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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 first story, "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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це не роман, але й не зовсім збірка оповідань: тексти, об'єднані головною героїнею, складаються в історію, розтягнуту на кілька десятиліть.
ось вона дівчинка, яка чекає народження сестри і спостерігає за мамою (I couldn't understand why she'd chosen to do what she'd done - why she'd turned herself into this listless, bloated version of herself, thus changing the future - my future - into something shadow-filled and uncertain. I thought she'd done it on purpose. It didn't occur to me that she might have been ambushed);
ось вона проблемний підліток, а трошки далі – непримітна молода жінка з поривами до філології;
ось вона жінка, досі молода й не дуже примітна, але тепер із багажем із коханого чоловіка, його колишньої дружини й ферми (Once in a while, a gizzard - squirrel, Nell suspected - or else a tail, or some other chewed-up body-part offering, would appear on the back-door threshold, where Nell would be sure to step on it, especially if her feet happened to be bare, as they often were in summer. The cats had a vestigial memory of civilization and its rituals, it seemed. They knew they were supposed to pay rent, but they were confused about the details.);
ось вона дивиться, як гасне її мама, і розуміє, що сама вже підійшла впритул до старості.
і все це трошки ретроспективне, а тому спокійне, світле й повне любові, навіть коли самі історії обурюють чи болять. така, знаєте, класично прекрасна етвуд.