"The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood

I’ve already described some of the outstanding qualities of Margaret Atwood’s oeuvre: ingenious satire and social insight along with well developed characters and plots.

 In "The Handmaid’s Tale" the United States of America is taken over by fundamentalist Christians. Under the new regime women are not allowed to read, work or think. They are only expected to obey  the rules that powerful men create. Women are forced to reproduce. The dissidents are severely punished.

  As part of this regime there is an underworld in which rich privileged men use women as a source of entertainment. When a woman is raped they say that she deserves it; it is God's plan.  Margaret Atwood wrote this book in the 1980s, yet it appears to be of relevance today.

   

  White women in America earn 75 % of what white men make; African American women make 63 %, even with the same level of education and experience; Latina women only make 54% of what white males earn. These figures show clearly that gender and ethnic discrimination go hand in hand.

 We all deserve the same respect, dignity and consideration. (And, by the way, if you don't like to hear a woman yelling, then don't excuse a man for doing so, even if he is white and American).

 If you want to understand how unconscious and conscious biases determine the way women are judged and treated differently I recommend the well researched book by Iris Bohnet: “What Works: gender equality by design.” In addition to exploring  the complexity and consequences of these biases through concrete examples, she proposes solutions to this important issue.

Stone Mattress

 Margaret Atwood’s writing cast a spell on me again.

 These stories have the satirical wit of Kurt Vonnegut, the enchanting stream of consciousness of James Joyce, the insightful ingenuity and visionary power of George Orwell and Aldous Huxley. Her prose exudes the deep understanding of the human soul that writers like Grazia Deledda and Kate Chopin had, but the tales in "Stone Mattress" are fresh. They are enmeshed in the problems that assail humanity today.

  There is something unique about her style and the details she displays to portray her characters. She makes you believe you’ve met them in person, and there are comments on matters that are ignored by the modern writers of the establishment. 

  The stories in this collection take place in Canada and the United States of America. The same characters are followed over time through a succession of tales. In doing this, she exposes the changes of the society in which they live. Some of the situations made me drown in laughter.

  Whether you like her main characters or not is not important because she kindles our empathy. There are many twists that render the read agile and adventurous.

 I will share Ursula Le Guin’s surreal description of “Stone Mattress”:

“Dances of the dark swamps of Horror on the wings of satirical wit… Look at these tales… as eight icily refreshing arsenic Popsicles followed by a baked Alaska laced with anthrax, all served with impeccable style and aplomb. Enjoy!”

Bluebeard's Egg

If you need a good dose of laughter start by reading the first short story from this brilliant collection by Margaret Atwood: “Significant Moments in the Life of My Mother”. Every single paragraph made me laugh. Atwood has an intelligent sense of humor. There are many funny situations that involve the narrator’s first boyfriend, Buddy, along with anecdotes about her family.

 “I kept my knees pressed together and my arms around his back. Sooner or later Buddy would attempt to move his hands around to the front, but I knew I was supposed to stop him, so I did. Judging from his reaction, which was resigned but good-natured, this was the correct thing to do, though he would always try again the next week.”

   The stories in this collection are all entertaining and thought-provoking. 
   Many of her characters are exotic and a few of them are somewhat conventional, but all of them manage to make the stories engaging and intriguing.

In “The Sunrise” we meet Yvonne, a bohemian eccentric. She is a professional artist who likes to follow men to request them to pose for her.

 “Once Yvonne gets the men into her studio she is very delicate with them, very tactful. With them in mind she has purchased a second-hand armchair with a footstool to match: solid, comforting, wine velvet, not her usual taste. She sits them in it beside the large window, and turns them so that the light catches on their bones. She brings them a cup of tea or coffee, to put them at ease, and tells them how much she appreciates what they are doing. Her gratitude is real: she’s about to eat their souls, not the whole soul of course, but even a small amount is not to be taken lightly.”

    Yvonne, however, eats nobody's soul, but she is so devoted to her art that men are puzzled and sometimes angry at her. Although her rich imagination gets her in trouble sometimes (due to the fact that she is a woman) she remains committed to her vision.

Warning: In “Uglypuss” there is a cruel act against a cat (Uglypuss). By the end of it, however, Atwood made me feel something that lies on the road between compassion and pity for the bully. I have to confess that I did not like the characters of this specific story, except for the cat (Uglypuss). 

 I think the originality of her writing stems from the complexity of her characters, the social commentary interwoven into them and the unexpected turns. Her writing flows like a breeze, but it is also loaded with wit and irony. It becomes addictive.
  I’ve also noticed that she incorporated metaphors and images into the plots and that she used them as the titles of some of the stories: “The Sunrise”; “The Salt Garden”; “Bluebeard’s Egg”; “The Sin Eater”; “Unearthing Suite”.

  She plays with images to express something meaningful about the characters, and I surmise this has something to do with the fact that she has a flair for painting and drawing.  You can check more of her artworks here.

    All in all, Margaret Atwood makes her interesting characters jump off the page and elicits empathy from the reader in most of these stories. I prefer Margaret Atwood's stories over Munro's ones for this reason.

     If I had to choose two words to describe her writing I would say it is fascinating and mesmerizing. It kindles my imagination and makes my mind soar. 

The wonder of beginnings

  In today's fast-paced world our stories compete with a huge variety of entertainments. Hence, our beginnings have an important role in hooking the reader. The words of a first paragraph may determine whether you captivate a certain reader; they may increase your chances of reaching a wider audience or convince an editor to get to the gist of your story. (On the other hand, a first paragraph that is not captivating is not an indicator that the story is not worth reading).
   Powerful beginnings are those that set an emotion or make an interesting statement that kindles our curiosity. They may set a specific situation or a conflict that intrigues the reader. They may throw us into a vivid setting that we want to explore further.
  In my case, writing a compelling first paragraph can become the force that pushes me to write the whole story. It can be the key to unblock the rest of it.
  Let's examine the beginnings of some short stories by well-known writers.

"Thomas withdrew to the side of the window and with his head between the wall and the curtain he looked down on the driveway where the car had stopped. His mother and the little slut were getting out of it. His mother emerged slowly, stolid and awkward, and then the little slut's long slightly bowed legs slid out, the dress pulled above the knees. With a shriek of laughter she ran to meet the dog, who bounded, overjoyed, shaking with pleasure, to welcome her. Rage gathered throughout Thomas's large frame with a silent ominous intensity, like a mob assembling."
Wow. This is a very strong beginning.We see a clear scene and there is conflict. Thomas does not like the woman getting out of the car with his mother. The narrator calls her a "slut" and the tension is intense right from the start because he is very upset, but the slut does not seem to care. What's going on here? We are compelled to read on. This is the first paragraph of the short story  "The Comforts of Home" by Flannery O'Connor.

"My husband gave me a broom one Christmas. This wasn't right. No one can tell me it was meant kindly."

Brief and funny. A woman received a broom as a Christmas gift and, not surprisingly, is offended. We all wonder why her husband did that to her. What was behind his action? Would you keep reading? This is the first paragraph of the short story "An Interest in Life" by Grace Paley


"Miss Adela Strangeworth came daintily along Main Street on her way to the grocery. The sun was shining, the air was fresh and clear after the night's heavy rain, and everything in Miss Strangeworth's little town looked washed and bright. Miss Strangeworth took deep breaths and thought that there was nothing in the world like a fragrant summer day."
 I like this first paragraph because it describes a vivid scene with simple words (sun shining, fresh air, little town, fragrant summer) and it transmits a strong emotion about the character. This is the first paragraph of the short story "The Possibility of Evil" by Shirley Jackson. It won the Edgar Allan Poe Award and was first published in The Saturday Evening Post in 1965.

"There must be some approach to this, a method, a technique, that's the word I want, it kills germs. Some technique then, a way of thinking about it that would be bloodless and therefore painless; devotion recollected in tranquility. I try to conjure up an image of myself at that time, also one of you, but it's like conjuring the dead. How do I know I'm not inventing both of us, and if I'm not inventing then it really is like conjuring the dead, a dangerous game. Why should I disturb those sleepers, sleepwalkers as they make their automaton rounds through the streets where we once lived, fading from year to year, their voices thinning to the sound of a thumb drawn across a wet window: an insect squeak, transparent as glass, no words. You can never tell with the dead whether it is they who wish to return or the living who want them to. The usual explanation is that they have something to tells us. I'm not sure I believe it; in this case, it's more likely that I have something to tell them."
This beginning enthralls me.The narrator wonders something about those who have died. Do they need to tell us something? The narrator is evoking a memory, an image of herself set in the past. I feel intrigued because I  would like to know how  this matter about those who died connects to her recollection. Her voice is strong too and compels me to read on. This is the first paragraph of the short story "Hair Jewellery" by Margaret Atwood.

What do you think about these beginnings? Let me know about your experience when you write the first paragraphs of your stories.