Dancing GirlsMargaret Atwood

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Leandro da Conceição

Dancing Girls is a collection of short stories by Canadian author Margaret Atwood, originally published in 1977 by McClelland & Stewart, Toronto. It was the winner of the St. Lawrence Award for Fiction and the award of The Periodical Distributors of Canada for Short Fiction.

The collection’s fourteen stories feature ordinary people, including a farmer, a birdwatcher, an author, ex-wives, a mother and a travel agent, and their inevitably biased perceptions of the world.

It testifies to Margaret Atwood's startlingly original voice, full of a rare intensity and exceptional intelligence. With brilliant

flashes of fantasy, humor, and unexpected violence, the stories reveal the complexities of human relationships and bring to life characters who touch us deeply, evoking terror

and laughter, compassion and recognition - and dramatically demonstrate why Margaret Atwood is one of the most

important writers in English today.

AuthorMargaret Atwood was born in 1939 in Ottawa and grew up in

northern Ontario, Quebec, and Toronto. She received her undergraduate degree from Victoria College at the University of

Toronto and her master's degree from Radcliffe College.

MARGARET ATWOOD, whose work has been published in over thirty-five countries, is the author of more than forty books of

fiction, poetry, and critical essays.

SOME MEMORABLE WORKS:

The edible woman (1970)

The Handmaid’s Tale (1983)

The Robber Bridge (1994)

Alias Grace (1996)

The Blind Assassin (which won the prestigious Booker Prize in 2000)

Why so captivating?

Margaret Atwood maps the human motivation we scarcely know we have.

Dancing Girls is Margaret Atwood’s highly praised first collection of short fiction. In it she explores the dark intricacies of the mind, the complexities of human relationships, and the clashes between cultures. In the stories, the mundane and the bizarre intersect in unexpected ways: ex-wives indulge in an odd feast at a psychiatrist’s funeral; a young student is pursued by an obsessed immigrant; an old woman stores up supplies against an impending cataclysm. The fourteen stories range in setting from Canada to England, from Mexico to the United States, and portray characters who touch us and arouse in us compassion and understanding. In this astonishing collection, Margaret Atwood maps human motivation we scarcely know we have.

Dancing Girls is divided into 14 short stories.

Stories in *Dancing Girls*:

The War in the Bathroom

The Man from Mars

Polarities

Under Glass

The Grave of the Famous Poet

Rape Fantasies

Hair Jewellery

When It Happens

A Travel Piece

The Resplendent Quetzal

Training

Lives of the Poets

Dancing Girls

Giving Birth

The Tale A few of ones have endings that

let anyone stumped.

# Atwood's short stories are shocking, vibrant glances at some of her most interesting people. The stories in this collection were published in many journals, from the prestigious *Harper's* to the rarified journals like *Fiddlehead* and *The Malahat Review.*

Interesting things*Curiosities

It doesn’t have defined specific characters. It comprises all kinds of characters, mainly women.

This is an entertaining collection where Atwood demonstrates that she is down to earth and is sufficiently skilled and talented to make the mundane seem very interesting without resorting to any fancy writing techniques. The stories are set in modern urban settings. There is no simple pattern to the tales, and some end abruptly.

They have a variety of interesting characters, but the women seem more interesting than the men.

Atwood's Dancing Girls has a common theme of obsession with a hint of crazy that touches almost every story in the collection.

In the The War in the Bathroom was told over the course of a week, where a woman feels like her living space is being invaded daily by an elderly man whose bathroom habits can be clearly heard from her room.

Then in The Man from Mars, a strange little foreign man begins to stalk Christine. . .

Rape Fantasies has a dark name, but is a witty story about one woman's ridiculous rape fantasies that somehow turn into love.

Quotes

“We love each other, that’s true whatever it means, but we aren’t good at it; for some it’s a talent, for others only an addiction.” ― Margaret Atwood, Dancing Girls

“Everyone thinks writers must know more about the inside of the human head, but that's wrong. They know less, that's why they write. Trying to find out what everyone else takes for granted.” ― Margaret Atwood, Dancing Girls

Closing remarks – Show over

Margaret Atwood currently lives in Toronto with writer Graeme Gibson.

If you enjoy Margaret Atwood or enjoy reading short stories, these are some great ones to get into!

The End

Thank you for

knowing a

little about

me

By Leandro da Conceição