Old Babes in the Wood - Margaret Atwood

 OLD BABES IN THE WOOD : STORIES

- Margaret Atwood -

First point, which is very exciting to any book reader and library patron...I was the first person to borrow the book from our library. The first hands on a library book! The first fingers to stain the pages b/c I was eating ketchup chips while reading. Isn't that unreal!?

Second point, this book is classic Atwood. By that I mean the writing is superb. I read through this book in a few days, and even though the stories were not my favourite genre or topic, the writing kept me hooked and had me turning the pages .

I knew this book was a collection of stories. I'm okay with that. I like to read a collection of short stories every once in a while. The slight difference with Old Babes in the Wood was that the stories were mostly about the life and times of Tig and Nell. You could describe this book as a novelette about Tig and Nell, with a sprinkling of other short stories placed in between chapters.

I'll cover the majority of the book by saying the Tig and Nell stories were interesting. They seemed to be a look at the life cycle of a long term couple. There is a beginning, a middle age, and then death. It felt to me like Atwood spent a lot of time on the dealing with death, the life of an elder, the waiting for your own death...a lot of space was taken up on life's finale. Perhaps as she ages, Atwood decided it was time to share her perspective, experience, and deep thoughts on The End.

Even though the topic of death, dying, old age, and mourning are not pleasant, invigorating, or something I think about often, Atwood did a great job of keeping my attention. 

The other short stories were a mixed bag, as happens in most short story collections. Some grabbed my attention while others I have already forgotten about. My favourite short was Atwood's interview with George Orwell's ghost. I'm a fan of Orwell & Dystopian books (like the Handmaid's Tale), so I took to it quickly. It was fun too. Not a page full of dense prose, but more of a conversation of casual jokes, awkward pauses, and clever insights.

There was another short story I can recall, about a snail's soul becoming trapped in a human body...yeah, that was an experimental thought that probably didn't need to be published. But, I bet there are some out there that love this kind of stuff. That's what's great about short story collections. The chance for writer's to throw out the weird and wacky, in small doses.

What I felt was missing from the collection was a dystopian type story. My favourite books by Atwood are The Handmaid's Tale, Oryx and Crake...you know? The post apocalyptic / dystopian novels. That's one of the reasons I actually took the book out of the library in the first place. Oh well, can't win them all.

A side note about the title. Not sure if this was a coincidence, but as I was googling 'Old Babes In The Woods' a bunch of results came up about a mysterious murder in Stanley Park (Vancouver). Two girls bodies were found years after they went missing.  

NOT QUITE THE CLASSICS

NOT QUITE THE CLASSICS

- Colin Mochrie -

This book is built on an the Classic improve game, the first and last line. In this quasi-version of the game Mochrie takes the first few lines from well known Classic books then writes a short story in between, and finally ends with the last few lines of that Classic book.

If you are at all familiar with who Colin Mochrie is you won't be surprised to hear that the stories are funny, quirky, and sometimes just plain weird. Mochrie is that joking Canadian who stars on Who's Line is it Anyways? (and is also a part of the This Hour Has 22 Minutes - The Classic Canadian political satire show anyone?), so he has the chops to make people laugh...but, you ask, does his humour translate well onto the written page?

For the most part, yes. And, to my surprise his overall writing skills are extraordinary. I was happily surprised at the high quality of the writing. It was so good it almost fools one into believing the absurd topics and storylines are the 'real' Classic writings of Doyle, Orwell, Fitzgerald, or even Seuss. I was especially impressed with Colin's ability to mimic the tone and feel of these Classics. His choice of words and phrases were bang on with the originals. Again, it was so easy to fall into the feeling that you were reading a strange story written 100 years ago by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle ...albeit, a strange story about stand up comedy, but, none-the-less believable.

The collection started with the well loved Sherlock Holmes. A great one to start the book with. It had a lively, extremely well written and entertaining storyline. It read just like one of the Classic Sherlocks, but, funny at the same time. The story centred around Holmes trying to solve a mystery. The mystery of humour. He observed people, mades assumptions, then experimented with different types of humour. Most of which sounded good in theory, but, then ended up failing. He eventually came up with the idea of 'Stand Up' and attempted a show. The whole process was both an interesting look at humour, from the comedian's side, while being witty and funny at the same time. I think the interactions between Watson and Holmes were what really brought out the laughs. They were Classic; the eccentric Holmes berating the dim witted Watson for questioning his outlandish conclusions. This was the kind of story that made me want to read more.

Then came the make over of Moby Dick - Moby Toupee. This one almost sank the boat for me. It did not put the wind in my sails as much as some of the other stories did. It was a funny idea: a toupee changes an actors life. Toupees are funny things. But, the story just did not catch my interest.

Luckily, a short while later the splicing of A Tale of Two Cities brought me back aboard. This was another highlight for me. The first line, 'It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.' It ended up being an account of Wile E Coyote's obsession with Road Runner. It took an interesting view, through Wile E's life, attempting to be a human but giving into his animal desires to hunt and eat Road Runners. He has some early highs (the best of times), then becomes obsessed with catching RR and his life quickly goes downhill (the worst of times)...where a big rock rolls down on top of it, then it is hit with an anvil marked 50 tons. We eventually end with Mr. Coyote in jail. It was again, extremely well written, and had a great mix of Classic anvil dropping humour and that sharp satire comparing his Road Runner obsession with, say, a drug addiction. He loses his job, family, even his mind in the struggle to catch the ever slippery Road Runner. The end is a bit disturbing in a dark humour sort of way. So, if you have a weak heart (or stomach for that matter) for the Road Runner, I suggest you do not read the last few pages.

Another story that made my highlight reel was the Frankenstein spoof. It involved a chicken who learned to read. It was not the story that brought the most smiles and giggles, but, it captured my imagination for awhile. The story of the chicken and the farmer mirrored one another, they started out lonely, then found mates, then things went terribly wrong. The hen dies and the chicken tries to resurrect her. This story also ends badly...I guess that makes sense, all the Classics seem to end in death.

I went into this book thinking it was going to be a work of low grade nonsensical writing, with a few easy Moby Dick jokes (which I will assure you there were none of). But, it was not. It was the exact opposite. It was an extremely well written collection of short stories that were funny on so many levels, from the spot on impersonation of the Classic writer's style to the farcical/bizarre tales Mochrie brought to life. The only thing missing was a talking pickle.

RATING : READ

To hear an interview with Colin talking about this book, he was on CBC's The Next Chapter - CLICK HERE

I used the word classic 11 times in that review - new record!

Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk

SQUIRREL SEEKS CHIPMUNK

- David Sedaris -

Strange. Funny. Original. It's hard to describe this book the way I want to. While reading it I went from laughing (out loud) to almost vomiting in disgust...what book can do that, all while keeping a light airy feel to it? Overall this is a humourous book that delves into the really dark humour a fair bit. But, the content is just...strange at some points. It kind of reminded me of a mix of Monty Python type humour and some no-name crude stand up comedian who relies on swearing and sextalk to make jokes. So, appealing to all people in some way!?

I found it in the short story section in the library. The book has a strange set up, almost like chapters but almost like short stories. The book is a made up of about a dozen small stories/jokes, some range from a few pages to maybe twenty. They are all quips from different animal's points of view. There are birds, dogs, mice, hippos...and to top it off, there are some illustrations from Ian Falconer (you may know him from the best selling children's series Olivia the pig). The stories/jokes are definitely one's that will stay with you for awhile. They are not easy to retell, say around the water cooler at the office, but they are satisfying jokes to read.

The jokes/stories seemed to favour stereotyping. When read they make you laugh, but, then upon further reflection, I found them almost a jab at humanity - how cruel and awful we can sometimes be.

There was a joke about a black watersnake and a white duck who makes a mistaken racist remark. A faithful dog who is sold out to breed purebreds, but, comes home to his 'wife' everynight. Birds who migrate south and complain about the lazy southern birds. The namesake, a squirrel and chipmunk who cannot date because the parents do not believe in inter-species mixing. These were a few I found laughable.

However, there were many I felt were just strange and didn't leave a good taste in my mouth. The one I found the most disturbing was the sick rat & healthy rat.

The healthy rat is put in a cage with this other rat who has cancer and all these tumors or whatnot. The healthy rat gets on his soap box and rants about how the sick rat should have made healthy choices in life and that cancers and such are a direct result of lifestyle...turns out these rats are in a lab that pumps chemicals into them causing these cancers for research. Anyone order some extreme dark humour? Disturbing in a way, but, so easy to relate to! Turn it around and throw a human in there...how cruel!

RATING: DO NOT READ*

*Unless you want to be left with a strange feeling of disturbed happiness.