Alongside meditations on warlords, cat heaven, and orphans, the bestselling author of The Handmaid's Tale and The Testaments offers a sly pep talk to the ambitious young, laments the proliferation of photos of oneself, imagines an apocalypse of worms, and recalls Helen of Troy’s childhood Kool-Aid stand.
In the title fable, a writer huddled inside a tent of paper engages in doodling as self-defense, scribbling on the walls in a frantic attempt to keep out encroaching horrors.
Adorned with her own playful illustrations, The Tent is a delightful mélange of short fiction that pushes the boundaries of form in intriguing directions, replete with Atwood’s droll humor, keen insight, and lyric brilliance.
“Delectably astringent. . . . These succinct, acridly funny pieces. . . deliver a heady punch.” —Los Angeles Times
“She has a cool wit, sometimes brutally satirical, always entertaining, and serious to the bone.” —Katherine Dunn, The Oregonian
"Atwood’s sentences have more bounce and boogie than those of most twentysomethings.... And although these stories take many forms, from extended metaphor to anecdote, from poem to gag, they are all very much to do with the life and opinions of Margaret Atwood.” —The Times (London)
“The Tent exposes the nuts and bolts of the tortuous creative process....The book powerfully exhibits the human consciousness in conversation with itself, struggling to establish a voice amid the cacophony.” —The Observer
Alongside meditations on warlords, cat heaven, and orphans, the bestselling author of The Handmaid's Tale and The Testaments offers a sly pep talk to the ambitious young, laments the proliferation of photos of oneself, imagines an apocalypse of worms, and recalls Helen of Troy’s childhood Kool-Aid stand.
In the title fable, a writer huddled inside a tent of paper engages in doodling as self-defense, scribbling on the walls in a frantic attempt to keep out encroaching horrors.
Adorned with her own playful illustrations, The Tent is a delightful mélange of short fiction that pushes the boundaries of form in intriguing directions, replete with Atwood’s droll humor, keen insight, and lyric brilliance.
“Delectably astringent. . . . These succinct, acridly funny pieces. . . deliver a heady punch.” —Los Angeles Times
“She has a cool wit, sometimes brutally satirical, always entertaining, and serious to the bone.” —Katherine Dunn, The Oregonian
"Atwood’s sentences have more bounce and boogie than those of most twentysomethings.... And although these stories take many forms, from extended metaphor to anecdote, from poem to gag, they are all very much to do with the life and opinions of Margaret Atwood.” —The Times (London)
“The Tent exposes the nuts and bolts of the tortuous creative process....The book powerfully exhibits the human consciousness in conversation with itself, struggling to establish a voice amid the cacophony.” —The Observer
