A review of this — 3 years ago
I like a lot of Atwood’s book (esp The Blind Assassin), and I can see WHY I should appreciate this one, but it just didn’t work me me on lots of levels. Firstly, it’s simply too self-conscious – trying too hard to discuss various issues concerning madness, civillisation, identity blah, blah. Secondly, it’s too disjointed. I know that this is supposed to be representative of the protagonist’s failing sanity, but it just came out as a lot of old heavily-loaded gobbledegook. And thirdly, the characters were all unpalatable. I didn’t feel a shred of empathy for any of them. Again, this may have been deliberate, but I would have expected at least some shades of grey.
This one is going back to Oxfam this weekend.
Comments
Manda
Asheville
Well said...
I am reading this book right now – I’m about halfway through it … and I am feeling the same way. Atwood is my favorite author and I know this is a good book, but I am just not getting very entangled in the book like I would expect. The part when she sits at the table painting the princesses…I started to think … MAYBE this will be okay…but I have no feelings for the characters and like you said, a lot of things seem forced. I just did a paper on Atwood and feminism so maybe that’s why it seems so prevalent to me. I noticed that she seemed to be forcing the feminist and religious views throughout the book so far. We’ll see – maybe I will change my mind by the time I finish it. Have you read Lady Oracle?
JakeB
I haven't read Lady Oracle
But I’d like to give it a try.
I also studied Atwood at university – we covered The Handmaid’s Tale & Cat’s Eye in a course on Recent Canadian Fiction (not so recent now – that was over 14 yrs ago!).
If I ever get enough time, I’d like to read a chronological cross-section of her work to see how she has developed as a feminist writer. I have a friend who is starting a PHD in Post-Colonial Feminist Theory so will have to pick her brains!
Have you ever read I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith? I think that’s a feminist classic – one of my favourite books ever.
Manda
Asheville
I haven’t read I Capture the Castle, but I have certainly seen Dodie Smith mentioned along with Margaret Atwood many times. I will add it to my list of books to read though!