THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, January 4, 1995 TAG: 9501040041
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E5 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: BOOK REVIEW
SOURCE: BY LAURA LAFAY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 58 lines
IF IT WEREN'T for the witches, the evil stepmothers and ugly stepsisters, what would become of the good girls who populate our fairy tales? What of interest would ever befall the sweet Snow Whites and docile Cinderellas?
``Nothing, that's what,'' opines one evil stepmother, given a forum in ``Good Bones and Simple Murders'' (Nan A. Talese/Doubleday, $20), Margaret Atwood's latest collection of stories, essays and musings.
``All they'd ever do is housework. . . . They'd marry some peasant, have seventeen kids, and get `A Dutiful Wife' engraved on their tombstones.''
``I stir things up,'' boasts the stepmother. ``I get things moving. `Go play in traffic,' I say to (the good girls). `Put on this paper dress and look for strawberries in the snow.' ''
In this, her fifth book of short works, Canadian writer Atwood does some playing in traffic herself. Extinction, marriage, suicide and alienation are among the topics through which she dodges, weaves and dances.
Atwood turns fairy tales upside-down and gives voices to animals, aliens and assorted literary villians.
Hamlet's mother gets a monologue (``I wanted to call you George,'' she muses to the prince). Bluebeard, the serial wife-killer of yore, is a sympathetic character. Ugly stepsisters and witches finally get their say.
``You can wipe your feet on me, twist my motives around all you like,'' brags the witch who imprisoned Rapunzel.
``You can dump millstones on my head and drown me in the river, but you can't get me out of the story. I'm the plot, babe, and don't ever forget it.''
Such nontraditional points of views can be handy tools when it comes to pinpointing the tragedies that beget evil and locating the sinister in daily life.
``Everything you've ever wanted, I wanted also,'' says an ugly stepsister to her beautiful nemesis in ``Unpopular Gals,'' a three-part monologue by fairy tale villianesses.
``But all my love ever came to was a bad end. Red hot shoes, barrels studded with nails. That's what it feels like, unrequited love.''
In another story, ``Alien Territory,'' Atwood uses point of view to transform the cozy domestic scene of two parents gazing down at their newborn into the hellish ordeal of a helpless, terrified hostage.
In Atwood's vision, the infant recovers from his birth to find himself trapped inside ``a wooden prison'' guarded by two enormous ``aliens.'' He screams, but no one comes to rescue him. He sees that he is surrounded by stuffed animals. Then he notices that the animals are not only stuffed, they are castrated. A new fear seizes him: Is this the fate the aliens have in store for him as well?
The best of these 35 pieces are interesting, witty and provocative. The worst - and there are about five of them - are overwrought, partially realized or just plain silly. by CNB