Review of 'Old Babes in the Wood'
Old Babes in the Wood by Margaret Atwood
A collection of short stories from the amazing Margaret Atwood running the gamut from General Fiction, Non-Fiction (?) to Science Fiction (ok, “Speculative Fiction” or whatever she is comfortable calling it these days). The stories are divided into “Tig & Nell”, “My Evil Mother” and “Nell & Tig”. The two characters that feature in many of the stories are Tig and, of course, Nell, an older couple just working their way through life which are by far the most poignant of the tales here. The first story of the middle section, titled “My Evil Mother” is told from the perspective of an adult revisiting her perspective of her mother when she was a child and finding out the truth of why she was treated the way she was. “Morte De Smudgie” tells the story of a much-loved cat meeting it's maker while the amusing “Impatient Griselda” is about an alien creature attempting to tell a fairy story to a bunch of quarantined humans.
The stories are mostly between 10 and 20 pages long but manage to perfectly evoke the message Atwood is trying to deliver. They are always human and often quite amusing as they talk mostly about normal life events. She is able to tell these stories with few words but a lot of emotion, often reflecting quite contemporary themes.
Though perhaps not her best work, it says much that even this is well worth a read.
Rating: “Really good but I have some issues”
Review Date: 2025-04-13
Genre: General Fiction
Publisher: Penguin Random House
Publication Date: 2023
ISBN: 9781784744854