This collection of stories, Atwood's first since Bluebeard's Egg, is a solid, but not exceptional, work by Canada's most famous writer. Atwood is not as strong on literary craft as, for example, Alice Munro, who has also lately produced a collection of semi-autobiographical stories. Atwood has always been content to get across her ideas, which are central to her writing, and it is her ideas or "message" that tend to take precedence over craft. Even so, these stories are interesting and varied. Although it is risky to assume that the first person narrator can be equated to the author (this is generally not true, though the first person narrator is often quite similar to the author), one can certainly gain some insights into Atwood's experiences growing up with her father and mother and much younger sister from these stories. The first story is the only one that mentions the Roman Empire, and here the transition is a bit forced, although the point is well-taken (that our situation is comparable to life in the late Roman Empire). I was a little bothered by the way the two boys in the title story, "Moral Disorder"--the sons of Tig--are never given names or differentiated, not even once. They are always described as "the boys", as though they existed and acted like a single unit in the eyes of the narrator, Nell, and hence in the eyes of the author as well. But apart from these objections, the collection is an absorbing and worthwhile read.
