Margaret Atwood

My Evil Mother

Seher Mohsin

“It was very sweet of you to invent all that for me.” She looked at me sideways out of her green eyes. “Invent?” she said.

The protector was her, the greater power was her, the Universe that took an interest was her as well; always her. “I love you,” I said.

“You were such a sensitive child. So easily wounded. So I told you those things. I didn’t want you to feel defenseless in the face of life. Life can be harsh. I wanted you to feel protected, and to know that there was a greater power watching over you. That the Universe was taking a personal interest.”

“It’s hard living with someone who’s always right.

She says I don’t have the sense God gave a goose.”

I certainly didn’t want any pointing going on; pointing was how you directed a spell.

I very much wanted to be liked. My mother frequently said I’d have to give up that frivolous desire if I was going to amount to anything. She said that wanting to be liked was a weakness of character.

“They may not like me, but they respect me. Respect is better than like.”

“Why would I care about the tittle-tattle of the uninformed?

(Worth it, she said: only the wild ones had souls.)

My mother had a thing for blue in tableware; she said it warded off any evil eyes intent on ruining the food.

Leon

Lara Engle

What a fun, witchy, mother-daughter tale!

Andrew John Kinney

I love that Margaret Atwood is still producing high quality stories. Gives the rest of us a bit of hope.

Maria 

This may be Short but it’s really something. This is my first book by Margaret Atwood and I will be reading more

C. J. Daley 

This is an Amazon Publishing short story, so it is available to read for free under Prime reading. It’s been a while, but I am an Atwood stan, so I had to read immediately after stumbling upon it. 

To me, the title is based on the generic views of a teenage girl—arguably, any teenager (typically) feels the same at some point in their lives. Her mother claims to be anything but normal, or rather the neighborhood claims it for he…be it a potionist, or looney, or even a witch if you will. I loved the way Atwood handled this in such a short amount of time. Could her mother have actually been all of these things? Sure. Is any of it definite? No. 

If you have some time, I implore you to read this. This is all kinds of witty, funny, and loving. So many little tiny things will resonate with you from your parents. How they behave, talk, what they will do to protect you, how they’ll allow themselves to be perceived. It made me miss my own mother, even with the title like ‘My Evil Mother’…mine is anything but “evil” FYI. 

A great, lyrical, poetic short story. Exactly what you should expect from Margaret Atwood. Personally a 5/5*

My Evil Mother

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