by David Wiley

During the length of Margaret Atwood's nearly 30 years as a published poet, novelist, short story writer and critic, she's written a book for almost every one of those years. And although any list of Atwood's best works will undoubtedly be fraught with shameful omissions, the following highlights serve as a bare-bones guide to her outstanding literary career.

Surfacing (1972) This deeply disturbing novel is told by an unnamed narrator who goes on a wilderness retreat with her boyfriend, Joe, and their friends David and Anna. Soon she realizes what a bunch of pricks Joe, David and Anna are. Then she slowly loses her grip on what she thought was reality and finds that she has to completely re-invent herself in order to survive. The New York Times condescendingly calls Surfacing , "the most shattering novel a woman ever wrote." Pay no heed to this sexist nonsense, and read the book anyway. But beware, Surfacing is recommended mainly for masochists and primal scream enthusiasts.

The Handmaid's tale (1986) This novel is Atwood's biggest success, and rightfully so. The Handmaid's Tale presents a nightmare vision of the future that out-Orwells Orwell in both the depth of its insight and the breadth of its humanity. The setting is the Republic of Gilead (formerly the United States) in the not-too-distant future, and the protagonist and narrator, Offred, describes her daily life as a handmaid. Named Offred because she belongs to Fred, she explains that widespread sterility is diminishing the world population and that the state rations out fertile women to the most prominent men in hopes of preserving the best genes of the race. Despite the awesome gloom, Atwood writes with surprising humor (as always), and rather than working as a simple cautionary tale, The Handmaid's Tale offers hope in the face of overwhelming irrationality.

Cat's Eye (1988) Possibly Atwood's finest novel, Cat's Eye tells the story of four friends -- Elaine, Cordelia, Grace and Carol -- growing up together in Toronto. The tale is told alternately by Elaine as she is growing up, and by Elaine as an adult, who ends up as a marginally famous painter. The novel is one of the most terrifying portraits of childhood ever written. Cordelia is an almost satanic presence, and Elaine's tortured childhood will resonate with anyone who attended sixth grade. But what makes Cat's Eye truly transcendent is how Atwood plays with issues of memory, time and existence. She combines physics gleaned from Stephen Hawking with her own metaphysical observations to create a nearly epic vision of the childhood and adult selves.

The Robber Bride (1993) An inverted version of the Brothers Grimm fairy tale, "The Robber Bridegroom," The Robber Bride is the story of three women, Tony, Charis and Roz, who are haunted by their evil college friend, Zenia. Atwood calls Zenia "a grown-up Cordelia," and, truly, Zenia is about as sinister as they come. She steals their men, their money and even makes a play for their children. But Zenia, unlike Cordelia, seems to have no excuse for her actions, so watching her operate is that much more harrowing. Although Atwood uses the Grimms' text as a loose backdrop, the story reads more like Aesop's fable, "The Wolf and the Crane," in which a crane saves a wolf's life and gets no reward in return but his freedom. As Tony, Charis and Roz each deal with Zenia, they find that, like the crane, they should be grateful to simply be escaping with their lives.

Morning in the Burned House (1995) Atwood has published almost a dozen books of poetry, and this is only the most recent. The poems in Morning in the Burned House find the author addressing themes of aging and death, which, depending on Atwood's mood, she treats with either elegiac gravity or smart-assed irreverence. In the poem "Man in a Glacier," Atwood's family looks at slides of their dying father, in which he is younger than his reminiscing children. And in "Wave," she reports that same dying father asking her, "Why are you so old?" But in "Asparagus," she muses, "I wonder / if I should let my hair go grey / so my advice will be better." For a longer view of Margaret Atwood's poetry, check out her Selected Poems and Selected Poems II. But for the uninitiated, it's almost always best to see what the poet has to say today.