Critic Reviews
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Based on 8 reviews on
- Why do people everywhere, in all cultures, tell stories? Including thoughts on the writing of The Handmaid's Tale, The Testaments, Oryx & Crake, and Atwood's other beloved works.
- How much of yourself can you give away without evaporating?
- How can we live on our planet?
- Is it true? And is it fair?
- What do zombies have to do with authoritarianism?
In more than fifty pieces, Atwood aims her prodigious intellect and impish humor at the world, and reports back to us on what she finds. This roller-coaster period brought the end of history, a financial crash, the rise of Trump, and a pandemic. From when to dispense advice to the young (answer: only when asked) to Atwood's views on the climate crisis, we have no better guide to the many and varied mysteries of our universe.
Margaret Atwood is an author and activist.
Fun with #TimFerris! Margaret Atwood — A Living Legend on Creative Process, The Handmaid’s Tale, Being a Mercenary Child, Resisting Labels, the Poet Rug Exchange, Liminal Beings, Burning Questions, Practical Utopias, and More (#573) https://t.co/HDdRoHYTPy
"It’s fascinating to read Atwood’s reflections on her own novels and their continued relevance, sometimes three or four decades after the fact, but equally striking to see how many pieces she has included here generously celebrating other writers."
Vintage is supporting @BooksCampaign, getting free books by authors of colour to those who cannot access them. Donate: https://t.co/MihJ9Xw78N
We're excited to wish happy birthday to the brilliant @MargaretAtwood today 🎉 To celebrate her impact on literature and the environment, we're sharing this extract from her book Burning Questions and the necessity of storytelling. https://t.co/s1ITQ3EQ4W
"Inspiring...Always in demand for her keen perception and bewitching storytelling, Atwood presents witty, parrying, and complexly illuminating tales about her long, ever-vital writing life."
--Booklist
"This collection is marked both by her ongoing concern with the ethical and moral issues her fiction raises and an appealing flexibility in terms of subject matter...Smart and concerned essays and arguments from an author whose global concerns haven't flagged."
--Kirkus
"Canadian poet, novelist and literary critic Margaret Atwood's diverse and intense interests in subjects from feminism to climate change are on full display in her latest book."
--Associated Press
"Atwood's writing voice is both accessible and compelling: she invites you in, and you want to keep reading...Despite the difficult truths told across these many pages, there is humor here and there is hope...This collection clearly shows what many of us already know, Atwood is one of our greatest writers, and although she claims to not be prophetic (ha!), we should all pay attention to what she's saying."
--The Brooklyn Rail
Praise for Margaret Atwood
"Margaret Atwood [is] a living legend."
--The New York Times Book Review
"One of the most admired practitioners of the novel in North America."
--Alan Cheuse, Chicago Tribune
"Brilliant...Atwood is a poet....as well as a contriver of fiction, and scarcely a sentence of her quick, dry yet avid prose fails to do useful work, adding to a picture that becomes enormous."
--The New Yorker
"There may be no novelist better suited to tapping the current era's anxieties than Margaret Atwood."
--Entertainment Weekly