At the outset Verna had not intended to kill anyone. What she had in mind was a vacation, pure and simple. Take a breather, do some inner accounting, shed worn skin. The Arctic suits her: there’s something inherently calming in the vast cool sweeps of ice and rock and sea and sky, undisturbed by cities and highways and trees and the other distractions that clutter up the landscape to the south.
Among the clutter she includes other people, and by other people she means men. She’s had enough of men for a while.
Written in 2011, yet so timely. Also a such a pleasure: a master of the form at the top of her game.
"Stone Mattress" by Margaret Atwood
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Things to notice in this story (besides everything) -- Look at the role of backstory/ exposition in this piece. This is a problem everybody wrestles with: how to handle exposition. How she do it here? How does the story of what happened in the past work as part of the present-time narrative? How do the revelations contribute to forward-moving action in the present?
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