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01.03.2022 / 02:19
Review: Margaret Atwood's writings both funny, frightening
“Burning Questions: Essays and Occasional Pieces, 2004 to 2021,” by Margaret Atwood (Doubleday)Canadian poet, novelist and literary critic Margaret Atwood's diverse and intense interests in subjects from feminism to climate change are on full display in her latest book, a collection of some 50 shorter pieces of her writing.“Burning Questions: Essays and Occasional Pieces, 2004 to 2021” pulls together writings that range from the funny to the frightening, posing questions such as, “How much of yourself can you give away without evaporating?” and “Why do people everywhere, in all cultures, tell stories?”The pieces include a 2015 essay reflecting on “The Handmaid’s Tale,” Atwood's dystopian novel about women subjugated by a patriarchal and totalitarian state. The book inspired a popular TV series years later.In an essay on the book's 30th anniversary, Atwood reveals she delayed writing it, worried that it would be considered “too far-fetched."She also notes that the book inspired by the rise of the religious right in the U.S.