“Impatient Griselda” is just seven pages long and there are a couple of full readings on YouTube (about a dozen minutes).
If you want to hear it in Atwood’s own voice, she reads it as part of this performance presented by Theater of War Productions and Toronto International Festival of Authors. Three actors read the original source text from the Decameron, “Patient Griselda”, and then she reads her story. (The readings are about thirty minutes: panelists’ comments and audience questions span more than an hour of the two.)
Even though I haven’t read Old Babes in the Wood before, I recognised this was one of two stories I had read previously, as soon as I sat down and opened to the page. With only the opening sentence, I remembered.
It’s that kind of piece—so rooted in voice and concept that even a brief glimpse brings it all back. There’s a lot of humour, which is what I recalled, but you can also take the story very seriously: consider this abstract from a July 2024 journal.)
But what I’m thinking about right now is that jolt of recognition, the sense that this story is familiar. (I planned to write about the story, but they’ve said everything in the video! heheh)
It brings to mind a similar moment of recognition, with my reading of a book that Margaret Atwood edited with Douglas Preston, Fourteen Days (2024).
This book got tonnes of press, so you probably know the premise, that thirty-six authors contributed a segment to the novel, which was stitched together and framed with the overarching idea of strangers gathering to share stories during the Covid lockdowns, their storytelling creating a sense of community that countered loneliness and isolation.
Aside: All proceeds went to the Authors Guild Foundation, which represented the interests of (and, also, outright assisted) artists whose income was dramatically impacted by the pandemic. The literary agency also donated its commission; Suzanne Collins funded honorariums to the contributors. And the guild remains important, as it also supports projects that defend against school and library book bans, supports litigation that challenges those bans, and represents these concerns in American education and government (by appearing before Congress, for instance).
MARM 2024 PLANS
Launch (November 1)
Dancing Girls, “Training” (November 5)
Old Babes in the Wood, “My Evil Mother” (November 7)
Week Two: Update and Check-In (November 10)
Dancing Girls, “Lives of the Poets” (November 12)
Old Babes in the Wood, “The Dead Interview” (November 14)
Week Three: Update and Check-In (November 16)
Margaret Atwood’s 85th Birthday (November 18)
Dancing Girls, “Dancing Girls” (November 19)
Old Babes in the Wood, “Impatient Griselda” (November 21)
Week Four: Update and Check-In (November 24)
Dancing Girls, “Giving Birth” (November 26)
Old Babes in the Wood, “Bad Teeth” (November 28)
Wrap-Up (November 30)
But back to Fourteen Days. The idea is that readers can enjoy the work of thirty-six different authors, but part of the fun is that, while you’re reading, you don’t know either who they are, or whose section is whose. Not until you get to the end of the book is there an alphabetical list, with authors’ names in bold type, their contributions in parentheses, with brief bio’s.
It works because the premise is that there’s a new superintendent in the apartment building, and when she comes onto the scene, she discovers the previous super’s detailed notes about the other tenants and their peculiarities. So, while she’s adjusting to her new job (and trying not to over-worry about her father, as he’s in an institution somewhere, out of contact), she’s sorting out who lives where, who’s friendly with whom (and unfriendly), and then mapping the experience of the pandemic on all those cool and fraught and tenuous and—above all—temporary relationships.
I read it over a long period of time. It felt very episodic, and I found that satisfying as a slow burn. When you read other readers’ objections to this project, it’s often the nature of the structure that was disappointing (it was the highlight for me, I love varied voices) but there is also another aspect of the story that was annoying to some readers (that very thing has annoyed me in other stories, too, but it worked for me here—partly, I think, because I read it over many weeks).
Early on, I thought it might be the kind of book I’d be happy to read once and then share with another curious reader but, in the end, I enjoyed it enough to think I might reread it after some time had passed.
But the point I intended to make? The only section of the entire book that I recognised was Margaret Atwood’s. And that’s partly because hers is a voice-driven segment, not unlike “Impatient Griselda” and the oozy nurse. But of course, I knew she was one of the contributors (based on her editorial role), and that was quite a hint.
Have you read either “Patient Griselda” or “Impatient Griselda”? Or, Fourteen Days? If you have, did you recognise any of the contributors without flipping to the back of the book? Have you read any other collaborative novels?
Margaret Atwood
“The aliens arrive. We like the part where we get saved. We like the part where we get destroyed. Why do those feel so similar? Either way, it’s an end.”
Another fantastic MARM quote! i never read 14 days but I remember reading a review of it where it was stated it ‘didn’t quite work’ . I enjoy collaborative books too though, so I wonder if I would like this one. The only kind of book that I’ve read that’s similar was that sex anthology (so far, there’s been two) from Dundurn where each story is written by a different author, but you don’t know who. There’s a list of authors, but you don’t know whose is which. It’s a fun concept, especially where sex is concerned, the anonymity makes sense 🙂
Yeah, that’s the kind of criticism I heard volleyed around, too, and I understand the sentiment, but it worked for me (with that different way of reading, anyway). Right, you and Naomi were both in the dark on that one. Mext time an anthology like that comes around, we should all plan to read it at the same time and make our best guesses!
I’d forgotten about Fourteen Days, thank you for the reminder!
We’re both often looking for a “slightly lighter” volume in the stacks, to counter bleaker tales, and this one fits that bill.
I haven’t read, or even heard of, Fourteen Days. I’m sure it was fun for the authors, but what would I as a reader gain from it other than mild amusement? However, I got more than mild amusement from Impatient Griselda. I went from your review to the origins of the Griselda story, so I was expecting impatient Griselda to at least stab her husband when I went to the story itself. But what MA gave us was something completely different, and lots of fun.
It’s a riff, I’m thinking, on the classic homages to storytelling (Chaucer? Boccaccio? Arabian Nights? but I’m not an authority on lit history) and the essetial need to tell stories even’especially in times of turmoil. But some of the “stories” (often just a handful of pages inside the framework of gathering in the evenings to bang their pots and pans on the rooftop during lockdown) explore various injustices (gender-based violence, racialization, etc.) and different characters debate/argue/defend.
IKR! I thought IG was simply entertainning with the narrator’s sly quips, but in the context of PG? So many possibilities. Are the two Griseldas two different sides of a coin or are the same person? Are we intended to celebrate the “two” women turning to violence, overturning the convention of patience (which recalls MA’s take on perfectly-patient-Penelope in The Penelopiad? Does this change the requirements of every Happily Ever After story forever-and-ever? Don’t feel obliged to answer, it’s just fun to think about.
I don’t feel obliged, or even able, really, to further your remarks on Griselda.
But, you will find Christina Stead’s Salzburg Tales, which you’re just starting, right? to be a very clever riff on The Canterbury Tales
Oh, yes! Something else was hovering in the back of my mind and that was it. Another is the chunky South American novel I mentioned months ago (when I ordered something for the UKLG list): The Garden of Seven Twilights by Miquel de Palol (Trans. Adrian Nathan West).
The Writers’ Fed of Nova Scotia does a fundraiser every year that results in two stories with multiple authors and they’re always fun to read. In that case, you know who wrote what, but that’s fun too. I’m not very good at guessing, but I like to attempt it. Like in the Secret Sex anthology I read – you don’t know who wrote which story. Fourteen Days sounds like something I’d like.
Ohhhh, so you never do find out who wrote which piece in Secret S*x? I assumed there was an appendix with the revelations and that you were just having fun TRYing to guess!
Nope. And I want to know!
I liked the sound of Fourteen Days when I first spotted it in the publishing schedules but was a little put off by its mixed reception. Putting it back on my list after reading your review, Marcie.
I think anyone expecting a series of short tales, rather than an overarching narrative arc, will have fun. Also, there are some significant American “writers’ writers” included, likely not well known overseas, so the bio’s might lead to interesting side-projects!
I’ve read and enjoyed Old Babe in the Woods. I don’t have a huge recall of Impatient Griselda, but I did enjoy it. I’ve got Fourteen Days on my TBR pile. Interesting that you could pick out Atwood’s part, but then she does have a rather distinctive voice. Now I’m wondering whether I will be able to pick her out when I get around to the book! A little reader test anxiety 😀
I felt a little weird too, about the idea that I probably wouldn’t be able to pick out her voice, but then I did and I think you will too. (Although I think part of the reason it stood out for me was reading it over so long a period of time, in little chunks, so it was like coming to it fresh with each sit-down.)