The Tent [Deckle Edge] [Hardcover]

Margaret Atwood (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 10, 2006

One of the world’s most celebrated authors, Margaret Atwood has penned a collection of smart and entertaining fictional essays, in the genre of her popular books Good Bones and Murder in the Dark, punctuated with wonderful illustrations by the author. Chilling and witty, prescient and personal, delectable and tart, these highly imaginative, vintage Atwoodian mini-fictions speak on a broad range of subjects, reflecting the times we live in with deadly accuracy and knife-edge precision.

In pieces ranging in length from a mere paragraph to several pages, Atwood gives a sly pep talk to the ambitious young; writes about the disconcerting experience of looking at old photos of ourselves; gives us Horatio's real views on Hamlet; and examines the boons and banes of orphanhood. “Bring Back Mom: An Invocation” explores what life was really like for the “perfect” homemakers of days gone by, and in “The Animals Reject Their Names,” she runs history backward, with surprising results.

Chilling and witty, prescient and personal, delectable and tart, The Tent is vintage Atwood. Enhanced by the author’s delightful drawings, it is perfect for Valentine’s Day, and any other occasion that demands a special, out-of-the-ordinary gift.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Biting anger, humor and interest in the fantastic have marked inimitable Atwood works like The Handmaid's Tale, The Blind Assassin and Oryx and Crake. In this odd set of terse, mostly prose ripostes, Atwood takes stock of life and career—"this graphomania in a flimsy cave"—and finds both come up short. Staged from behind screens of updated fables and myths ("Salome Was a Dancer" begins "Salome went after the Religious Studies teacher"), the pieces rage icily against the constraints of gender, age (witheringly: "I have decided to encourage the young"), fame and even "Voice": "What people saw was me. What I saw was my voice, ballooning out in front of me like the translucent green membrane of a frog in full trill." Along with a few poems and childlike line drawings, what keeps this collection of 30-odd fictions from being a set of rants is the offhanded intimacy and acerbic self-knowledge with which Atwood delivers them: "The person you have in mind is lost. That's the picture I'm getting." Threaded throughout are dead-on asides on the tyrannies of time and the limits of truth telling in society, so that when Hoggy Groggy hires Foxy Loxy to silence Chicken Little forever, there is no doubt with whom the author's sympathies lie. (Jan. 10)
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From School Library Journal

Adult/High School–A quirky collection of short tales and a few poems that can be read in any order. Although not all of these selections will appeal to teens, some will, especially Plots for Exotics, in which the narrator, who has always aspired to be a main character, has to apply for a job at the plot factory, where he learns he is not main-character material. Others, such as Our Cat Enters Heaven, will also engage teen readers. The pieces are brief and varied in style. The ironic and often sarcastic tone is one that many teens will appreciate. Simple line drawings appear throughout. As a whole, the book should appeal to anyone who appreciates a wry and somewhat biting look at society.–Judy Braham, George Mason Regional Library, Annandale, VA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 176 pages
• Publisher: Nan A. Talese (January 10, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385516681
• ISBN-13: 978-0385516686
• Product Dimensions: 5.1 x 0.7 x 7.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #173,103 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

MARGARET ATWOOD, whose work has been published in over thirty-five countries, is the author of more than forty books of fiction, poetry, and critical essays. In addition to The Handmaid's Tale, her novels include Cat's Eye, shortlisted for the Booker Prize; Alias Grace, which won the Giller Prize in Canada and the Premio Mondello in Italy; The Blind Assassin, winner of the 2000 Booker Prize; and her most recent, Oryx and Crake, shortlisted for the 2003 Booker Prize. She lives in Toronto with writer Graeme Gibson.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

45 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Snippets, March 13, 2006

By 

Steven R. McEvoy "MCWPP" (Canada) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Tent (Hardcover)

Incredible! This fascinating collection of stories, poems, and shorts is as intriguing as the many different voices Atwood uses to portray the pieces. The Works in this collection span many years of writing and many of the pieces have previously been published elsewhere in such works as: The Walrus, Harper's Magazine, New Beginnings, and a few small independent printings of smaller collections.

What draws the reader in, in this compilation, is that every tale is a story about a life, or lives. They are told in first, second or third person accounts, and some are stories of a person telling their own story to save it from the ravages of the press, or from being lost in time.

There is a powerful collection of pieces on orphans that highlights the collection. Atwood uses wit, witticism, irony and dark humour to open our eyes to the lives of others.

A reader will be drawn in by the power of lives, some calm and serine, and some outrageous, and others downright wicked and evil. But all will grab your attention. Read with great attention and take time after each story to reflect upon the message of that piece before moving on. The temptation will be to race through the book, and if you do so, you will be drawn back to reread it more slowly and savor the offerings.

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "If you want what's in the package you should know how to get the string off.", January 20, 2006

By 

Luan Gaines "luansos" (Dana Point, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Tent (Hardcover)

When the profound and prolific Margaret Atwood speaks, I listen. Beyond the fact that her superlative fiction has entertained me for years, Atwood writes with an incisive wit and sophistication that is bred of experience. Generational, perhaps, but such sage wisdom and pithy comments on the state of the world and personal imagination are welcome in any context. In a series of deceptively short pieces, Atwood discourses on diverse topics, herself a central figure, with intimate knowledge of this territory: "Encouraging the Young"; "Orphan Stories"; "It's Not Easy Being Half-Divine"; "Chicken Little Goes Too Far", all invitations to an exploration of self and the modern world, the conventions that define our civilization and the fables we embrace.

Past, future, fable, myth- all are pliable in this author's hands, replete with rampant imagery, nothing wasted, each with a twist of insight to pique our complacent intellects, an undercurrent of hope that all is not lost. The title piece, "The Tent", is an allegory of us and them, one man's damnation another man's salvation: "you can't be exact about the truth and you don't want to go out there, out into the wilderness to see for yourself". Chicken Little wears more modern garb as he goes about trumpeting his anxiety that the sky is falling. Indeed it is, but who has time to address his concerns, everyone caught in the busy work of special interests. Besides, "whining is so unattractive". To be taken seriously, he is forced to start his own web site, TSIF- The Sky Is Falling. The world goes backwards in "The Animals Reject Their Names", de-evolving, species to cell, vague memories of God dissolving by the moment: "because God has bitten his own tongue/ and the first bright word of creation/ hovers in the formless void/ unspoken."

From the quirky retelling of fable to trenchant observations of a conflicted culture, each entry prods and stimulates: a paean to the mothers we have loved and reviled ("Bring Back Mom: An Invocation"), the idealized mother seen as icon with feet of clay, once expendable, but now a necessary component of out lives: "trying with all her might/ not to sink below the line/ between chin up and despair"; she is, incredibly, indispensable, so that "the holes in the world will be mended". In "Orphan Stories", Atwood displays the subtle wit that infuses her work: "Orphans have bad experiences...because they're so tempting... because they're so damaged... because they're so easily broken... because no one will believe what they say". Not to worry, no insult implied: "It is you, not we, that have always been the children of the gods." A wonderful collection, a worthy gift for self or cherished others. Luan Gaines/ 2006.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Discussion Group book? I think so., July 7, 2006

By 

busybooklover "Mary" (Southern CALIF, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Tent (Hardcover)

The stories are mostly very short and filled with edgy on the mark ideas. Quick to read and compelling. It's hard to group/encapsulate the variety of stories... so many ideas written darkly, crisply, playfully, clearly...with such a controlled intent-- tempered with the wisdom of life experience. Margaret Atwood just playes with words and ideas so brilliantly. I don't know if everyone will LIKE each and every story but they will come away thinking about them-- so a good discussion is likely.