You will pick up this thin, intriguingly named little book of essays by Margaret Atwood, and you will sit down intending only to thumb through it.
You will start with the first essay, "Murder in the Dark," and be drawn in immediately by the love Ms. Atwood had for the boy who didn't love her back. Her prose is serious, wry, witty and straight to the point. The sparse and serious nature of her topics -- with a hint of a giggle behind a hand -- keeps you turning pages, through the arched eyebrow of "Unpopular Gals," in which Ms. Atwood dissects the thoughts behind the wicked witches of fairy-tale fame:
"The thing about good daughters is, they're so good. Obedient and passive. Sniveling, I might add. No get-up-and-go. What would become of them if it weren't for me? Nothing, that's what. All they'd ever do is housework, which seems to feature largely in these stories. They'd marry some peasant, have seventeen kids, and get 'A Dutiful Wife' engraved on their tombstones, if any. Big deal . . . I'm the plot, babe, and don't ever forget it."
You will laugh through "Gertrude Talks Back," in which the protagonist tries to explain to Hamlet: "I wanted to call you George. I am not wringing my hands. I'm drying my nails."
And you'll marvel at "There Was Once," where, without using one single solitary extra word, Ms. Atwood shows how political correctness drains the soul out of language.
You will notice no particular pattern here, only the beauty of Ms. Atwood's musings on topics such as women's bodies:
"Some of my people have a pointed but boneless external appendage, in the front, below the navel or midpoint. Others do not. Debate about whether the possession of such a thing is an advantage or a disadvantage is still going on."
This is about fairy tales, all of it -- the things we learned growing up, either from the Brothers Grimm or on our own. And you will realize that Toronto-based Ms. Atwood is precisely the woman to reinterpret it all for you. Ms. Atwood's readers in Canada and Britain have already seen this little book, to rave reviews.
You will read this and see why.
Title: "Good Bones and Simple Murders"
Author: Margaret Atwood
Publisher: Doubleday
Length, price: 164 pages, $20