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Burning Questions: Essays and Occasional Pieces, 2004 to 2021

Burning Questions: Essays and Occasional Pieces, 2004 to 2021

by Margaret Atwood

Doubleday ·2022 ·496 pages
Near the Top
Near the Top
I Index
61/99
Maybe Someday

46/99

Critics' Rating Index

Top of the Pile

76/99

Readers' Rating Index

n/a

Scholars' Citation Index

66/99

Volume of Reviews

73/99

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About This Book

This brilliant selection of essays—funny, erudite, endlessly curious, uncannily prescient—seeks answers to Burning Questions such as: • Why do people everywhere, in all cultures, tell stories? • How much of yourself can you give away without evaporating? • How can we live on our planet? • Is it true? And is it fair? • What do zombies have to do with authoritarianism? In over fifty pieces Atwood aims her prodigious intellect and impish humor at the world, and reports back to us on what she finds. The roller-coaster period covered in the collection brought an end to the end of history, a financial crash, the rise of Trump and a pandemic. From debt to tech, the climate crisis to freedom, from when to dispense advice to the young (answer: only when asked) and how to define granola, we have no better guide than Atwood to the many and varied mysteries of our universe.


Reviews

"The heart-sinking opening sentences start early, and they never entirely stop ..."

Dwight Garner· The New York Times Read review ↗ Maybe Someday

"She pads and digresses; what could be a sentence becomes a paragraph."

Charles Arrowsmith· The Washington Post Read review ↗ Maybe Someday

"[there is a] forthright way in which Atwood simultaneously states her purpose and engages her audience ..."

Mary Norris· Times Literary Supplement Read review ↗ Top of the Pile

"One of the most notable aspects of this collection is how engaged Atwood, now 82, has remained with the pressing issues of the day ..."

Stephanie Merritt· The Guardian Read review ↗ Near the Top

"This volume will add to Atwood devotees' existing book-stack, and readers will find satisfaction in her thoughts on the downfall of autocrats in the essay on the courageous Polish writer Ryszard Kapuscinski."

Mary O\'Donnell· The Irish Times Read review ↗ Top of the Pile

"The result is a superior assembly of intellectual excursions."

Publishers Weekly Read review ↗ Top of the Pile

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