Description:

first edition cover of ISBN 0385471106 In this collection of short works that defy easy categorization, Margaret Atwood displays, in condensed and crystallized form, the trademark wit and viruosity of her best-selling novels, brilliant stories, and insightful poetry. Among the jewels gathered here are Gertrude offering Hamlet a piece of her mind, the real truth about the Little Red Hen, a reincarnated bat explaining how Bram Stoker got "Dracula" all wrong, and the five methods of making a man (such as the "Traditional Method": "Take some dust off the ground. Form. Breathe into the nostrils the breath of life. Simple, but effective!"). There are parables, monologues, prose poems, condensed science fiction, reconfigured fairy tales, and other miniature masterpieces - punctuated with charming illustrations by the author. Contents: - Murder in the Dark - Bad News - Unpopular Gals - The Little Red Hen Tells All - Gertrude Talks Back - There Was Once - Women's Novels - The Boys' Own Annual, 1911 - Stump Hunting - Making a Man - Men at Sea - Simmering - Happy Endings - Let Us Now Praise Stupid Women - The Victory Burlesk - She - The Female Body - Cold-Blooded - Liking Men - In Love with Raymond Chandler - Simple Murders - Iconography - Alien Territory - My Life as a Bat - Hardball - Bread - Poppies: Three Variations - Homelanding - The Page - An Angel - Third Handed - Death Scenes - We Want It All - Dance of the Lepers - Good Bones