Wilderness Tips

by Margaret Atwood

Book Overview

The bestselling author of The Handmaid's Tale and The Testaments uses her powerful gifts of language and observation to delineate both the misunderstandings between men and women and the everyday sadnesses and comforts of love" (The New York Times).

In each of these stories Atwood deftly illuminates the shape of a whole life: in a few brief pages we watch as characters progress from the vulnerabilities of adolescence...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0385491115
• ISBN13: 9780385491112
• Release Date: March 1998
• Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
• Length: 242 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.2" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Wonderful Atwood

Wilderness Tips / 0-553-56046-8 This collection of short stories by Atwood includes the following: - True Trash - Hairball - Isis in Darkness - The Bog Man - Death by Landscape - Uncles - The Age of Lead - Weight - Wilderness Tips - Hack Wednesday These are some of Atwood's best short stories. Most all of them delve into the dynamic of timidity, even when deeply hidden beneath the surface. Her characters range the gamut from cutting fashion queen to impoverished teenagers to cosmopolitan journalist, with external attitudes and personalities to match, yet each character struggles internally with feelings of doubt, timidity, and fears of worthlessness. This common thread skillfully unites these otherwise unrelated stories into a single theme that Atwood pounds at, over and over: How do you convince yourself that you have worth when those most important to you treat you otherwise? ~ Ana Mardoll

Wonderful Atwood

Wilderness Tips / 0-553-56046-8 This collection of short stories by Atwood includes the following: - True Trash - Hairball - Isis in Darkness - The Bog Man - Death by Landscape - Uncles - The Age of Lead - Weight - Wilderness Tips - Hack Wednesday These are some of Atwood's best short stories. Most all of them delve into the dynamic of timidity, even when deeply hidden beneath the surface. Her characters range the gamut from cutting fashion queen to impoverished teenagers to cosmopolitan journalist, with external attitudes and personalities to match, yet each character struggles internally with feelings of doubt, timidity, and fears of worthlessness. This common thread skillfully unites these otherwise unrelated stories into a single theme that Atwood pounds at, over and over: How do you convince yourself that you have worth when those most important to you treat you otherwise?

Wilderness Gems

I have read many of Atwood's novels and one compilation of her short stories, "Dancing Girls," and I am convinced that she is one of the most accomplished authors writing today. I understand the comments of those reviewers who believe that Atwood's strength is the novel, and not the short story, since she excels in the psychological interplay of characters, which usually requires more time to develop than a short story will allow. However, the stories in "Wilderness Tips" are all fully realized and memorable, and when one compares them to the stories in "Dancing Girls," one immediately realizes how far she has come. Her writing here is darkly comic, witty, profound, and remarkable. She captures in each story that fleeting moment in time when someone's life has changed unalterably.

Atwood at her best

I am a big fan of Margaret Atwood. I have enjoyed most all of her novels but, after reading "Dancing Girls", I was under the opinion that short stories were not her thing. However, I believe the collection of stories in "Wilderness Tips" is one of her best works. The stories are superb beginning with "True Trash" which takes us to a summer camp and introduces us to a young woman's secret and a younger man's sad lack of awareness of the life he's created. It ends, or rather, evaporates leaving us with unrealized expectations. "Hairball" is a marvelous story about revenge for a scorned affair. "The Bog Man" is essentially the same subject matter. "Uncles" is a beautiful story about the father figures in a girl's life. Although she doesn't know her real father, she knows her uncles. Their characters are somewhat undeveloped because it is their strength, not their personality that we need to understand. We follow the life of the girl whose security is lost after the uncles are gone. For me, the most compelling story is "Death by Landscape". The story takes place at a summer camp and involves the lives of two girls who become attached after spending successive summers together. The ending is bizarre and Atwood takes us beyond that and leaves us with eerie goosebumps. The other stories are compelling and the reader finishes ready for more. Margaret Atwood is a very gifted writer and may some day be awarded the Nobel Prize. Her insights to femininity (as opposed to feminism) are a prime element of her genius. If you haven't read Atwood, this would be an excellent introduction. If you have read Atwood, then you'll be reading this anyway (if you haven't already).

Changed my life (really)

"Hairball" changed my life. Afer recognizing myself as the protagonist and wishing that I had a hairball to send, I was able to get away from a destructive relationship. I re-read this book every summer. I give it as a gift to people who need to get away from "Bog Men." Atwood's perceptive metaphors are more true-to-life than the visible world.