Old Babes in the Wood

"In this collection comprised of fifteen ... stories, ... Atwood speaks to our times with her characteristic wit and intellect. Of special significance are the seven works revolving around the long-term married couple Tig and Nell. Acting as bookends for the collection, these stories look deeply in the heart of what it means to spend a life together, with the four stories in Part I relating tales from their married life, and the three stories at the end showing Nell's reality in the aftermath of Tig's death. In other works, two sisters grapple with loss and memory; ... 'Impatient Griselda' reprises the folkloric role of Griselda in Bocaccio's The Decameron, exploring alienation and miscommunication; and 'Evil Mother' [touches] on the fantastical, examining a mother-daughter relationship in which the mother purports to be a witch"--