Fictional book review: Wilderness Tips (1991) by Margaret Atwood.

Hello everyone, I know it feels like a while since I posted but I am here now to provide my insightful thoughts into another Atwood piece. This time I am delving into the worlds of her 1991 short story collection, Wilderness Tips. I found this collection a rather enjoyable read. Originally, I had studied this collection at university so it was only natural that I went back over it to give my thoughts here. I find Atwood does this thing where her characters are so unique in themselves. Her characters have this vitality and are full of depth. One character who springs to mind is Kat from the short story ‘Hairball’. She has this tough, outspokenness to her but at the same time she is a rather quirky character too. Even with her name, which as she says ‘‘It's Kat as in KitKat.’’¹ This little thing of her name choice highlights her of difference, to stand out.

Then contrast this to the character of Prue from the short story ‘Wilderness Tips’ - ‘She gives him an innocent smile, a mischievous smile, a smile with a twist of real evil in it.’² This informs us of how cheeky Prue's character is. The way she is around men is different to Kat for instance. I find that within each short story the characters do vary from one another. This is why I enjoyed this short story collection a lot. With ten stories in total, each one has it's own uniqueness yet still fits within the collection as a whole. The stories all offered something different which of course was a good thing because if all the stories were too similar that would bore. Surely that would bore you.

Anyway as a collection on the whole, while I have enjoyed other pieces of fiction and literature more, this collection was still thoroughly enjoyable so I am giving Wilderness Tips a score of 8/10.


Until next time,


Thomas.




Footnotes:

¹ Margaret Atwood, ‘Hairball’ in Wilderness Tips (London: Virago, 2010), 47.

² Margaret Atwood, ‘Wilderness Tips’ in Wilderness Tips (London: Virago, 2010), 222.


Bibliography:

Atwood, Margaret. Wilderness Tips. London: Virago, 2010.

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