, who died during the expedition. She compares the frozen man to her close childhood friend, Vincent, whose death has left her empty.
“Weight” describes the deep loyalty between female friends. Molly has been beaten to death by her husband and her best friend does what she can to raise money and awareness for battered women, using whatever means she has left.
“Wilderness Tips” is one of my favorites from this collection. It’s a terrific look at the dynamics between three sisters, their brother Roland and George, a Hungarian refugee, who made fast money in Canada. He’s married one of the sisters, but there’s deception going on.
“Hack Wednesday” takes place in the late 1980s and is a look at the changing times, social issues, and growing older. Marcia is a newspaper columnist, but she’s being squeezed out. Her husband, Eric, fights for all the causes, but his career is slowing down. It’s a story about trudging through middle age.
I liked all these stories, but my favorites were “True Trash,” “Death by Landscape,” “Uncles” and “Wilderness Tips.” While not always upbeat, all of the endings are either surprising, satisfying, or though-provoking, the things I enjoy most from great fiction!
January 17, 2009
I really like this collection. Margaret Atwood is very interesting to me, and in some ways a kind of model. I admire how she can make relationships between men and women, which are not, to me, inherently interesting, the right stuff to build a story around. She does this by judicious employment of sometimes extravagant metaphor. Which is pretty much how everybody does it, everybody writing "literary" "short fiction," but somehow I like how she does it. This is probably partly because of her weird mastery of tone -- atmosphere, possibly. Her stories are about the most banal of subjects but according to their atmospheres are always just about to slide over into science fiction or time travel or, most often, and which is interesting given the putative subject matter, horror.
"Death By Landscape" is probably a story I will keep reading over and over my whole life, to try to see how she does it. I will write many tributes to it and get them wrong. In this collection, I also like "Hairball"; "The Bog Man" (_what_ an entertaining and extravagant metaphor that one is! But it appeals to me, as well!); "Isis In Darkness" (largely, not entirely); and the title story, "Wilderness Tips" (although the jumps in viewpoint distract me.) Also successful and extremely cleverly structured is "True Trash," and, though I am kind of on the fence about "The Age of Lead," I think she manages to pull it out there also. (Just because the last paragraph works. This is how Atwood sets up her metaphor-reliant stories; as lots of people do, I guess; ad then that's the magic act, if you can pull it all together at the end.) Mysteriously, "Hack Wednesday" does not work, and I wonder if that's just because something somehow fell short at the end. If it was supposed to be there, but wasn't, then I can't see it; because that's how this magic act works: only the writer _can_ see it -- she needs to string it out, to pull it out so that it's visible to the rest of us.
Anyway. I like how her writing works with hidden things. Half-hidden, behind trees, in islands, in small entirely visible structures. Visible and invisible. That's something I want to work with in my writing. It's a way to interact with mystery, with magic.
"Death By Landscape" is probably a story I will keep reading over and over my whole life, to try to see how she does it. I will write many tributes to it and get them wrong. In this collection, I also like "Hairball"; "The Bog Man" (_what_ an entertaining and extravagant metaphor that one is! But it appeals to me, as well!); "Isis In Darkness" (largely, not entirely); and the title story, "Wilderness Tips" (although the jumps in viewpoint distract me.) Also successful and extremely cleverly structured is "True Trash," and, though I am kind of on the fence about "The Age of Lead," I think she manages to pull it out there also. (Just because the last paragraph works. This is how Atwood sets up her metaphor-reliant stories; as lots of people do, I guess; ad then that's the magic act, if you can pull it all together at the end.) Mysteriously, "Hack Wednesday" does not work, and I wonder if that's just because something somehow fell short at the end. If it was supposed to be there, but wasn't, then I can't see it; because that's how this magic act works: only the writer _can_ see it -- she needs to string it out, to pull it out so that it's visible to the rest of us.
Anyway. I like how her writing works with hidden things. Half-hidden, behind trees, in islands, in small entirely visible structures. Visible and invisible. That's something I want to work with in my writing. It's a way to interact with mystery, with magic.
February 1, 2012
It is hard to comment on such a perfectly executed collection of short stories as those found in Margaret Atwood's Wilderness Tips. The ten short stories in this collection include: True Trash, Hairball, Isis in Darkness, The Bog Man, Death by Landscape, Uncles, The Age of Lead, Weight, Wilderness Tips, and Hack Wednesday.
I can honestly say that I found them all equally brilliant.
The collection of stories covers the unpredictability of life: disappearances, betrayals, affairs, revenge, reflections, consequences, and desires. Her protagonists, mainly woman with 2 male exceptions, are persevering, confronting, and surviving in the particular wilderness they face, whether real or emotional. For some of the characters events in the past are forcing them to confronting the present.
Really, Margaret Atwood presents an excellent example of how to succeed at writing short stories in this collection. She always tells her poignant stories with exact details and descriptions. The stories can be melancholy, eerie, disturbing, contemplative, humorous, or unsettling, while the prose is always descriptive and concise.
Very Highly Recommended; http://shetreadssoftly.blogspot.com/
I can honestly say that I found them all equally brilliant.
The collection of stories covers the unpredictability of life: disappearances, betrayals, affairs, revenge, reflections, consequences, and desires. Her protagonists, mainly woman with 2 male exceptions, are persevering, confronting, and surviving in the particular wilderness they face, whether real or emotional. For some of the characters events in the past are forcing them to confronting the present.
Really, Margaret Atwood presents an excellent example of how to succeed at writing short stories in this collection. She always tells her poignant stories with exact details and descriptions. The stories can be melancholy, eerie, disturbing, contemplative, humorous, or unsettling, while the prose is always descriptive and concise.
Very Highly Recommended; http://shetreadssoftly.blogspot.com/
January 9, 2021
Collections of short stories is really my speed. Remembering plot points from so many pages back is just too hard.
September 24, 2008
I checked this out of the local library and downed it very quickly, more to be done with it that from extreme enjoyment.
While I think Atwood is a terrific stylist, her works leave me cold, and her endings invariably disappoint. I didn't care a whit for anyone or anything in these stories, which I don't think even merit the appellation "story." Rather they should be called depressing vignettes of depressing people.
Although Lois in "Death by Landscape" merited a bit of pity, Atwood did not do anything to make me feel it. Selena in "Isis of the Underworld" (or something similar; I can't be bothered to go downstairs and look up the correct title) was potentially interesting, I could have engaged with her, yet that wasn't the point of the story. Engaging rarely seems to be the point, so I guess I'll have a permanent disconnect with the sad, pathetic, ambitious, ruthless inhabitants of Atwood's fiction.
Atwood may be trying to show a slice of Real Life, but it's not my slice. Thanks, but no thanks.
While I think Atwood is a terrific stylist, her works leave me cold, and her endings invariably disappoint. I didn't care a whit for anyone or anything in these stories, which I don't think even merit the appellation "story." Rather they should be called depressing vignettes of depressing people.
Although Lois in "Death by Landscape" merited a bit of pity, Atwood did not do anything to make me feel it. Selena in "Isis of the Underworld" (or something similar; I can't be bothered to go downstairs and look up the correct title) was potentially interesting, I could have engaged with her, yet that wasn't the point of the story. Engaging rarely seems to be the point, so I guess I'll have a permanent disconnect with the sad, pathetic, ambitious, ruthless inhabitants of Atwood's fiction.
Atwood may be trying to show a slice of Real Life, but it's not my slice. Thanks, but no thanks.
June 9, 2011
This is a marvellous collection of short stories by Margaret Attwood. How does she do it? Each story opens with a cracker of a first line, and ends with me feeling like i have had the stuffing knocked out of me. These are stories to be read one at a time and savoured.
"When Susanna was nearly five, Susanna did a tap dance on a cheese box." What? Who wouldn't want to read on with a first line like that.
Margaret Attwood seems to have the ability to take hold of a feeling and give it words, give that feeling a story.
'Uncles' was one of my favourites, I loved those three solid, dependable, adoring uncles who cocooned Susanna's childhood and lavished her with care and love. And then the contrast with old 'Veg' who pulled out the rug from under her feet, and caused such a shift in Susanna's thinking. It was just a great story.
And so true of life.
"When Susanna was nearly five, Susanna did a tap dance on a cheese box." What? Who wouldn't want to read on with a first line like that.
Margaret Attwood seems to have the ability to take hold of a feeling and give it words, give that feeling a story.
'Uncles' was one of my favourites, I loved those three solid, dependable, adoring uncles who cocooned Susanna's childhood and lavished her with care and love. And then the contrast with old 'Veg' who pulled out the rug from under her feet, and caused such a shift in Susanna's thinking. It was just a great story.
And so true of life.
April 21, 2012
I love Margaret Atwood! There I said it. This collection of short stories is great and really showcases her quirky, dark sense of humour. My favourites were Hairball, Uncles and Weight. A great read.
May 3, 2009
Stories with a sad and often vengeful twist, many concerning strong, clever women overcoming a variety of troubled backgrounds and dodgy relationships - but better than that makes it sound!
September 14, 2018
Īsti neesmu īso stāstu cienītāja - sevišķi tādu, kas vairāk ir dzeja prozā - noķerts mirklis, uzplaiksnījums, kam nav ne sākuma, ne beigu, ne risinājuma. Talants gan ir un paliek talants, tāpēc 3* obligātas.
February 17, 2013
She can do no wrong.
A really enjoyable, sun-bleached, nostalgic collection, this. Most of the stories (‘Hairball’ is a bit of a Roald Dahl-y exception) feel quite wistful and retrospective, looking back on childhood, early relationships, formative moments and near-misses. I often found them sweetly sobering: the things we don’t know, the people we trusted, the way things might have been…
A few really stood out for me: ‘Death by Landscape’ (about the girls’ fated canoe trip) was a gorgeous picture of someone coping with a lifetime of tormenting regret. ‘True Trash’ (the first one) could be a sort of Canadian ‘Stand By Me’, minus the corpse (I’m a sucker for a what-if like that). And ‘Uncles’ – I just adored the description of these kind, overweight men, blinking like bears and the provincial family squabbles. Some great language in there too: I highlighted ‘like watching an ant in a teacup’ and that description of ‘Veg’ as a peeled potato is pretty unforgettable.
It’s a particular pleasure too for the Canadophile. There are plenty of takes on ‘the Canada that was’ (Gothic, provincial, all a bit uptight). It gives good Toronto too (a particular joy for me, having been born there): one of the characters in ‘True Trash’ goes on to hang out with the hippies in Yorkville. (Whoooh! Yorkville!) And someone, somewhere, mentions low-rent housing on Spadina. And if there’s one word that will send this 1970s sometime Torontonian into an Instagram-tinted, nostalgic funk, it’s ‘Spadina’.
A really enjoyable, sun-bleached, nostalgic collection, this. Most of the stories (‘Hairball’ is a bit of a Roald Dahl-y exception) feel quite wistful and retrospective, looking back on childhood, early relationships, formative moments and near-misses. I often found them sweetly sobering: the things we don’t know, the people we trusted, the way things might have been…
A few really stood out for me: ‘Death by Landscape’ (about the girls’ fated canoe trip) was a gorgeous picture of someone coping with a lifetime of tormenting regret. ‘True Trash’ (the first one) could be a sort of Canadian ‘Stand By Me’, minus the corpse (I’m a sucker for a what-if like that). And ‘Uncles’ – I just adored the description of these kind, overweight men, blinking like bears and the provincial family squabbles. Some great language in there too: I highlighted ‘like watching an ant in a teacup’ and that description of ‘Veg’ as a peeled potato is pretty unforgettable.
It’s a particular pleasure too for the Canadophile. There are plenty of takes on ‘the Canada that was’ (Gothic, provincial, all a bit uptight). It gives good Toronto too (a particular joy for me, having been born there): one of the characters in ‘True Trash’ goes on to hang out with the hippies in Yorkville. (Whoooh! Yorkville!) And someone, somewhere, mentions low-rent housing on Spadina. And if there’s one word that will send this 1970s sometime Torontonian into an Instagram-tinted, nostalgic funk, it’s ‘Spadina’.
March 17, 2025
It was in 1960 - the end of the fifties or the beginning of the sixties, depending on how you felt about zero.Just as funny and relevant as when I first picked this up 30 some years ago.
Her mother inspired in almost everyone who encountered her a vicious desire for escape.***
He was such a beautiful man then. There were a lot of beautiful men, but the others seemed blank, unwritten on, compared to him. He’s the only one she’s ever wanted. She can’t have him, though, because nobody can. George has himself, and he won’t let go.Not much I can add to the Atwood scholarship except that all these stories are as layered and pick-apart-able as her novels, and just as enjoyable. Some of it is satire with characters who are impossible to take seriously, but the humour keeps you reading. The Bog Man has stayed in my mind all these years, as well as Death by Landscape, about widowed empty nester Lois moving into a condo, whose childhood decisions and experiences have stayed with her and colour her later years, as they tend to do. I don’t think that would have had the same effect on me 30 years ago.
In an aside, one of the words that struck me both in my first reading and this latest one is oblong. It’s the word we used in kindergarten right up to middle school and then never again.
September 24, 2011
Wilderness Tips by Margaret Atwood is an anthology of ten short stories that are touching but yet extremely unsettling. Each story exemplifies a split second in a person’s life that changes them forever. They grow from immature and naive to mature and harsh in just a few pages and all of the stories ended up being dark with themes of loss, missed chances, blunders, and sad comprehension. While the themes are all dark all ten of the stories had the same truth that rings true in every reader’s life. Time flies by quickly, changes occur, choices are made but in the end it is you that has to live with the consequences.
5 Stars
5 Stars
April 24, 2016
I'm going to have to take a break from Margaret Atwood. I love her novels, but her short stories have left little impression on me. (And let's not even mention my recent run in with The Heart Goes Last...).
There are only two stories in Wilderness Tips that I can remember and that were of some interest to me - Uncles and The Age of Lead.
The latter caught my interest because it makes reference to the Franklin expedition, which is an event I have some interest in.
Other than that, the stories are well written and quite subdued. Each deals with some quiet desperation involving its main characters. There are no punches or fireworks, but a long and slow unfolding of the story or theme.
There are only two stories in Wilderness Tips that I can remember and that were of some interest to me - Uncles and The Age of Lead.
The latter caught my interest because it makes reference to the Franklin expedition, which is an event I have some interest in.
Other than that, the stories are well written and quite subdued. Each deals with some quiet desperation involving its main characters. There are no punches or fireworks, but a long and slow unfolding of the story or theme.
September 16, 2019
This is a round up from 3.5 stars.
A few of these reads were just amazing and had such an impact for such a small story, however, others were just fine.
My personal favourites were The Bog Man, Death by Landscape, and Weight.
A few of these reads were just amazing and had such an impact for such a small story, however, others were just fine.
My personal favourites were The Bog Man, Death by Landscape, and Weight.
August 1, 2023
i love margaret atwood so much, she can write about the most mundane experiences and make it fascinating
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