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For readers of Wilderness Tips who didn’t grow up in Canada in the late 20th century, this will seem like another typical, non-SF Atwood book: the short story collection is full of wry observations about interpersonal relationships; the settings are either the wilderness (I count 5, or roughly half) or downtown Toronto (the other half); and the sharp, knowing prose verges on poetry at times, especially in the stories� startling final lines.

But for Canadians, there are other treats in store!

Atwood has fictionalized several notable Canadian figures in these stories. There’s the pedantic journalist figure in “Uncles,� clearly modelled after Robert Fulford (the physical description alone is him to a T); there’s another journalist, June Callwood, in the book’s final story, “Hack Wednesday,� a tender look at a middle-aged woman’s life; and there’s “George� (not his real name), the charismatic figure of a Hungarian immigrant who is married to one sister and longs for the others in the title story (I did some digging, because it rang a bell, and apparently it’s based on George Jonas, who was a contemporary of Atwood’s).

But the most haunting, and probably the most accurate, of these roman a clef touches is the mysterious, kohl-eyed, precocious teen poet in “Isis In Darkness� called Serena, who’s obviously based on Gwendolyn MacEwan, who was also a contemporary of Atwood’s in the 60s poetry scene in Toronto. Oh, how I wish I had been alive to visit the Bohemian Embassy (here’s a clip from a movie about it; it begins with Atwood, of course, and the ethereal MacEwan is at 0:30).



Of course, there’s more to these stories than mere allusions to Canadian figures.

The book’s most famous story is “Hairball,� about a journalist, Kat, who’s wooed from London back to Toronto to run a new fashion magazine. The title refers to the benign tumour she’s had removed from her body and which she keeps, as a memento of sorts, on her mantelpiece. The item becomes a talisman, especially after a relationship she’s involved in breaks down. I won’t give away the ending, but wow, it’s a whopper. I can imagine Atwood giggling nastily to herself when she dreamed it up, thinking, �This will shock them.� Oh, it does.

A couple of the stories (“The Bog Man,� “The Age Of Lead�) feature long-dead bodies whose discovery or unearthing sheds light on dying relationships. The title story, all puns intended, is a carefully observed tale about a charming and lecherous man who works his way through a well-off Canadian family’s sisters. The opening story, “True Trash,� begins at a summer camp, with its mix of privileged boy campers and the (mostly) working-class young women who are counsellors, and shifts forward to look at how a few of them have turned out.

These stories are all very accessible, and might make atmospheric reading if you’ve got access to a cottage. And a handful � “Hairball,� “Isis In Darkness,� the poignant final story, “Hack Wednesday� � are among the most memorable Atwood has written in the short story form.