This handsome volume combines two of Margaret Atwood's most playful books--Good Bones and Murder in the Dark--resulting in an athletically clever series of tiny fictions, prose poems, and essays that, in small, witty steps, deconstruct everything from sexual politics to the very act of writing itself. Ranging from a tongue-in-cheek appreciation of "Women's Novels" and an embittered, self-sacrificing confessional by Chicken Little to a powerful series of variations on John McCrae's "In Flanders Fields," Good Bones and Simple Murders will surprise casual Atwood fans who are accustomed to the broad intensity of her novels or the seriousness of much of her poetry.

Many of the weaker pieces in this collection now feel dated, but this is hardly Atwood's fault; scores of lesser writers worked the brief essay-fiction to death in the late '90s, but Good Bones and Simple Murders is the real thing. Atwood is blessed with the linguistic gifts necessary to make this kind of writing memorable and a keen intelligence that often gives the stories a devastating relevance. These stories are too quirky to be a useful introduction to Atwood's works, but they are nonetheless likely to delight both fans and dabblers. --Jack Illingworth


From Publishers Weekly
If Atwood keeps a journal, perhaps some of the brief selections in this slender volume-postmodern fairy tales, caustic fables, inspired parodies, witty monologues-come from that source. The 35 entries offer a sometimes whimsical, sometimes sardonic view of the injustices of life and the battles of the sexes. Such updated fairy tales as "The Little Red Hen Tells All" (she's a victim of male chauvinism) and "Making a Man" (the Gingerbread man is the prototype) are seen with a cynical eye and told in pungent vernacular. "Gertrude Talks Back" is a monologue by Hamlet's mother, a randy woman ready for a roll in the hay, who is exasperated with her whiny, censorious teenage son. Several pieces feature women with diabolical intentions-witches, malevolent goddesses, etc. There are science fiction scenarios, anthropomorphic confessionals ("My Life as a Bat") and an indictment of overly aggressive women that out-Weldons Fay Weldon. While each of these entries is clever and sharply honed, readers will enjoy dipping into them selectively; a sustained reading may call up an excess of bile. Atwood has provided striking black-and-white illustrations. Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Gertrude hounding Hamlet? A bat critiquing Bram Stoker? There's even more in Atwood's witty new collection.Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
This collection of quirky, clever, and devilishly funny sketches, parodies, and fractured fairy tales is a scream. Free from the structural demands of novels, short stories, and poetry, Atwood infuses these bracing little narratives with the full force of her drollness, anger, shrewdness, sass, and humor. Atwood has never forgotten the hard lessons of girlhood, and she continues to question the roots of our assumptions about gender roles, testing our shaky sense of progress toward equality. Her fascination with women's roles in life and literature leads her to muse on the necessity of "stupid women" in stories, to compare men's novels with women's novels, and to revisit old tales such as "Bluebeard" and "The Little Red Hen." In "Making a Man" and "Simmering," men take quite a beating; at one point, she declares, "Men's bodies are the most dangerous things on earth." After further reflections on sex, war, and relationships--and a satire about applying political-correctness standards to literature--Atwood moves on to some devastating views of our species and our future. These marvelously incendiary creations are like sparks thrown off from Atwood's longer works, crackling and popping brightly against the night sky, making us laugh and shiver. Donna Seaman


From Kirkus Reviews
Atwood (The Robber Bride, 1993, etc.) is always at her worst when her acerbic sneer overwhelms other elements, and there is barely room for anything else in these short-short works. With the laundry-list mentality usually reserved for dead authors, this collection gathers up pieces that have appeared in magazines and earlier collections and simply regroups them according to a criterion that has more to do with brevity than quality. Most lack structure and read like beginning ideas rather than finished stories. Some try to turn fairy tales around, but they tend to be unfocused. In ``Unpopular Gals,'' an ``ugly stepsister'' rails against fairy-tale conventions like well-behaved daughters and the fact that ``there are never any evil stepfathers.'' In ``There Was Once,'' the narrator tries to write a fairy tale but keeps backtracking to avoid sounding ``pass‚'' and inaccurate. ``Women's Novels'' also attempts literary revisionism, but its stabs at humor are blunt (``Women's novels leave out parts of the men as well. Sometimes it's the stretch between the belly button and the knees, sometimes it's the sense of humor''). ``Making a Man'' gives instructions for just that, and again, jokes about making males out of marzipan and gingerbread do not go any deeper. ``Happy Endings'' fares a little better with a list of possible scenarios for a love relationship, prefaced by the warning to read only the first ``If you want a happy ending,'' but it is the exception among smug fluff like the poem ``Let Us Now Praise Stupid Women'' (``all those who dry their freshly shampooed poodles in the microwave'') and ``Liking Men,'' an examination of men and their parts that veers far off-track. Atwood has clearly grasped the differences between men and women, but her mistake lies in believing that she is the only one who has. Readers will resent paying what averages out to about ten dollars per hour for this. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


Review
"[Atwood]  proves she is an accomplished miniaturist...She can  pack more wallop into less space than any other  writer in her weight class."
--Toronto  Globe and Mail


Review
"[Atwood]  proves she is an accomplished miniaturist...She can  pack more wallop into less space than any other  writer in her weight class."
--Toronto  Globe and Mail


Book Description
In this collection of short works that defy easy categorization, Margaret Atwood displays, in condensed and crystallized form, the trademark wit and viruosity of her best-selling novels, brilliant stories, and insightful poetry. Among the jewels gathered here are Gertrude offering Hamlet a piece of her mind, the real truth about the Little Red Hen, a reincarnated bat explaining how Bram Stoker got Dracula all wrong, and the five methods of making a man (such as the "Traditional Method": "Take some dust off the ground. Form. Breathe into the nostrils the breath of life. Simple, but effective!") There are parables, monologues, prose poems, condensed science fiction, reconfigured fairy tales, and other miniature masterpieces--punctuated with charming illustrations by the author. A must for her fans, and a wonderful gift for all who savor the art of exquisite prose, Good Bones And Simple Murders marks the first time these writings have been available in a trade edition in the United States.


From the Publisher
"[Atwood] proves she is an accomplished miniaturist...She can pack more wallop into less space than any other writer in her weight class."
--Toronto Globe and Mail



From the Inside Flap
In this collection of short works that defy easy  categorization, Margaret Atwood displays, in  condensed and crystallized form, the trademark wit and  viruosity of her best-selling novels, brilliant  stories, and insightful poetry. Among the jewels  gathered here are Gertrude offering Hamlet a piece  of her mind, the real truth about the Little Red  Hen, a reincarnated bat explaining how Bram Stoker  got Dracula all wrong, and the  five methods of making a man (such as the  "Traditional Method": "Take some dust off  the ground. Form. Breathe into the nostrils the  breath of life. Simple, but effective!")  There are parables, monologues, prose poems, condensed  science fiction, reconfigured fairy tales, and  other miniature masterpieces--punctuated with  charming illustrations by the author. A must for her  fans, and a wonderful gift for all who savor the art  of exquisite prose, Good Bones And Simple  Murders marks the first time these  writings have been available in a trade edition in the  United States.

ANNOTATION

A literary garden of Atwoodian delights -- mini stories, parodies, and sketches by the bestselling author of The Robber Bride, Cat's Eye, and The Handmaid's Tale. A must for Atwood's fans and a wonderful gift for all who savor the art of exquisite prose.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

In this compilation of short works that defy easy categorization, Margaret Atwood displays the trademark wit and virtuosity of her bestselling novels, brilliant stories, and insightful poetry. Among the miniatures gathered here are Gertrude offering Hamlet a piece of her mind, the real truth about the Little Red Hen, a reincarnated bat explaining how Bram Stoker got Dracula all wrong, and the five home-economist methods of making a man. There are parables, monologues, prose poems, condensed science fictions, reconfigured fairy tales, and other diminutive masterpieces -- punctuated with charming illustrations by the author.

SYNOPSIS

In this collection of short works that defy easy categorization, Margaret Atwood displays, in condensed and crystallized form, the trademark wit and viruosity of her best-selling novels, brilliant stories, and insightful poetry. Among the jewels gathered here are Gertrude offering Hamlet a piece of her mind, the real truth about the Little Red Hen, a reincarnated bat explaining how Bram Stoker got Dracula all wrong, and the five methods of making a man (such as the "Traditional Method": "Take some dust off the ground. Form. Breathe into the nostrils the breath of life. Simple, but effective!") There are parables, monologues, prose poems, condensed science fiction, reconfigured fairy tales, and other miniature masterpieces -- punctuated with charming illustrations by the author. A must for her fans, and a wonderful gift for all who savor the art of exquisite prose, Good Bones And Simple Murders marks the first time these writings have been available in a trade edition in the United States.

FROM THE CRITICS

BookList - Donna Seaman

This collection of quirky, clever, and devilishly funny sketches, parodies, and fractured fairy tales is a scream. Free from the structural demands of novels, short stories, and poetry, Atwood infuses these bracing little narratives with the full force of her drollness, anger, shrewdness, sass, and humor. Atwood has never forgotten the hard lessons of girlhood, and she continues to question the roots of our assumptions about gender roles, testing our shaky sense of progress toward equality. Her fascination with women's roles in life and literature leads her to muse on the necessity of "stupid women" in stories, to compare men's novels with women's novels, and to revisit old tales such as "Bluebeard" and "The Little Red Hen." In "Making a Man" and "Simmering," men take quite a beating; at one point, she declares, "Men's bodies are the most dangerous things on earth." After further reflections on sex, war, and relationships -- and a satire about applying political-correctness standards to literature -- Atwood moves on to some devastating views of our species and our future. These marvelously incendiary creations are like sparks thrown off from Atwood's longer works, crackling and popping brightly against the night sky, making us laugh and shiver.

Toronto Globe And Mail