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Polarities

di Margaret Atwood

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Polarities is a collection of five short stories by Margaret Atwood. It includes the stories "Polarities", "Scarlet Ibis", "Hairball", "Death by Landscape" and "The Little Red Hen Tells All".

The first story in this collection is "Polarities". This is a story I liked very much. Morrison is an American lecturer who just started work at a Canadian university. His behavior and comments suggest that he feels quite alien in Canada. Streets, buildings, people, the weather - everything seems to be different to American eyes. Morrison's taste in women is described as being similar to his living conditions: 'Sloth aroused him'. Altogether, the picture the reader gets of Morrison is one of a person trying to figure out life. Being in Canada does not really help with that as he is still quite fond of the United States as he defends them in front of his colleagues:

"You Yanks are coming up and taking all our jobs," Paul would say, and Morrison would nod affably. "That's right, you shouldn't let it happen. I wonder why you hired me?" [...] He saw their point, of course, but he wasn't Procter and Gamble. What did they want him to do? What were they doing themselves, coming to think of it?


Struggling with his love life as well, Morrison is in a strange kind of love-her-love-her-not relationship with Louise, an undergrad at his university. To my mind this relationship reveals a lot about his character. Only in the end of the story, Morrison figures out that he probably loves her. That is, after Louise was locked up in a lunatic asylum. He wants to take her home and care for her:

He saw that is was only the hopeless, mad Louise he wanted, the one devoid of any purpose or defence. A sane one, one that could judge him, he would never be able to handle. So this was his dream girl then, his ideal woman found at last: a disintegration [...]


I would definitely recommend this story. On its own, it is a five star read.

For the other stories in the collection I will just briefly mention the plot. "Scarlet Ibis" is about the couple Christine and Don who are on holiday with their youngest daughter Lilian. From the beginning one can sense tensions in the couple's marriage. Tensions which Christine intends to solve by having this holiday with her husband who appears to be annoyed and stressed out by his everyday life.

"Hairball" derives its name from 'Hairball', the ovarian cyst that protagonist Kat had recently removed and afterwards placed on her mantelpiece in a jar of formaldehyde. After having worked in London for several years, Kat starts working for a Canadian magazine and has a relationship with a married co-worker. While the relationship is still passionate at the beginning, it soon starts to become tedious. Eventually, when Kat returns to work after having 'Hairball' removed, she is fired and her (ex-)lover gets her job.

"Death by Landscape" is about a young Canadian girl, Louise, who is sent to summer camp by her parents. In her second year there, she becomes friends with the American Lucy who suddenly disappears in the woods after a canoeing trip, the only person with her being Louise. The story is told in retrospect by the now much older Louise which makes for an interesting narrative setup.

Finally, there is "The Little Red Hen Tells All", a very short short story of only a couple of pages. From what I figure, it is a gender-critical parable. Quite thought-provoking, actually. But that is just my intepretation and you should probably read it yourself and come to your own conclusion.

Now why is this volume of short stories called Polarities? The name is probably quite fitting as each story deals with polar opposites, only on different levels. Some of the stories deal with the Canada-USA issue, some with gender issues or relationship issues in general. In each story, polar opposites are expressed through the characters and their behavior on a mostly subtle level.

This is the first time that I read Atwood and I have deliberately not started with her novels. I always find short stories a good indicator of an author's writing. This is not to say that the one or the other is a superior form of art. But, quite frankly, short stories are quite often disregarded nowadays although they can be just as entertaining, interesting, thoughtful, ... as a novel. While it took me some time at the beginning to get into Atwood's style of writing, this collection was definitely a good start to reading Atwood. Great writing, thought-provoking stories, great command of narrative techniques. All in all, a very good 4.5 star read. ( )
1 vota OscarWilde87 | Jul 18, 2014 |
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