Stone Mattress by Margaret Atwood

 

This anthology, released in 2014, contains nine stories by Margaret Atwood.  I've never read anything by this author that was less than stellar and these stories continue that trend.  The first three stories in the collection are linked; the story of an author who started a fantasy land to support her poet boyfriend.  The couple split up and the author went on to become a famous author on the scale of George R. R. Martin and his Games Of Throne.  The second story in this series is about the poet who let the author go through his misogynic personality and his life thereafter and the third follows the life of his last wife.

The title story tells the story of a woman who has killed her first four husbands.  She is currently on an Artic cruise when she discovers one of her shipmates is the boy, now man, who humiliated her in high school and she starts to plan his murder as well.  This story was written by Atwood while she was actually on such a cruise to entertain her fellow passengers.

One of my favorite stories was The Dead Hand Loves You.  It is about a famous author who made a contract as a young student that has ruled his life.  He was destitute, sharing a house with three other students.  He couldn't come up with his share of the rent but agreed to a contract that the four would share as equal partners in the money from the book he is writing.  Much to all their surprise, the book is a major hit that has spun off other money making ventures such as films and tv series and the author and his partners all end up wealthy.  The author can't help but regret the contract as the others profit from his work.  All of the stories are first rate and this anthology is highly recommended for short story readers.