Dancing Girls and Other Stories

By Margaret Atwood

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.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Dec 17, 2010
• ISBN: 9781551994901

Margaret Atwood

Margaret Atwood, whose work has been published in more than forty-five countries, is the author of over fifty books, including fiction, poetry, critical essays, and graphic novels. In addition to The Handmaid’s Tale, now an award-winning television series, her works include Cat’s Eye, short-listed for the 1989 Booker Prize; Alias Grace, which won the Giller Prize in Canada and the Premio Mondello in Italy; The Blind Assassin, winner of the 2000 Booker Prize; The MaddAddam Trilogy; The Heart Goes Last; Hag-Seed; The Testaments, which won the Booker Prize and was long-listed for the Giller Prize; and the poetry collection Dearly. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, the Franz Kafka International Literary Prize, the PEN Center USA Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Los Angeles Times Innovator’s Award. In 2019 she was made a member of the Order of the Companions of Honour in Great Britain for her services to literature. She lives in Toronto.

Reviews for Dancing Girls and Other Stories

[nickelini · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Atwood's first short story collection is made up of 14 stories that show an experimental period in her development as a writer. The Cambridge Introduction to Margaret Atwood notes that these stories "are characterized by a sense of miscommunication, or by the sense of an event happening slightly offstage. The heart of several of these stories is an inexplicable departure, a failure to connect events and disappearances, or a lock of communication about the importance of events."I very much enjoyed the stories "Rape Fantasies" and "A Travel Piece," which seemed livelier than the others. "The War in the Bathroom," "The Grave of the Famous Poet, and "The Resplendent Quetzal" also had interesting things to say. The rest of the collection I did not care for at all. "The Man from Mars" is popular with many readers, but I was frustrated with how incredibly dated it was, and "Hair Jewellery" was such a word salad that I couldn't finish it. I'm afraid too many of these stories were overly-vague and lacking in context, which in turn made them pointless and dull.Note that my 1998 edition has two different stories than the original Dancing Girls. Gone are "Betty" and "Sin Eaters," and they've been replaced by "Rape Fantasies" and "The War in the Bathroom."Recommended for: Atwood completists.

[questbird · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A collection of short stories about women. Some of them are troubled by mental illness. I was most moved by one called Polarities, about a man who forms a relationship with a woman with bipolar disorder, and the craziness which ensues.

[hlselz · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Compilation of short stories. Atwood is one of my favorite authers, and I really liked these shorties. Most of them are pretty depressing though, and from the first lines of the stories, the deep state of hopelesness most of the charectors feel are overwhelming.

[g33kgrrl · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

An Atwood collection but my favorite among her works. There are too many protagonists that seem powerless and let the world act upon them instead of trying to make their life better. I realize it's a reflection on the time, and I am very lucky to be born when I was, where I was, and raised by the people who raised me, that my default is always to push for a good life - but that doesn't mean I really enjoy reading about women are maybe not at that place in their lives, for whatever reason. (I'm a lot more about action to change situations.) So ... yeah. There was a lot of me going "but come ON!" and trying to encourage the protagonists to take action as I read these stories."Giving Birth" was the big hit for me, as a student nurse-midwife and a nurse just about to start on the L&D floor. I loved this story in particular and will probably re-read it many times.

[nmhale_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Dancing Girls is a collection of short stories by renowned writer Margaret Atwood, who I have wanted to read for quite some time. Although I am more interested in her novels, I have read a couple of her short stories in anthologies and really enjoyed them, so I was looking forward to this Virago. It started out a bit slow for me, as my interest in the first two or three stories was only moderately engaged.

[rhinoa_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A series of short stories by Canadian author Margaret Atwood. Each one follows a different person and is a short snap shot into their life. Some are narrated by men but all feature women in a prominent role.

[joannemepham29_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Atwood as always is lyrical, and beautiful in prose. Though I did not love every story, I recognized the beauty in every story.

[quilted_kat · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Collection of short stories that felt like personal explorations of the feminine experience in contemporary society. Some of Atwood's best work is contained within these pages, but also a few that were difficult to get through.

[csweder · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I was nervous to read this book. I LOVE Atwood's novels, and was terrified that I would not adore her short stories as much. Of course, I should have had faith: It's Margarat Atwood, I don't think she knows how to not write well.

What was interesting about these stories, most of which had female narrators, was how haunting and truthful they are. Even in these short stories Atwood is able to develop characters who are so ordinary that their faults are so truthful--and you can't help but to know that these things could happen.

[burritapal · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I like her sci-fi better. It's boring to read about middle and upper class white people; they've got no culture. Yawn.

[helenliz_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A collection of short stories narrated by and about women. in the main. Some were better than others, but there were no real stand outs. A mixture of emotions, it's quite a thoughtful collection. She has a beautiful turn of phrase at times.

[cail_judy · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Read three stories out of this collection. "The Man from Mars" and "Travel Piece" were both good, but "The War in the Bathroom" was exceptional. Dark and creepy without a word wasted.

[lahochstetler · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

In this short story collection Atwood explores the mindset of women in a variety of situations. From an isolated grad student to an expectant mother, to a severely disabled girl at summer camp, these stories find women in deceptively ordinary situations, each with a slight twist. This collection is comprised of stories written early in Atwood's career, and that is clearly reflected in the details. Several stories focus on academic environments, with graduate student characters. The protagonist in the collection's namesake, "Dancing Girls," a Canadian graduate student in Cambridge, certainly brings to mind Atwood's own time at Harvard. Together this collection explores the expectations that follow young women in the late-1970s: sometimes restrictive, sometimes depressing, always present.