Old Babes in the Wood is Margaret Atwood's first collection of short stories in nine years, and to say they show her range as a writer is an understatement. The stories in this collection cover several genres -- contemporary fiction, sci-fi, dystopia, magical realism, historical fiction, speculative fiction -- but they are all infused with Atwood's trademark wit and wisdom.

Featuring 15 stories (a handful of which were previously published), the collection is anchored at the beginning and end by seven stories featuring Tig and Nell, a married couple, in their old age and all the years that came before. Through Tig and Nell, Atwood poignantly conveys what it is like to be in a partnership that spans decades -- all the moments big and small that make up a shared life -- and what it is like when one of you is, inevitably, gone. My favorite of the Tig and Nell stories was "Wooden Box," following a widowed Nell as she sorts through a house full of memories; it was a devastatingly simple story, and simply devastating.

Other standouts in the collection for me were:

"Freeforall": In a future which has been ravaged by fatal STD outbreaks, "pure" young men and women are set up in arranged marriages that are orchestrated by competing factions called "Houses." I want to know so much more about this world; I want a whole novel about this world. It feels The Handmaid’s Tale-adjacent.

"Impatient Griselda": An alien life form resembling an octopus is in charge of a group of quarantined humans. While a pandemic rages outside the quarantine zone, it distracts the humans by telling them an Earth fairy tale, and its version of an old story is uproariously funny.

"Metempsychosis": The victim of an exterminator, a snail finds its soul transported into the body of a female bank employee. It must adjust not only to its new body and diet, but to the mundanity of life as a human. I found this to be both a blisteringly original commentary on the pitfalls of the 9 to 5 life and an ode to the natural world.

"The Dead Interview": Margaret Atwood interviews George Orwell through a spirit medium. This was by far my favorite story in the collection. Orwell's imagined reactions to today's politics and culture were at turns thought-provoking and humorous.

As with most short story collections, there were some stories here that didn't quite work for me, but most of them affected me in one way or another. Touching on themes of romantic and platonic love, friendship, feminism, aging, grief, and the entire range of the human experience, Old Babes in the Wood is an emotionally resonant, stirring collection of stories in which Atwood seems to reflect on, and rejoice in, her own life. Thank you to Doubleday Books and NetGalley for the advance reading opportunity.

Old Babes in the Wood: Stories by Margaret Atwood is a highly recommended collection of fifteen short stories. Some of these stories are new and some have been previously published. As with most short story collections, some will resonate with different readers more than others.

The stories are arranged into three different sections. Section I, Tig & Nell has three stories: First Aid; Two Scorched Men; Morte de Smudgie. Section II, My Evil Mother contains seven stories: My Evil Mother; The Dead Interview; Impatient Griselda; Bad Teeth; Freeforall; Metempsychosis; Airborne; Death by Clamshell. Section III, Nell & Tig has four stories: A Dusty Lunch; Widows; Wooden Box; Old Babes in the Wood.

As expected the descriptive quality of the writing is excellent. I appreciated all of the stories in the sections featuring Tig and Nell (or Nell and Tig) that follow a married couple across decades and after the death of one of them. The stories in section two were a bit more uneven for me. I didn't care for The Dead Interview, which imagines Atwood interviewing George Orwell, Bad Teeth, or Airborne.

After reading Margaret Atwood's novel and short stories for many years, I feel confident to say that most Atwood fans will enjoy the majority of the stories included in this collection. Additionally, I would certainly recommend that those who are fans along with those new to Atwood give this collection a try due to the wide variety of genres the stories included cover.
Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Random House via NetGalley
The review will be published on Barnes & Noble, Google Books, Edelweiss, and Amazon.

There are times when the vignettes in this book feel like part of a bigger work that was set aside for never quite coming together–a book that would do for aging and loss what Cat's Eye did for childhood, girlhood, and probably more things I missed reading it as an American teenager (pre-teen?) around the time it went to paperback. Those vignettes, put together with other previous published stories, compromise this book. It's hard to see this as a collection, because so much of it revolves around one character's POV, but it's also difficult to see it as Nell's Book,, because inevitably a story will disrupt the vignettes and take the reader elsewhere.

Atwood engages with academic cancel culture, gossipy friend drama, partner loss, the pandemic, and literary what-ifs. I think what's unsurprising is how little her topics change, and what's most surprising is what she's willing to let go or maybe wants her readers to think about letting go. But I'll let other readers decide if they agree with that one. I honestly wonder if it's the headspace I'm in and how long Atwood has been a part of my reading life–thirty years and counting, maybe longer.

I don't think you want me to review this book publicly, but here are my thoughts on it. I find the Tig-based story to be wildly uninteresting, and the rest of the stories in the collection to be disjointed and uneven. I have started this book and put it down more times than I can count. As much as I usually enjoy Margaret Atwood's writing, I can't recommend this.

I am not a big fan of short stories but if Margaret Atwood is writing them, I’m going to read them! I’d already listened to “My Evil Mother” on Audible so it was nice to see it bundled into the collection. I liked how many of the stories followed the adventures of Tig & Nell, a married couple navigating this crazy thing called life. Their continued presence helped make this feel more like a novel with random interludes, as opposed to separate and distinct short stories with no connection from one to the other. If you like short stories, this book is for you. If you like Margaret Atwood’s writing, this book is also for you. Everyone’s a winner!

*Thanks to Double Day books and NetGalley for this advance reader copy.

What is there to say about Margaret Atwood that hasn’t already been said? Her prose is gorgeous and insightful. I especially enjoyed the recurrence of several characters over a few different short stories.

I love Margaret Atwood's writing, but I didn't love this collection. I very much enjoyed the Tig + Nell stories and wish this had been a collection of those. The other stories seemed sort of randomly placed, which made the collection lack a sense of cohesiveness and purposeful organization. I'll always read and recommend Atwood, but many of the stories here were skip-able for me.

Old Babes in the Wood by Margaret Atwood is a series of short stories that I really enjoyed. I have not read a book by Margaret Atwood before, and I wanted to see if would enjoy her writing style, and I really do.

The book is broken down into three parts as follows:

Section I – Tig & Nell
Section II – My Evil Mother
Section III – Nell & Tig

Like most collections of stories, there were some I enjoyed more than others. I enjoyed the third part of the book the best. The stories in section III, which have Nell & Tig as older characters were the most relatable for me. But I also enjoyed the younger Nell and Tig in part I of the book. My Evil Mother was another excellent story.

Old Babes in the Woods demonstrates Margaret Atwoods writing style and her imagination. Her writing is evocative and compelling and I enjoyed every story in this book.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Old Babes in the Wood: Stories by Margaret Atwood is a collection of fifteen short stories that feature a variety of themes and genres. A few of these stories have been published in the past among which are “Impatient Griselda” (featured in The Decameron Project, 2020), the title story “Old Babes in the Woods (published in New Yorker Magazine, April 2021), and the short story “My Evil Mother” (Amazon Original Stories, 2022).

Divided into three segments, Parts I and III (a total of seven stories) feature Nell and Tig, a married couple with the latter segment focusing on an older Nell as she adjusts to being alone after Tig’s demise.
My ratings for the stories in the first section are as follows:
In “First Aid” (3/5), A domestic mishap triggers Nell’s memories of a time when Nell and Tig were training in First Aid. Nell expresses skepticism on whether they would have reacted differently had they possessed this knowledge in the different risky situations they encountered in the past. “Two Scorched Men” (2.5/5) revolves around Nell and Tig’s friendship with John, an Irishman, and Francois, both of whom served in the War and whom they met vacationing in the French countryside while renting John’s home. In “Morte de Smudgie” (3.5/5), Nell grieves the loss of their cat Smudgie uniquely, reimagining Tennyson’s “Morte d’Arthur with Smudgie as the central character.
While I did enjoy Atwood’s prose and the range of emotions depicted in this section, I wasn’t quite as engaged as I was with subsequent sections.

Part II features a collection of stories that vary between dark humor, sci-fi and fantasy and historical fiction. “My Evil Mother” (5/5) is an ode to complicated mother–daughter relationships, with our teenage protagonist struggling to figure out whether her mother is plain “evil”, practices witchcraft or is just troubled as the years go by. “The Dead Interview” (5/5) features the author Margaret Atwood in conversation with the late George Orwell with whom she communicates through a friend acting as a medium. One of my favorites in this collection! Impatient Griselda (4.5/5) introduces us to an alien (closely resembling an octopus) who is in charge of a group of humans in quarantine, while a plague rages outside. The alien decides to engage his charges by telling them the story of “an ancient Earth Story”, “Impatient Griselda”. In “Bad Teeth” (3/5) Two women who have been friends for decades reflect on the ups and downs in their friendship over the years. “Freeforall” (4/5) takes us into a dystopian future where the population has been ravaged by STDs leading to an increase in the practice of arranged marriages between those deemed to be “pure” facilitated by designated “Houses” led by individuals who are in charge of all procedural formalities relating to the same. In Metempsychosis (5/5) an unfortunate encounter with exterminator results in a snail’s soul jumping directly from snail to human, inhabiting the body of a female bank employee. What follows is how this former snail observes and adjusts to its new life. Airborne: A Symposium (3/5) features a group of aging women, former academics with strong feminist leanings, who meet to discuss a project. “Death By Clamshell” (5/5), is the fictional first-person account of ancient mathematician Hypatia of Alexandria as she shares the details of how she was executed in public while also shedding a light on significant events from her life.
I thoroughly enjoyed this segment which was characterized by exceptional imaginative storytelling as we have come to expect from the author. Themes range from pandemics and dystopian futures, magical realism to friendship, feminism and aging.

Among the stories in the third section, I found the stories “Widows”(5/5) and “Wooden Box”(5/5) particularly moving the former written in epistolary format wherein Nell is conflicted with how far she should share her true state of mind on being widowed versus writing a perfunctory response to a letter asking after her wellbeing. “Wooden Box” follows a widowed Nell as she is haunted by memories as she sorts through the house and their belongings. In “A Dusty Lunch”(3/5), we get to know more about Tig’s family, his father in particular when Nell unearths letters and papers Tig had inherited from his late father who served in WWII. “Old Babes in the Wood” (4/5) features Nell and her sister Lizzie as they spend time in their family cabin in the woods surrounded by memories of their youth and the days gone by.
Touching upon themes of marriage, family, aging, loss and grief, the stories in this section are reflective, insightful, melancholic and nostalgic in tone, emotionally powerful and eloquently penned.

Fans of Margaret Atwood would enjoy this collection. For those who have yet to read anything by this author, this would be a great introduction to her range of storytelling. Overall, this is an impressive collection of stories that will appeal to readers with varied tastes and preferences.

Many thanks to Doubleday Books and NetGalley for the much-appreciated digital review copy of this selection of short stories. All opinions expressed in this review are my own. This collection is due to be released on March 07, 2023.

Another winner by Atwood - she never fails to integrate the enjoyable with the frightening, asking readers to contend with the multiplicity of the world. There were some stories here I enjoyed more than others, as is frequently the case with collections, but every one has Atwood's signature wit and gripping prose. Rounding 4.5 to 5 stars.

Old Babes

I requested this ARC for 2 reasons. I love MA handmaids tale and was interested in her present day work. I hardly ever read short story collections and wanted to challenge myself and read out of my comfort zone.

I do not think these were for me unfortunately. I have went back and forth thinking about if the stories weren’t good or just weren’t for me- and I think the conclusion is a little bit of both.

I’ve read every single published review for this one and everyone seemed to love it. Biggest influences were on the lyrical writing and overall theme of love and small moments. I witnessed none of that?

Thank you for the ARC and will post my full review on my Instagram page on publication day.

Https://www.instagram.com/homebodyreads

“Old Babes in the Wood” first appeared in The New Yorker (April 19, 2021) and "My Evil Mother" was released as an Amazon Original Story (April 1, 2022.) This collection features each of those stories and several others, some independent and some linked. Ranging from an alien helping quarantined groups pass the time to wise-cracking old women joking about breast implants, these stories are kooky, smart, and sharp-tongued. Atwood's writing is extensive (fiction, nonfiction, graphic novel, children's novels, anthologies, short stories, etc etc etc) and I've barely made a dent in reading her work. In addition to this short story collection and her Dearly poetry collection, my reading has mainly focused on her novels.

In a Nutshell: A collection of short stories in varied genres by acclaimed Canadian writer Margaret Atwood. Some work, some don't.

I picked up this book not because I am a Margaret Atwood fan but because I am a short story fan. I have heard plenty of wonderful things about the author’s writing (and I do intend to read her full-length works some day). So this felt like a good way of getting a glimpse at her writing style. Did it work? Not exactly.

While the author is the same across the stories, the genres and the themes are quite different. You have sci-fi, dystopian, historical, humour, dramatic, and speculative within the same book. Her writing clicks in a few stories but doesn’t for the others, and this hit-or-miss isn’t genre-specific. So if you, just like me, plan to give this a try to know Atwood’s writing style, that agenda will not be accomplished. If, however, you treat it as a regular ‘multi-genre anthology by a single author’, you will like it far better.

The fifteen stories in this collection – some new, some published in the past – are divided into three sections.

Section I – Tig & Nell – has three stories featuring the titular couple dealing with certain events in their lives. Section III – Nell & Tig – has the same characters but older, and contains four stories about Nell’s life after Tig’s death. The two central characters are the only common point; there’s nothing else to interlink the stories or make them mutually dependent. Section III was quite bittersweet, with some truly moving tales.

Section II – My Evil Mother – contains seven disparate stories, including the titular ‘My Evil Mother’ that had been a hit with many of my friends last year. This was the best section of the book for me, as most of the stories featured interesting characters, unusual plots, and a gripping writing style. Surprisingly, the popular favourite ‘My Evil Mother’ was my least favourite story in this section.

The lengths of the tales is quite inconsistent, with some being too long to be called ‘short stories’ as they were more like novellas. Nevertheless, if you go into the book expecting ‘longish’ short tales, you will not be much bothered by the varying word count.

As always, I rated the stories individually. Like in every anthology, some stories were great, other not so much. Of the fifteen stories, seven stories reached/crossed the four star mark for me, which is not at all a bad hit rate, though I did expect better. These were my top favourites:

From Section I:
Morte de Smudgie – 🌟🌟🌟🌟💫 - Nell’s poetic ode to her dead cat. Loved the writing and ending in this one.

The below are from Section II:
Impatient Griselda - 🌟🌟🌟🌟💫 – Loved the unexpected narrator of the story, and loved their narrative style even more.
Metempsychosis, or, the Journey of the Soul - 🌟🌟🌟🌟💫 – A snail’s soul somehow latches itself to a human body and tries to get used to this new “shell”. Is that imaginative or what! I loved how the title doffed a hat at Kafka’s Metamorphosis, but has the process exactly in reverse.
Death by Clamshell - 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 – Hypatia speaks to us from the afterlife, wow!!! The only 5 star story for me. Brilliant!

Other notable mentions were ‘The Dead Interview’, ‘Widows’, and ‘Wooden Box’, each with 4 stars.

As I have never read any Atwood work prior to this, I am not in a position to compare her prowess in full-length fiction with this short work. But her imagination and range has definitely left me curious to know more.

Recommended to Atwood fans, and to those wanting to dabble in Atwood waters before taking the plunge.

3.6 stars, based on the average of my ratings for each story.

PS: I love how the cover pic works on a dual level, as a partial visage of a cat AND as a bird under a tree. But I don’t think it suits the anthology well.

My thanks to Doubleday Books and NetGalley for the DRC of “Old Babes in the Wood”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book. I havent read any short stories from Atwood before so I was interested to see if I would like this compilation or not. I think individually each one had some good parts to it but as a whole Im not sure if there was a connection.

I will preface this review by saying that I don't believe I am a short story kind of girl. There are some standalones that I have loved, but a collection loses me.

This collection was WEIRD. It was hard for me to jump between perspectives and writing styles, but I believe that this is a testament to Margaret Atwood's talent (no pun intended...#IYKYK).

I am not a big fan of short stories, but when I saw this offering by Margaret Atwood, I couldn’t pass it up, both because of the title and the author. Some of these fifteen stories have previously appeared in periodicals such as The New Yorker. Topics include friend and family relationships, particularly between husband and wife, sisters, and mothers and daughters, as well as the aging process and all that accompanies it.

The stories are entertaining….humorous and heartbreaking. I enjoyed some of the stories more than others, finding those that touched on sci fi and fantasy less appealing than those focusing on the aging Nell. That said, the one story involving a mother who is known to practice witchcraft was quite amusing along with its poignancy and the one in which Atwood uses a medium to interview George Orwell was delightful.

As a woman facing the waning years of life in family, friends, and self, many of Atwood’s stories really resonated with me. There are some in this collection that I definitely will go back and read again. This was a five star read and I think it would be a great selection for book clubs.

Thanks NetGalley for the ARC of this book. This is a collection for short stories that tackle a range of topics such as loss, aging, friendship and love and there are a few stories that are just fun. The book is divided up into three section. The first and third section are about Nell and Tig, their lives together, and Nell dealing with the loss of Tig. These were my least favorite stories. The second section of the book from just fun! All three of my favorite stories were in this section. My Evil Mother about a daughter who thinks her mother is a witch. Dead Interview which is Margaret interviewing George Orwell through a medium. When I first saw this story, I thought that I wouldn't like it but I was wrong. It was an enjoyable read. Impatient Griselda was about an alien octopus entertaining humans during quarantine. This was a delightful story. Overall I enjoyed the book but did like some stories a lot more than others.

Short stories are just not my jam. That being said, there are some real gems in Atwood's latest collection, as well a few stories that really dragged for me. This collection contains seven stories about a married couple, Nell and Tig, spanning the decades, and many of those were very elegant and moving, especially the later ones when Nell is an old woman and Tig has passed away. I also loved "Metempsychosis", about the soul of a snail who ends up suddenly and unexpectedly in a human woman's body. I had previously read "My Evil Mother" when Amazon released it, but that was an enjoyable reread. It's about a woman whose mother always claimed to be a witch, but the heart of it deals with the complexity and depth of mother-daughter relationships. Thank you to NetGalley and Doubleday Books for a digital review copy.

A great new series of stories from Margaret Atwood. She is such a skilled writer. Stories usually aren't my favorite, but I still enjoyed these.

A great collection of stories some funny some heart wrenching.As usual Margaret never fails to draw me in keep me turning the pages always excellent,#netgalley #doubleday.