My Dear Lovely Readers!
Last night I began reading Margaret Atwood’s “Burning Questions”. I ran into the book at Saeed Book Bank in Islamabad and I had to buy it simply because it was Margaret Atwood and I had never seen any of her non-fiction writings in any of my favourite bookstores before. So I brought the book home and did not have the opportunity to touch it again for a week.
The book moved places quite a bit in that one week. It moved from under my pillow to my husbands side table. My seven month old daughter got her hands on it briefly and twisted the dust jacket. From there it moved to my dressing table where it lay and gathered dust and flecks of paint that keeps peeling off of my bedroom wall.
I picked the book up repeatedly during that first week but never got past the first sentence. Last night, however, I found myself determined to read a few pages. So I put the baby to sleep and settled myself at the foot of the bed to read the introduction. And I am so glad that I did.
Atwood’s Burning Questions is a collection of over fifty essays written over a period of two decades. She explains, in her introduction that this book is the third in a series of collections of essays and reviews that document her thoughts throughout her life. Her first such collection was Second Words, which covers the time period from 1960 to 1982. Her second collection Moving Targets, contains writings from 1983 till 2004. And Burning Questions covers work from 2004 till 2021.
Burning Questions is further divided into five parts, corresponding with different time periods in the last two decades. These writings contain, reviews, essays, personal sketches and other writings. While I have yet to read beyond the introduction, the introduction itself was an effortless read and Atwood’s style is so conversational and intimate that it feels like talking to a friend. I cannot wait to start reading the first essay.
I hope to record my journey with this book as I read. I may turn this into series and write a review on each section. Or I may just write another post when I’ve finished reading the book. i haven’t decided yet. I’d originally planned to record my thoughts on each essay but my husband assures me that it would be too much.
Hope to see you guys soon.
Love!
The Woman Out of Time
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