In each of these tales Margaret Atwood deftly illuminates the single instant that shapes a whole life: in a few brief pages we watch as characters ...
read full description
reviews
Aug 15, 2011
Aerin
rated it: 
I have avoided reviewing this book for over a month, because I couldn't think of anything I could say about it that would do it justice. With only one misstep ("Isis in Darkness", the UTTERLY GODAWFUL story about a man's obsessive lifelong crush on a waifish self-destructive beatnik lady poet, blah and barf and no-thank-you-very-much), every story in here is like a wallop to the head. In... that good way. Well, you know. It takes your breath away; it stuns you out of your day-to-da
More...
5 comments
like
(13 people liked it)
May 16, 2010
Manny
rated it:
His wife has left Wilderness Tips lying on the coffee table, and he picks it up. Over the last twenty years, several women have told him to read it. He doesn't like to be pushed into things.
Now, though, his curiosity has got the better of him. The first few pages do make him a little uneasy. The scene where the boys are spying on the waitresses' beach party through their binoculars. He also feels like a voyeur. But that soon disappears. He isn't overhearing her private conversations More...
Now, though, his curiosity has got the better of him. The first few pages do make him a little uneasy. The scene where the boys are spying on the waitresses' beach party through their binoculars. He also feels like a voyeur. But that soon disappears. He isn't overhearing her private conversations More...
33 comments
like
(16 people liked it)
Jan 10, 2009
Madeline
rated it: 
"He is English and Jewish, both at once. To Marcia he seems more English; still, she isn't sure whether his full name is Augustus or Gustav or something else entirely. Possibly he is also gay; it's hard for her to tell with literate Englishmen. Some days they all seem gay to her, other days they all seem not gay. Flirtation is no clue, because Englishmen of this class will flirt with anything. She's noticed this before. They will flirt with dogs if nothing else is handy. What they want is a
More...
Sep 24, 2008
I checked this out of the local library and downed it very quickly, more to be done with it that from extreme enjoyment.
While I think Atwood is a terrific stylist, her works leave me cold, and her endings invariably disappoint. I didn't care a whit for anyone or anything in these stories, which I don't think even merit the appellation "story." Rather they should be called depressing vignettes of depressing people.
Although Lois in "Death by Landscape" More...
While I think Atwood is a terrific stylist, her works leave me cold, and her endings invariably disappoint. I didn't care a whit for anyone or anything in these stories, which I don't think even merit the appellation "story." Rather they should be called depressing vignettes of depressing people.
Although Lois in "Death by Landscape" More...
Jun 11, 2007
karen
rated it: 
I enjoy Atwood (I have previously read The Handmaid's Tale, Bodily Harm, Oryx And Crake, The Blind Assasin...and I think that's it) and had not read any of her short stories before. While I liked most of the short stories, I didn't find them as compelling as her novels. They were interesting to me but a little depressing, as they were mostly about lives that didn't go the way that people thought they would, lost potential, and also how time passes us by. Eek!
2 comments
like
(3 people liked it)
Jan 16, 2009
Sus
rated it:
I really like this collection. Margaret Atwood is very interesting to me, and in some ways a kind of model. I admire how she can make relationships between men and women, which are not, to me, inherently interesting, the right stuff to build a story around. She does this by judicious employment of sometimes extravagant metaphor. Which is pretty much how everybody does it, everybody writing "literary" "short fiction," but somehow I like how she does it. This is probably p
More...
Jan 31, 2012
Lori L
rated it:
It is hard to comment on such a perfectly executed collection of short stories as those found in Margaret Atwood's Wilderness Tips. The ten short stories in this collection include: True Trash, Hairball, Isis in Darkness, The Bog Man, Death by Landscape, Uncles, The Age of Lead, Weight, Wilderness Tips, and Hack Wednesday.
I can honestly say that I found them all equally brilliant.
The collection of stories covers the unpredictability of life: disappearances, betrayals, affairs, rev More...
I can honestly say that I found them all equally brilliant.
The collection of stories covers the unpredictability of life: disappearances, betrayals, affairs, rev More...
Aug 17, 2011
Tania
rated it:
I am not a fan of the short story genre; in fact, the only reason I picked up this book is because I am such an enormous fan of Margaret Atwood's. The mere fact that this collection held my attention well enough for me to complete it is in itself a major feat. In reality, were half stars an option I'd probably give it 3.5.
As usual, Atwood focuses on all aspects of female experience: love, relationships, sex, power. She's a gifted wordsmith who has an uncanny ability to get to the he More...
As usual, Atwood focuses on all aspects of female experience: love, relationships, sex, power. She's a gifted wordsmith who has an uncanny ability to get to the he More...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Apr 07, 2010
Heather
rated it:
I will always remember this book as one of my first Atwood samplings (this review is based on a re-read). My brother read to me the following passage from "Death by Landscape," and, as a former Girl Guide and Boy Scout with our fair share of youth camping experience, we both cracked up, and heralded Atwood as a comedic genius:
"Cheerfulness was required at all times, even at breakfast. Loud shouting and the banging of spoons on the tables were allowed, and even encour More...
"Cheerfulness was required at all times, even at breakfast. Loud shouting and the banging of spoons on the tables were allowed, and even encour More...
Mar 18, 2010
Bitsy
rated it:
In Wilderness Tips, Margaret Atwood writes ten short stories that are at once poignant and deeply disturbing. Each story illustrates one moment in a person’s life that changes them forever. They grow from young and idealistic to old and bitter in the space of a few pages and all of the stories ended up being dark in one way or another. They all carried themes of loss, missed opportunities, mistakes, dead ends and sad realizations.
They all took place in Canada, with some containing na More...
They all took place in Canada, with some containing na More...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Apr 25, 2011
John
rated it:
There are a number of themes that flow through these stories. The outdoors, as the name implies. World War 2. A sense of something remembered, the stories tend to span time often back to childhood. The odd shapes that love takes in life, ones that don’t fit properly into what society wants it to be. These interweave in and out of the stories forming a collective of ideas that are greater. Atwood also comes back to the idea of what it means to be Canadian.
The stories themselves a More...
The stories themselves a More...
Jul 20, 2011
Sunflower
rated it:
I have never liked short stories. They're too...um..short. How can you curl up with a hot drink and a book of these like you can with a novel? Just as you figure out who everyone is and what's going on, suddenly paf! It isn't going on any more, you finished the story, and there was some kind of unexpected twist that you're still getting over. Which means that it's a kind of betrayal to start the next story, so there you are sitting there like some kind of doofus. Without something to read.
More...
More...
Jan 31, 2009
I always compare Margaret Atwood with Alice Munro, because they are both Canadiennes and seem the same age, though I think Munro is older (not gonna confirm this with the Internet); and I prefer Munro to Atwood, because her stories are more technically accomplished and subtle, but perhaps this is unfair: their stories set out to do different things. "Wilderness Tips" was published around 1991 (also not gonna confirm that) and so several of the stories seem dated with their dissection
More...
Jun 09, 2011
zespri
rated it:
This is a marvellous collection of short stories by Margaret Attwood. How does she do it? Each story opens with a cracker of a first line, and ends with me feeling like i have had the stuffing knocked out of me. These are stories to be read one at a time and savoured.
"When Susanna was nearly five, Susanna did a tap dance on a cheese box." What? Who wouldn't want to read on with a first line like that.
Margaret Attwood seems to have the ability to take hold of a More...
"When Susanna was nearly five, Susanna did a tap dance on a cheese box." What? Who wouldn't want to read on with a first line like that.
Margaret Attwood seems to have the ability to take hold of a More...
3 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Jan 03, 2012
I'm not going to rate this because I don't have a solid enough memory of it. I do have a vague sense of unease thinking about it, though. Isn't inciting a vague sense of unease one of Margaret Atwood's specialties? I guess that would merit it a few stars.
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Sep 24, 2011
Kathy
rated it:
Wilderness Tips by Margaret Atwood is an anthology of ten short stories that are touching but yet extremely unsettling. Each story exemplifies a split second in a person’s life that changes them forever. They grow from immature and naive to mature and harsh in just a few pages and all of the stories ended up being dark with themes of loss, missed chances, blunders, and sad comprehension. While the themes are all dark all ten of the stories had the same truth that rings true in every reader’s lif
More...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Sep 01, 2010
Lisa
rated it:
I usually find it incredibly hard to get along with short stories; with not enough meat on them to get my teeth into I usually end up feeling that they're nowhere near developed enough for my tastes or that they end just as I'm getting into them. Happily, that wasn't the case with this, a sufficiently weighty collection of stories all dealing with moments when a life is changed, and all perfectly contained within their pages neither outstaying their welcome or leaving you unfulfilled.
More...
More...
Apr 28, 2010
Kate
rated it:
"He was older now, they both were. He had thinning temples and a widow's peak, and his bright inquisitive eyes had receded even further into his head. What went on between them continued to look like a courtship, but was not one. He was always bringing her things: a new, peculiar food to eat, a new grotesquerie to see, a new piece of gossip, which he would present to her with a sense of occasion, like a flower. She in her turn appreciated him. It was like a yogic exercise, appreicating
More...
Jul 22, 2009
Maggie
rated it:
Atwood has some great lines, and a great way of finishing a story: True Trash was my favorite.
But it's as if it weren't a publication intended to be read in full. Each successive story begins to repeat the same themes: aging and sexual adultery, and a repeated attachment of the word "furtive" to things that are no longer by the end of the story. As though getting older only meant the limiting pain of monogamy or the deftness of a cheating affair. I don't like Atwood's choic More...
But it's as if it weren't a publication intended to be read in full. Each successive story begins to repeat the same themes: aging and sexual adultery, and a repeated attachment of the word "furtive" to things that are no longer by the end of the story. As though getting older only meant the limiting pain of monogamy or the deftness of a cheating affair. I don't like Atwood's choic More...
Dec 30, 2010
Natanya
rated it:
These stories are Atwood through-and-through. Each story, even if it starts out seeming “normal” has a bizarre twist or quirk that pulls you in. The stories all (for the most part) do have similar themes, which made them somewhat predictable after a while, but their progressions were still unique. Many of the stories deal with extra-marital relationships or forbidden relationships, and, I have to admit, I did get a little tired of reading about people pining after others with whom they could nev
More...
Mar 09, 2011
Ana
rated it:
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 ex More...
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 ex More...
Apr 13, 2009
sage
rated it:
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
To view it, click here
Mar 04, 2011
Elsje
rated it:
Ik las ook onlangs Wilderness tips van Margaret Atwood. Nu ben ik absoluut dol op Atwood dus ik begon er met hoge verwachtingen aan. Eerlijk gezegd ben ik een tikkie teleurgesteld. Het is een verhalenbundel met verhalen die, volgens mij dan tenminste, bijna allemaal geschikt zouden zijn geweest om er een hele roman aan te wijden maar nu onuitgewerkt zijn gebleven. Jammer.
Aug 24, 2011
Shannon
rated it:
All of the short stories have a focus on the apathy/depression of 20-somethings who don't know what they want to do with their lives and are losing hope of ever figuring it out. Basically - it's my current situation so I loved the book more than I probably would if I had read it at any different time period in my life. Margaret Atwood always gets it. Love.
Apr 20, 2011
Jessica
rated it:
I love it when short story collections are like great albums, where the distinct songs interact to form a whole experience even greater than the parts. Wilderness Tips is like that. Each story in some way has characters looking back at a time in their youth that changed everything that came after. Though each story has a vaguely similar structure, the characters Atwood creates are so impressively their own people and it never feels like she's just writing different versions of the same story - a
More...
Nov 29, 2011
Krista
rated it:
This collection of short stories blew me away. Atwood is able to create such complex characters and compelling stories in so little space. Each story is intricately crafted and nuanced. I had a hard time pulling myself away mid-story and flipped back and reread portions--knowing there's still more in these stories to find and savor.
Mar 09, 2009
Renee
rated it:
I had never read a collection of stories before so this was a new form for me. I enjoyed it very much. I liked how each story while very different, had some thematic connection. I thought it was weird that I read the story of the women with the cyst(?)in the jar while my mother was in the hospital for the same operation.
Dec 26, 2008
Louise
rated it:
I love the way Atwood uses weird things like a hairball and a bogman as central images in these stories. I love that one of the stories is called "True Trash". It's really down to earth in an out there kind of way, not pretentious, I mean. Kind of urban myth/odd physicality meets literature.
Jun 21, 2011
Sandra
rated it:
The first book I read of Margaret Atwood's when I was teenager. Picked it up at random in a local independent bookstore and loved every minute of it. Bought The Handmaid's Tale and The Edible Woman straight after this book as I had to read more of her books and I've been a fan ever since!
