The Labrador Fiasco by Margaret Atwood
Despite my extreme rubbishness at taking part in challenges and readalongs and the like, I couldn’t help but be tempted by the concept of November being Margaret Atwood Reading Month (hosted by Buried in Print and Consumed by Ink). I love Atwood’s books, and so it was a no brainer that I’d try to get to something of hers this month. However, as usual, time ran away with me and the end of November has been getting closer and closer. So I cast my eye over my Atwood shelves, and suddenly spotted a tiny volume peeking out – “The Labrador Fiasco”, a small Bloomsbury Quid edition which has been there since, oooh, 1997…
Now the problem I have, as I’ve talked about before, is often not being sure whether I’ve read a book or not (except when it’s something so massive and monumental and memorable and life-changing that it’s etched in my brain). I read a *lot* of Atwood in the 1980s while I was commuting – 25 minutes each way on the train is great for getting through books – and many of them came from the local library. However, “Labrador” came from a time when I was surrounded by children of various ages (the youngest being quite small) and I struggled to read much at the time. So I may or may not have read this – but it was slim enough to digest in a very short session and still bring with it the enormous satisfaction that always comes from reading Margaret Atwood.
The Bloomsbury Quids were a series of small books that cost just that (a quid is one pound sterling, for those from other climes…) The list of titles in the back makes interesting reading as several of the books and authors might well have slipped out of sight nowadays. But what of the Atwood? Well, it’s 41 pages long and mingles the story of a disastrous expedition with the failing health of the narrator’s father. Atwood is, of course, known for her writings about the Canadian wilds, and so the expedition story is familiar territory. However, the blending of the narrative with the effects of ageing and illness on father in the story adds a level of poignancy and gives the little book an emotional heft you might not expect from its length.
Their hopes are high, adventure calls. The sky is deep blue, the air is crisp, the sun is bright, the treetops seem to beckon them on. They do not know enough to beware of beckoning treetops.
This is very much about losing your bearings, whether out in the world or in your everyday life. I found that “The Labrador Fiasco” had a particular resonance for me because of my own father’s gradually failing health before he passed away in 2015. Watching a loved one coming adrift is always difficult and the narrator’s responses to her father’s issues chimed in with many of my feelings. So I guess I may not be responding to this book unemotionally…
A further level of strangeness came about when I started to use the book receipt which was still sitting inside the front cover as a bookmark. As you can see from this image, that was how I could date the purchase of this book:
My parents were still living in Hampshire at the time (I grew up there after we moved down from Scotland) and when the Offspring were younger we would go down to spend a week with them. That always included a visit to the nearest bookshop (of which I have very happy memories….) and I can see from the receipt that I also bought an “Owl Babies” board book for Youngest Child. I think this is why I have problems parting with books – they’re so often linked with specific bits of my life (and I suspect Owl Babies is still somewhere in the house…).
But back to Atwood. This is, of course, 41 pages of brilliance from one of my favourite authors. In that ideal world, where I had nothing whatever to do but read, I would spend much of the time reading and re-reading her work. As it is, I’m very glad that #MARM has spurred me on to drag something of hers off the shelf, even if it has stirred up a few emotions in the process!
Nov 27, 2018 @ 07:26:30
Yay for Margaret Atwood!
Nov 27, 2018 @ 09:04:16
Yay indeed! One of my most favourite writers!
Nov 27, 2018 @ 07:34:51
Love the review of both the book and remembering the purchase, how lovely that you kept the receipt and that it tells its own story.
The Bloomsbury Quids remind me of the 2€ Folio Collection in French, a collection of short texts that continues to be published today, covering five genres, contemporary, classics, history & human sciences, crime, SF & fantasy. The current top seller is Barack Obama’s Discours choisis ‘Selected Speeches’. Non-fiction and short philosophical titles are tremendously popular.
Nov 27, 2018 @ 09:04:02
Thanks! Books do so often have specific memories attached – this is why I have separation issues with them. The Folio Collection sounds great – I wish my French was better. I love the sound of “short philosophical titles”….
Nov 27, 2018 @ 09:15:59
It’s often the first thing you spot when you enter a bookstore, near the cash desk, especially enticing since book prices are protected in France.
Nov 27, 2018 @ 10:38:24
Oh, stop it! You’re making me so jealous!!!!
Nov 27, 2018 @ 08:14:19
“This is very much about loosing your bearings, whether out in the world or in your everyday life.”
Is this the lose/loose autocorrect striking again or an metaphor?
Nov 27, 2018 @ 09:03:03
LOL! That would have been a lovely metaphor, but yeah, autocorrect again….!
Nov 27, 2018 @ 11:44:21
I haven’t read the Atwood, but Owl Babies has to be one of the best picture books ever!
Nov 27, 2018 @ 14:41:48
It is! My youngest two loved it!
Nov 27, 2018 @ 16:21:46
I’m currently reading Hag-seed so I had a look at the list of her works but this title is nowhere to be seen. However this edition is still available on Amaz. I love a disastrous expedition :-), I’ve even bought Captain Scott’s journals, and the hubby and I have recently been watching The Terror, a series based on Dan Simmons’ novel. A bit gory, but couldn’t get enough of it !
Nov 27, 2018 @ 18:51:03
Ah, well if you like expeditions, have you read her “Strange Things”? It’s all about “the malevolent north” and I loved it!
Nov 27, 2018 @ 17:40:51
Oh this sounds so lovely, and deeply poignant. What a treasure to have on your shelves, and that old receipt sparking memories of holidays when your children were younger. So glad you join in with MARM, I know how you love Margaret Atwood.
Nov 27, 2018 @ 18:44:13
It’s a very moving read, and I really did relate to the narrator’s relationship with her father. The old receipt was a bit of a shocker, too. I do love Atwood!
Nov 27, 2018 @ 17:43:17
I hadn’t heard of this Atwood, so will keep a look out, I love your bit of reminiscing. There’s so much more to books than just the actual reading isn’t there?!
Nov 27, 2018 @ 18:43:28
There is. The books I hang onto are always part of my life in one way or another – this one certainly got the memories going!
Nov 27, 2018 @ 18:11:14
What a brilliant find. Smashing post, Karen!
Nov 27, 2018 @ 18:42:40
Thanks Paula! I was glad I dug this one out!
Nov 28, 2018 @ 02:12:04
Love this post! And just realized that I have yet to read a proper Margaret Atwood from cover to cover although I’ve been meaning to for some time, especially with her Cat’s Eye and The Blind Assassin. Now I’ll have to add this to the list as well. 🙂
Nov 28, 2018 @ 10:58:35
Thanks! As far as I’m concerned, anything of Atwood’s is worth reading!
Nov 28, 2018 @ 08:15:01
As others have said, a lovely post, especially your memories of times past. A beautiful contribution to the MA reading month.
Nov 28, 2018 @ 10:57:58
Thanks Jacqui! It’s amazing the memories such a small book can stir up!
Nov 28, 2018 @ 12:01:16
I now know why I couldn’t find this title on the list of her works. It has in fact been included in the collection ‘Moral Disorders’…which has now gone staight to my wishlist.
P.S. I love finding “things” in my books. My most precious find: a dried edelweiss that my father had kept in an old dictionary for decades (I think it is now forbidden to pick them).
Nov 28, 2018 @ 13:44:48
Oh, that’s interesting! I have Moral Disorders but am as fuzzy as ever about where and when I might have read it! I do think it’s lovely to keep things in books – I’ve found intriguing bits of memorabilia in second hand ones which left me wondering what the story was behind them…
Nov 28, 2018 @ 13:47:44
What a nice memory to find! (And how nice that new books used to be able to be bought for £1…)
Nov 28, 2018 @ 14:35:20
LOL! Well. to be fair, you can still get a Penguin Modern little edition for £1 and it’s about the same size as this is (i.e. diddy). But ideal for a quick read when you don’t quite know what to pick up and *need* to read something!!!
Nov 28, 2018 @ 16:01:44
I just love that you still have the receipt! What great memories.
I actually requested this from the library for this month’s reading – I wanted something nice and short. As soon as I started reading it I realized I had read it before and discovered that it’s one of the stories in Moral Disorder, which I read a couple of years ago. I was happy to read it again, though. I love how excited the narrator’s father gets about figuring out where they went wrong, and making up his own list of things he would take on the trip. A reminder of how great stories are at “taking you places” you’re not able to go anymore (or ever).
Thanks for joining in! 🙂
Nov 28, 2018 @ 20:40:33
It’s funny how many of my older books do have their receipts still – a legacy from happy days with many bookshops of the bricks and mortar kind to choose from! And I was so glad to join in. The relationship between the narrator and her father was so beautifully drawn – amazing what a writer of Atwood’s talent can do in so relatively few words!
Nov 28, 2018 @ 18:50:03
How lovely! This slim volume got me out of a reading slump several years ago when I was looking for skinny volumes on the library shelves to jolt me back into the habit of turning pages in an exceptionally hot city summer, but I don’t remember anything about the story (even though I later reread it in the collection Izzy and Naomi have mentioned above). I’m so glad you were inspired to pull off an Atwood book from your shelves and to get reacquainted not only with her skill but with your memories via the receipt (I love that – and I love other people’s receipts when I find them in second-hand books too)!
Nov 28, 2018 @ 20:37:49
Whenever I read Atwood it’s a treat and this one was just what I needed (despite the emotions involved) I probably have read it at some point in the past but it has a resonance for me nowadays. And yes – I must always keep my receipts! 🤣
Nov 29, 2018 @ 13:53:14
This sounds a bit like her first novel “Surfacing”. I wasn’t familiar with this but I can see myself reading this some day. She’s always good.
Nov 29, 2018 @ 15:50:35
It’s a while since I read Surfacing, but I *would* like to revisit her early books. And yes – she definitely is always good!
Nov 29, 2018 @ 20:25:41
You’ve reminded me that I have this somewhere in the shelves, I must look for it, I remember so little and a re-read won’t take long!
How lovely to find the receipt & the memories it brought back. I love it when I find someone’s ‘bookmark’ (receipts/tickets etc) in a second hand book and speculating about the story behind it 🙂
Nov 30, 2018 @ 09:56:08
Yes, it’s slim enough to get through in a sitting. And I love finding things left in books too – I came across a tiny snapshot of someone in front of the Eiffel Tower once and would have *loved* to know the story behind it! 🙂