While I am a fan of her more speculative fiction, I’m finding that Margaret Atwood can write about almost anything and make it fascinating. This long mainstream novel is a character study of Elaine, a female artist growing up in Toronto who finds herself riding the wave of early feminism. The narrative moves back and forth from the present, when Elaine has returned to her native city for a showing, to her past, from her early childhood through her first marriage and divorce.

Clearly, the most formative time in Elaine’s life is when as a pre-adolescent girl, she was bullied mercilessly by her friends in the torturous ways that only girls can seem to devise. Ironically, she can’t even remember these events, having blocked the abuse completely, until she is going through her dying mother’s things and discovers some meaningful items from her childhood that bring the memories flooding back. I think all women can relate to what Elaine experienced, and I even found myself cheering out loud when she finally stands up to her tormentors. Still, she never quite gets over it, and that incident will shape her life and her art, even when she doesn’t remember it.

Atwood tells a wonderful coming-of-age story here, while aptly weaving in the history of the feminist movement, especially in art, and drawing parallels between the young bullies and the militant feminists Elaine will later encounter.