Moral Disorder: and Other Stories
by Margaret Atwood
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Book Summary Information
Author: Margaret AtwoodEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Format: Deckle Edge
Published: 2006-09-19
ISBN: 0385503849
Number of pages: 240
Publisher: Nan A. Talese
Book Reviews of Moral Disorder: and Other Stories
Book Review: A BRILLIANT, DEEPLY MOVING, TOUR DE FORCE CHARACTER STUDY -- AND SEIMI-AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL TO BOOT!
Summary: 5 Stars
"Moral Disorder" by Margaret Atwood is a collection of eleven short stories. Each stands easily and delightfully alone; in fact, five of them have previously appeared in magazines. But taken as a whole, this collection gathers synergy and eventually morphs into a most uncommon and extraordinary novel--a first-rate character study.
All the stories deal with the life of one woman, Nell, an archetypal Canadian "everywoman." What makes this woman special is the choices she makes. These are everyday choices made by a woman with a strong moral compass. With each choice, life takes a new path, thus the moral disorder of the title. This book is about the mysterious unpredictability of life. At one point Nell panics and asks, "What if I missed a turn somewhere--missed my own future?"
The stories are delivered to us like random memories. Some of the stories are told in the first person, others are written as third-person narratives. The stories span more than six decades and do not appear in any chronological order. But by the end, this structure makes complete sense and brings the reader full circle from the end, back to the beginning. There is much to be contemplated at what stories are missing from the work. For example, there are no stories about Nell's daughter or stepsons. What is there are stories about Nell and her husband, parents, sister, and friends. There are also stories about the beloved animals in her life: a horse named Gladys, a dog named Howl, and a much-loved hand-reared baby lamb that had the misfortune of being born a male. Unnamed, this poor future heartache was destined for the dinner table.
Attwood admits that many of events in these stores have strong autobiographical roots. This becomes achingly apparent in the last two stories where Atwood delivers a heart-wrenching first-person narrative about--what is purposefully in this story--an unnamed mature protagonist serving as loving caretaker of rapidly declining elderly parents. These parents could easily fit in with what we know about Nell, and what we know about Atwood. These pieces show Atwood at the height of her talent. These are pieces woven of pure magic and unconditionally every-lasting love.
There is a character at the end of the father's story, a brilliant young entomologist from India that comes to Canada to conduct field study with the father at his summer entomology lab located in the wilds of Labrador. He appears on the scene like a mirage, a pampered upper class man in English summer whites hauling along his suitcase and tennis racket into the mosquito-infested lake lands of wild northern Canada. This character springs to life so vividly that the reader can imagine him virtually popping off the page and asking: "Why am I here, on this page, made real in this strange book?" Atwood seems to make the character dimly aware of his own existence--his own fictional immortality. This makes the reader ponder: "Does Atwood realize that she has given her own parents a form of fictional immortality in these stories?" Of course, she does...but it is we, the readers, who are ultimately inspired and encouraged by these heartwarming inclusions!
Once the reader has completed the last two stories, the first story takes on new meaning. This first story, "Bad News," plants Nell firmly in the present. She and her husband are old but not elderly. Nothing major is wrong with either of them, at least not yet. But Nell is terrified of the unknown but inevitable future that she calls "not yet"...that period in life where only one of them remains. When the reader finishes the last story, "The Boys in the Lab," we know the roots of that terror. In that story, we meet Nell's mother at the end of her life--a widow, blind, barely hearing out of one ear, and rapidly losing her memory.
If one views these stories as a novel, then this book succeeds brilliantly as a character study. Nell is unforgettable. I will have a hard time separating her from Atwood in my mind, but I do know that this person will stay alive in my memory for a very long time. Nell is a completely whole and real person--a character seared into my brain, as are all the best characters in great literary fiction. This book reminds me most of "Three Junes" by Julia Glass. That book, too, was a masterful character study with little or no coherent plot line other than the everyday stories of real life. It was also built upon a unique structure that added synergy to the whole.
I loved this book and recommend it highly. But it is clearly not a book that will attract everyone. This is a work that is rife with mature themes, and these mature themes are best understood and appreciated by a mature reader--one who has already spend half a century or more experiencing the moral disorder of their own lives. In this work Atwood gives us nothing short of real life--random, disordered, unpredictable--but life embraced lovingly with open arms despite all these uncertainties and the ultimate terror of that last unknown.
Summary of Moral Disorder: and Other Stories
Margaret Atwood is acknowledged as one of the foremost writers of our time. In Moral Disorder, she has created a series of interconnected stories that trace the course of a life and also the lives intertwined with it?those of parents, of siblings, of children, of friends, of enemies, of teachers, and even of animals. As in a photograph album, time is measured in sharp, clearly observed moments. The ?30s, the ?40s, the ?50s, the ?60s, the ?70s, the ?80s, the ?90s, and the present ?all are here. The settings vary: large cities, suburbs, farms, northern forests.?The Bad News? is set in the present, as a couple no longer young situate themselves in a larger world no longer safe. The narrative then switches time as the central character moves through childhood and adolescence in ?The Art of Cooking and Serving,? ?The Headless Horseman,? and ?My Last Duchess.? We follow her into young adulthood in ?The Other Place? and then through a complex relationship, traced in four of the stories: ?Monopoly,? ?Moral Disorder,? ?White Horse,? and ?The Entities.? The last two stories, "The Labrador Fiasco" and "The Boys at the Lab," deal with the heartbreaking old age of parents but circle back again to childhood, to complete the cycle.
By turns funny, lyrical, incisive, tragic, earthy, shocking, and deeply personal, Moral Disorder displays Atwood?s celebrated storytelling gifts and unmistakable style to their best advantage. As the New York Times has said: "The reader has the sense that Atwood has complete access to her people's emotional histories, complete understanding of their hearts and imaginations.?
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