TUESDAY, MARCH 1 , 2022. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ RE C3
it shares her novels’ aversion to
absolutes. These 65 short pieces
are liberally punctuated with
question marks.
Read them and you will prob-
ably be struck by how sensible
and moderate Atwood is. To criti-
cize our “fantasies of endlessness”
as climate change becomes ever
more visible is scarcely controver-
sial. To argue that “the hard-won
rights for women and girls that
many of us now take for granted
could be snatched away
at any moment” seems
incontestable after the
passage of the “Texas
Heartbeat Act.” Many
readers nowadays will
agree that “The Hand-
maid’s Tale” is not specif-
ically “a ‘feminist dysto-
pia,’ except insofar as
giving a woman a voice
and an inner life will
always be considered
‘feminist’ by those who
think women ought not
to have these things.” As
the world has caught up
with her work, Atwood
has become a popular
seer figure; despite the
sci-fi trappings of some
of her books, she seems
to discern the world as it
really is. About many things, she’s
been right.
Readers’ enjoyment of “Burn-
ing Questions” may be propor-
tional to the pleasure they take in
Atwood’s cozy, twinkling tone.
She can’t resist an amusing simi-
le; she’s fond of appearing absent-
minded; she’s self-effacing. This
can become grating. Anyonewho’s won as many prizes and
sold as many books as Atwood
runs the risk of false modesty
calling themselves “a mere scrib-
bler ... a ferreter into matters
about which I don’t know very
much.” There’s sometimes conde-
scension in it; in one essay, she
adopts an alien persona to show
“earthlings” how to avoid totali-
tarianism — not cute.
Nevertheless, the book’s scope
and the perspicacity of her writ-
ing evince the reading
and thinking of a long life
well lived. There are
some good axioms worth
repeating: “It is one of the
functions of ‘horror’ writ-
ing to question the reality
of unreality and the unre-
ality of reality.” “Each of
our technologies is a two-
edged sword. One edge
slices the way we want it
to, the other edge cuts our
fingers.” She writes about
an astonishing array of
things: trees, zombies,
nursing, censorship,
#MeToo. She appraises
writers as varied as Ra-
chel Carson, W.G. Sebald,
Alice Munro and Stephen
King. She enjoyed “Kung
Fu Panda.” Range isn’t a
problem.
But some pieces feel dashed off.
She pads and digresses; what
could be a sentence becomes a
paragraph. Clumsy coinages feel
like placeholder words — calling
the death of Tiny Tim “weep-mak-
ing,” for instance. And some piec-
es smell like early drafts — a few
pages apart, both Shakespeareand his plays are described as
being slippery as eels.
This may be forgivable, or in-
evitable, given the demands on
Atwood’s time. In a humorous
short essay titled “A Writing Life,”
she lists things that have recently
made it difficult for her to write,
by the end of which one realizes
that the whole article is a smoke-
screen for its own execution. By
her testimony, she’s averaged 40
pieces a year for the past two
decades, which means the 65 se-
lected here were chosen from
more than 700 candidates. In that
time, she’s also published half a
dozen novels, a couple of short
story collections and two books of
poetry.
What’s lost in polish is perhaps
compensated by the impression
of direct access to her thinking
and feeling. “Wonderful Doris
Lessing has died” is a striking
example of an opener that cap-
tures both the spontaneity of the
commission and authentic emo-
tion.
Atwood lamented, in an earlier
collection, that “the book review
leans a little toward Consumer
Reports,” and indeed this word
limit permits only an outline of
what makes “Burning Questions”
both stimulating and frustrating.
It’s certainly a dipper rather than
a straight-through read. But it’s a
foolish reader who fails to seek
the flashes of brilliance and in-
sight that glint amid the more
workaday pieces.Charles Arrowsmith is based in
New York and writes about books,
films and music.BY CHARLES ARROWSMITH“Burning Questions” is a canny
title for Margaret Atwood’s new
book of essays and occasional
pieces. It reflects both the urgen-
cy of the issues dear to her —
literature, feminism, the environ-
ment, human rights — and their
combustibility, the risk that in
writing about them she might get
burned. Though she wryly self-
defines as a “supposedly revered
elderly icon or scary witchy gran-
ny figure,” Atwood, now in the
seventh decade of her colossally
successful literary career, can still
rile and inspire. She trends not
infrequently on Twitter, where
she has over 2 million followers.
Hulu’s adaptation of her novel
“The Handmaid’s Tale” is a touch-
stone in the fight for women’s
reproductive rights as well as the
object of criticism regarding its
intersectional failings. And a re-
cent interview with Hadley Free-
man in the Guardian has reignit-
ed the firestorm over where At-
wood stands in the culture-war
scrap over trans rights — a pain-
ful divide in contemporary femi-
nism.
There aren’t always clear an-
swers in “Burning Questions”;
indeed, Atwood points out that
essays are really just “attempts” at
answers and that they aren’t nec-
essarily all that anyway. “Fiction
writers are particularly suspect
because they write about human
beings, and people are morally
ambiguous,” she notes. “The aim
of ideology is to eliminate ambi-
guity.” Although this volume is
squarely on the nonfiction shelf,
BOOK WORLD
Atwood reflects on ‘Burning Questions’
BURNING
QUESTIONS
Essays and
Occasional
Pieces, 2004
to 2021
By Margaret
Atwood
Doubleday.
496 pp. $30lective originally formed to sup-
port the Black Lives Matter move-
ment, launched an online bake
sale in which members are selling
cookies, pies and cakes, with
proceeds going to humanitarian
groups including Save the Chil-
dren, International Rescue Com-
mittee, Sunflower of Peace and
WCK.
Co-founder and pastry chef
Paola Velez said more than 200
members, who include restau-
rant chefs, home bakers and ca-
terers, have participated so far.The organization doesn’t track
the donations, she said, but every
contribution counts. She said she
was surprised by the response,
given how difficult things are for
many people in the food industry.
“Anyone running a restaurant is
doing it by the skin of their teeth
right now,” she said. “But bakers
— they don’t ever not amaze me.”
A group of chefs and food
writers in the United Kingdom
has organized #CookforUkraine,
which encourages people to hold
supper clubs or bake sales to raisemoney for UNICEF. So far, the
effort has raised about $12,000.
“As my heart breaks to see my
native country forging a war with
its close neighbour, I turn to food
for its power to heal, to educate,
to unite and to support,” wrote
organizer Alissa Timoshkina, a
London-based food writer and
podcast host. “Like millions of
Russians, I too have Ukrainian
roots, and grew up on a beautiful
diet of Ukrainian and Russian
dishes. These countries have
shared a complex and rich his-In a video he posted Sunday on
Twitter from a WCK facility in
Poland, Andrés said, “People are
cold, families are cold.” He de-
scribed the location as being
along a road about a third of a
mile from the Ukrainian border.
“They are bringing children. It’s
freezing cold — I don’t know how
they make it.”
In addition to the operation
assisting refugees, WCK is also
helping local restaurants in the
Ukrainian cities of Odessa and
Lviv feed those who have stayed
in the country. Andrés described
reaching out to people inside
Ukraine. “We are telling them,
‘Guys, there are many ways to
fight. Some people fight making
sure people are fed,’ and those are
our people, and we are going to be
supporting them in many ways.”
In the video, he described a
three-phase plan that first ad-
dresses feeding refugees as they
cross at the borders and those
remaining in the country. After
that, the organization plans to
focus on helping feed people at
refugee facilities in neighboring
countries. Finally, he said, the
third phase would take place
once the fighting has stopped in
Ukraine, and WCK would help
organize trucks to enter Ukraine
and establish community kitch-
ens in various communities.
“I will make sure we don’t fail,”
he said.
MEALS FROM C1 Mook said the organization
had already entered the second
phase and has begun feeding
people at shelters, including a
pop-up facility in a nearby gro-
cery store that had been convert-
ed to a temporary shelter.
He said the organization plans
to step up efforts to get more food
into Ukraine for the duration of
the fighting, as supplies inside
the country dwindle because of
blocked roads and shuttered
stores, making it difficult for
people to feed themselves. An-
drés, he said, is possibly going to
go into Ukraine himself to deliver
flour to a group of nuns in Lviv
who were preparing meals.
He said the organizers are
hoping that the conflict ends
quickly, but they are ready for a
prolonged stay. “We have a plan
for the worst,” he said. “We can be
here as long as we’re needed.”
Mook said additional aid is arriv-
ing from the United Nations and
the World Food Program. But he
said the fast-moving Ukrainian
conflict demanded something at
the heart of the WCK model:
speed.
“We’re good at moving quick-
ly,” he said. “A lot is being done at
the institutional level, but we
know the need is here on the
ground and it’s immediate.”
Elsewhere around the world,
the food community rallied to
help support the Ukrainian peo-
ple.
Bakers Against Racism, a col-
tory, and the culinary language
reflects this relationship in the
most powerful and relatable
way.”
Restaurants, too, have become
fundraising hubs. In Washington,
Dacha Beer Garden is holding
events and specials to support
humanitarian aid. And D Light
Cafe, which is owned by a pair of
Ukrainian-native sisters, is hold-
ing a trivia night to raise money.
Others are reaching out to
fellow chefs among the refugees.
Damian Wawrzyniak, a chef at
the modern Polish restaurant
House of Feasts in the British city
of Peterborough, offered two U.K.
work visas and flights to Ukraini-
an chefs fleeing their home coun-
try, an offer he said on Twitter
that he had discussed with his
local member of Parliament, who
was helping arrange it. He has
since also organized transporta-
tion to take donated clothing and
other supplies, including hand
sanitizer collected from another
Polish restaurant, to Ukraine.
Ukrainian eateries in the Unit-
ed States have seen an outpour-
ing of support from customers
hoping to show solidarity with
Ukraine. Local news reports and
social media posts noted people
lining up to dine at Veselka, the
longtime Ukrainian diner in New
York, this weekend. The restau-
rant was selling a special edition
of New York’s iconic black-and-
white cookies in the colors of the
Ukrainian flag.Power of food: Culinary community rallies to aid Ukraine
WORLD CENTRAL KITCHEN
Chef José Andrés and volunteers from World Central Kitchen serve hot food to
Ukrainian families that crossed into Medyka, Poland, on Sunday. WCK is also helping
local restaurants in two Ukrainian cities feed those who have stayed in the country.BY SONIA RAOTwo weeks ago, Americans sat
on their couches in anticipation
of what was sure to be one of the
biggest televised showdowns of
the year. To a certain subset, this
didn’t describe the Super Bowl
held near Los Angeles but a face-
off taking place a little ways off,
still in California, between fic-
tional teenagers Maddy Perez and
Cassie Howard.
You see, Maddy (played by
Alexa Demie) had recently dis-
covered her best friend, Cassie
(Sydney Sweeney), was sleeping
with Maddy’s on-and-off boy-
friend, Nate Jacobs (Jacob Elor-
di). When the secret affair began,
Cassie justified her actions by
fixating on the fact that Maddy
and Nate had been broken up for
weeks. But that didn’t much mat-
ter, did it? Upon finding out,
Maddy, fiery as ever, screams that
she is “literally going to get vio-
lent.” Cassie, overwhelmed and
conflicted as always, sputters and
cries before eventually becoming
silent.
Everyone else in the room is
trying to stage an intervention for
the series protagonist, Rue Ben-
nett (Zendaya), who struggles
with substance abuse and ran
away from home after her mother
realized Rue was using again.
Such chaos is typical of “Eu-
phoria,” Sam Levinson’s HBO se-
ries that rattled audiences when
it premiered three years ago. It
followed in the footsteps of itsteen drama predecessors with
scandalous portrayals of troubled
high-schoolers but upped the
ante for a premium cable audi-
ence. The second season of “Eu-
phoria,” which came to an end
Sunday night, nearly doubled the
viewership of the first, according
to Variety. For that subset of loyal
viewers, the weekly show man-
aged to become appointment
television in an era dominated by
the flexibility of streaming.
Much of the shared viewing
experience unfolded on social
media, where the conflict be-
tween Maddy and Cassie gar-
nered just as much interest as
Rue’s storyline, if not more. That
makes sense, despite a clear dis-
parity in the gravity of their
respective situations; the show
itself seemed to grant each plot
equal screen time. In its second
season, “Euphoria” embraced its
outlandish proclivities, Maddy
and Cassie in particular deliver-
ing one-liners destined to become
memes within hours (e.g. Cassie
yelling that she has “never, ever
been happier” with tears stream-
ing down her face).
The increased levity makes
“Euphoria” easier to digest, but
sets the show on a different path.
There are meaningful elements to
the storyline — such as the tur-
moil Maddy and Cassie face in
response to Nate’s emotionally
abusive behavior — but it leans
into the catfight of it all, getting
away from the creative risks that
once made the series stand out.of an hour-long conversation at a
diner between Rue and her Nar-
cotics Anonymous sponsor, Ali
(Colman Domingo), presented in
real time. Rue has relapsed and
Ali is well aware, informing Rue
that “sobriety is your greatest
weapon.” She responds that
“drugs are probably the only rea-
son I haven’t killed myself.”
Their conversation is probing,
devastating and at times funny,
stripped of the superficial drama
and flashy camera work that are
essential to “Euphoria’s” brand
but can distract from its heart. At
its core, this is a show about
teenagers grasping for their sens-
es of purpose in a cruel world.
There are glimpses of this
throughout the second season;
the episode in which Maddy finds
out about Cassie and Nate is a
standout not just for that encoun-
ter but for the explosive, extended
opening scene in which Rue dis-
covers her mother disposed of her
drug stash.
When “Euphoria” works, it’s
largely because of the talent of
actors like Demie, Sweeney and
Zendaya. The young cast has
proved capable of over-the-top
hilarious outbursts, but deserve
just as many opportunities to
navigate scenes more nuanced
and varied in tone. Luckily, the
wish could be granted — the
series was renewed for another
season, one that will hopefully
overcome the second’s setback of
becoming more palatable but
much less remarkable.MEMO
What kind of show does
‘Euphoria’ want to be?
In a recent interview with New
York magazine, Zendaya suc-
cinctly described the challenge of
a sophomore season: “It’s like we
were chasing ‘Euphoria,’ ” she
said. “We were like, ‘We need to be
what we were in season one,’ and
we were trying to find that spark.”
The first season took the road less
traveled, especially with Rue,
boldly diving into the realities of
teen substance abuse and its im-
pact on those around her. The
growing focus on boy drama — in
another part of the show, a male
classmate named Elliot (Dominic
Fike) comes between Rue and hergirlfriend, Jules Vaughn (Hunter
Schafer) — still makes for a com-
pelling watch, but ultimately
plays it safe.
It’s telling that the episode best
capturing the spark of the first
season is one that breaks the
mold entirely. HBO released two
stand-alone “Euphoria” specials
while the series was off air, one
focused on Rue and the other on
Jules. The former takes the formThe increased levitymakes “Euphoria”easier to digest,b ut sets the showo n a different path.EDDY CHEN/HBOZendaya as Rue, left, and Hunter Schafer as Jules in “Euphoria.”
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