Title: Cut and Thirst
Author: Margaret Atwood
Genre: Fiction; Humor; Women’s Fiction
Book Length: 35 pages (short story)
Book Version Read: eBook
Year Published: May 1, 2024

Date Started: May 3, 2024
Date finished: May 4, 2024

This story is about three women friends who, once a week, get together to talk about life. The women are retired professors: Chrissy, Myrna, and Leonie, who enjoy each other’s company. Initially, there were four of them, but one of them, Fern, became very ill and couldn’t join them anymore. Lately, their conversations have been about revenge and murder on the men who ruined Fern’s career. They think it was these men who caused Fern a lifetime of stress and that’s why she was ill.

They talk about how they could murder these men, one-by-one. There were eight or nine men and they all deserved death. However, coming up with ways to kill them wasn’t so easy. Each scenario they thought of required too much from them. Their goal was to leave no trail. In the end, they agreed it would be too much work, so their next best option was to make the men’s lives miserable. They decided to start from the bottom up, so the main man who started it all would be the last and the man who had the least involvement would go first. Chrissy knew more of the man who was least involved, so she decided to take brownies, mixed with laxative, to his home. She had this idea all planned out how she’d tell him she was finally ready to sleep with him. She hoped he’d also still want to sleep with her. It had been, after all, many years later, and they were old and gray.

When Chrissy arrives at the man’s house, she learns that he was married, and that he wasn’t the right man. There were two men with the same name, and this one actually apologized (although, they think only to save himself from his own guilt and not really to benefit Fern). She couldn’t leave with her brownies, and she didn’t want to leave her brownies for them because they might not eat it. So, she played along and ate a brownie herself. Later, the women gathered and talked about it. They were able to include Fern at one of their gatherings to talk about the brownies in hopes to make her feel better, but it turns out, Fern really didn’t care. She had come to terms with the situation and was happy in her life.

This was a beautifully written story! I loved it so much. I can’t believe this was a short story because there were so much to take from it. These elderly women were funny. They seemed so serious, but it was just too funny to take seriously. I enjoyed how they talked about the woke education system nowadays and how relieved they were to be free of it. They appeared to be feminist—old school feminist, as portrayed by their experience with fierce competition from the men who had the upper hand, because in their time, men did have more power. What they did to Fern was beyond cruel. It was outright evil, and they got away with it. Then, there was the underlying feeling of old age, illness, and death they all were dealing with and going through in one way or another. There was a scene where the women wished they had avenged these men when they were younger. I think we can all agree that there are people in our lives that we want to avenge, but we just don’t know how or have the time to think much on it. And, most the time, our own lives are full of sadness, pain, and spurts of joy that it doesn’t even cross our minds to wonder about their lives.

This story had me wondering if it was a fiction version of Atwood’s real-life story. For instance, could Myrna have been Atwood herself? Also, there was a character named Deepak, could that have been Deepak Chopra? Did they know each other? Could be a totally different person all together, but what if?

If you get the opportunity to read this book, I’d highly recommend it. It’s very thought-provoking and again, well written. It was worth every minute of my time.

Who should read this book: Anyone who enjoys Atwood’s work or women’s fiction, humor, literary fiction. It’s a short story so won’t take any time to read.