Tuesday 8 September 2020

Short Story Review: Impatient Griselda by Margaret Atwood


Impatient Griselda by Margaret Atwood
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Only from the pen of Atwood!! She is such a wicked lady :) disturbing the folkloric Griselda tale used in the original Decameron and playing to the current global pandemic's feelings of alienation. The narrator's octupus-like alien on a intergalactical-crises aid mission struggles to communicate with the native bi-ped population, has overtones of third world aid condescension, faces all the linguistic and cultural issues of understanding the stories of the Other and although they are trying their best can't wait to get home and back to a 'normal' life. Brilliant. 

Available online

View all my reviews

1 comment:

  1. I'm the first commenter?! I went looking on the internet for someone else who had read the story - I did several days ago. Can't stop thinking about it- it is so sly - what an abrupt dislocation from my Wednesday jaunt to the library.

    ReplyDelete