Review: Wilderness Tips

Wilderness Tips
by Margaret Atwood

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Wilderness Tips / 0-553-56046-8

This collection of short stories by Atwood includes the following:

- True Trash
- Hairball
- Isis in Darkness
- The Bog Man
- Death by Landscape
- Uncles
- The Age of Lead
- Weight
- Wilderness Tips
- Hack Wednesday

These are some of Atwood's best short stories. Most all of them delve into the dynamic of timidity, even when deeply hidden beneath the surface. Her characters range the gamut from cutting fashion queen to impoverished teenagers to cosmopolitan journalist, with external attitudes and personalities to match, yet each character struggles internally with feelings of doubt, timidity, and fears of worthlessness. This common thread skillfully unites these otherwise unrelated stories into a single theme that Atwood pounds at, over and over: How do you convince yourself that you have worth when those most important to you treat you otherwise?

~ Ana Mardoll

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