By turns humorous and warm, stark and frightening, Bluebeard's Egg infuses a Canada of the 1940s, '50s and '80s with glowing childhood memories, the harsh realities of parents growing old, and the casual cruelty that men and women inflict on each other. Here is the familiar outer world of family summers at remote lakes, winters of political activism, and seasons of exotic friends, mudane lives and unexpected loves. But here too is the inner world of hidden places and all that emerges from them—the intimately personal, the fantastic and the shockingly real...whether it's what lies in a mysterious locked room or in the secret feelings we all conceal.
Bluebeard's Egg
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Book Description
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From Publishers Weekly
"Conversations in our family were not about feelings," recalls the teenage narrator of "Hurricane Hazel"about her breakup with a boyfriend who "meant what is usually called absolutely nothing to me"in Atwood's (The Handmaid's Tale, etc.) second collection of shortfiction. Unfortunately, the author's arch cleverness and cool understatementanesthetize the impact of the stories' conversations and gloomy relationshipsbetween parents and children, husbands and wives, friends and lovers. Symbols abound and some, reminiscent of Atwood's "edible woman" cake in the book of the same title, are strained. In "Uglypuss," the discordant lovers are political activists; at one point they plan to picket a sock company and dramatize the crucifixion, portraying Christ as a large knitted sock, in red and white stripes. But the collection is somewhat redeemed by the affecting title story, where an egga deceptively innocuous object that, according to the legend, ultimately marks as disobedient two of Bluebeard's unfortunate wivesaptly symbolizes the protagonist's premonitions of doom about her marriage to a man she is desperately afraid of losing, although she describes him as obtuse, blundering and predictable.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
In this delightful collection of short stories, Atwood (The Blind Assassin) explores relationships between men and women, parents and children, and people and pets. She also touches on anorexia and adult children of elderly parents. In typical Atwood fashion, the characters and locations are described in detail. Bonnie Hurren transports the listener into the author's world with her excellent pronunciation and slow, well-paced intonation. Each cassette stops at a convenient point in the story rather than whenever the tape ends. While this requires the listener to fast-forward each tape before changing sides, it makes it easier to follow the story line. Recommended for popular fiction collections and any library serving Atwood fans. Laurie Selwyn, San Antonio P.L.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
By David Sabine
Format:Paperback
I say "loved" because I haven't read her work since my mid-20s. On the back of my edition, the London Free Press is quoted saying, "Atwood appears to challenge both her readers and the outisde limits of her own talent... Writing at top form, writing with total control of her material, with sureness, with touches of brilliance... BlueBeard's Egg is a book to be read and re-read, to be talked about and savored." That about sums it up!
Format:Audio Cassette
In the car I always have an audiobook to listen to, and the last weeks I really have enjoyed Margareth Atwood's Bluebeard's Egg and other stories.
This is a collection of short stories written by a master of words, and a master of short stories. When Atwood writes she uses no extra words or sentences, she takes us right to the point, and the point in this collection is human beings. Common human beings fighting for their lives. No heros, just plain people like you and me. Every time a new story starts I think, this one cannot be better than the last, but it happend again and again, the story captivates me, and it is all mornings hard to stop the car and go to work - I want to hear just one more sentence, and then one more.
My favorite story though is the one that has given name to the collection, Bluebeard's Egg. A well known fairy tale, told and given it's own meaning by Atwood, or may be she just shows us the original meaning of the story. Sally, the main carachter of the story struggles with the puzzle of her life, to keep all the pieces together. The center of her life is her husband Ed, but how can she be sure that she is also the center in Ed's life? No one can write about this, invite us into and let us be in the feeling of the story like Atwood do.
Britt Arnhild Lindland
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
No one will mistake Margaret Atwood for Alice Munro when it comes to short stories. Most of these stories are trifles. Atwood's tendency to be elliptical really gets in the way of any development. Her narrators seem to just be skimming the surface of life with little or no consequence of that. Only the stories "Bluebeard's Egg" and "Scarlet Ibis" really rise above the level of craft, particularly the former. I love the preciseness with which Atwood details feminine rivalry over men! Overall, a hodge-podge of "short fiction pieces," not short stories.
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4.5 out of 5 stars
Most recent customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
facets of our world
This was the first book by Margaret Atwood I read after reading the short story "Happy Ending" in an anthology.
A great writer is easily recognisable. Read more
Published on Sep 17 1999
5.0 out of 5 stars
Tactile and tangible with biting wit
In Bluebeard's Egg, Margaret Atwood weaves her poetic prose though twelve short stories that are as haunting as they are hilarious. Read more
Published on April 6 1998
5.0 out of 5 stars
Shrewd, sophisticated, subtle, and funny
Margaret Atwood, one of the finest authors of today, shows us her full strengths in this collection of short stories. Read more
Published on Mar 27 1998
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