RaveThe New York TimesStone Mattress, Margaret Atwood’s first collection since Moral Disorder in 2006, begins with three linked stories about women who have been romantically involved with a middling poet named Gavin Putnam ... Many of this book’s stories — or 'tales,' as the subtitle and acknowledgments insist — offer characters a chance to put their own understandings of gallantry, courage and revenge to the test, in ways both mundane and extraordinary ... An obsession with aging and dying unites much of Stone Mattress, and Atwood, more than 40 books into her career, has arrived here preoccupied not just with the churn of generations but also with legacy and reputation, with getting straight the story of one’s life — the tale about the tale — and with surviving what happens once no one is paying any attention anymore.
Marisa Silver
RaveThe New York Times Book Review...beguiling...a powerful exploration of the relationship between our changeable bodies and our just as malleable identities ... Silver’s storytelling tactics are finely matched to her themes, with her book’s structure frequently mimicking the dreamlike movements of memories and fables ... It’s a credit to Silver’s skill that before the novel ends she finds one more way to reopen its narrative possibilities.
