Synopses & Reviews
Review
"1982 was Margaret Atwood's year: a much acclaimed novel, volumes of poetry and criticism, and this collection of stories, Dancing Girl. A couple inevitably quarrels on a visit to the grave of a famous poet. A woman surviving a plane crash at sea waits in strange company for her rescue. Another woman mourns her lover, dead of a fall from a great tree. Metaphor runs strongly in Atwood's stories. Interesting, contemporary, varied, all describe them, but not, as one would like to say, rich. Rich more aptly describes her longer fiction. For the short go, Atwood does not develop the sustained weft of subplots and feelings that make her a master of the novel. The stories are slight, not threadbare, but neither fully patterned nor textured, a string quartet with a player or two mysteriously muted. The short story is restricted enough; Atwood is all subtlety, no sprint or muscle. Look instead to her novels. Her novels are symphonies." Reviewed by Daniel Weiss, Virginia Quarterly Review (Copyright 2006 Virginia Quarterly Review)
Table of Contents
The war in the bathroom.--The man from Mars.--Polarities.--Under glass.--The grave of the famous poet.--Rape fantasies.--Hair jewellery.--When it happens.--A travel piece.--The replendant Quetzal.--Training.--Lives of the poets.--Dancing girls.--Giving birth.