Margaret Atwood | Criticism

This literature criticism consists of approximately 3 pages of analysis & critique of Margaret Atwood.
This section contains 809 words
(approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page)
Buy the Critical Review by Peter Kemp

SOURCE: "The Atwood Variations," in The Times Literary Supplement, No. 4675, November 6, 1992, p. 20.

In the following review, Kemp praises Good Bones as a "sample-case of Atwood's sensuous and sardonic talents."

Pocket-sized and with sturdy covers, Good Bones looks a bit like a sketchbook in which an artist might jot caricatures, cartoons, preliminary studies, trial pieces and quick little exercises in catching the essence of a subject or delineating it from unusual angles. The miscellany with which Margaret Atwood fills its pages is, in fact, a writer's equivalent of this: a collection of lively verbal doodlings, smartly dashed off vignettes and images that are inventively enlarged, titled, turned upside down. Playing with the conventions of her narrative craft is a frequent pastime. Fiction's motives and motifs are outlined with witty flourish.

"Bad News", the opening piece, is a fantasia about the appeal of disaster tales. It's followed by a monologue...

(read more)

This section contains 809 words
(approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page)
Buy the Critical Review by Peter Kemp
Copyrights
Gale
Critical Review by Peter Kemp from Gale. ©2005-2006 Thomson Gale, a part of the Thomson Corporation. All rights reserved.