Atwood April 2014

Yes, it's that time of year already. This will be the 2nd annual Maggiefest. Hard to believe, that 3 short years ago, I had not read Atwood. The Handmaid's Tale changed all that. Now, I have read 6 and looking forward to adding 2 more.

^These will be my 2 choices.

Signing up for Atwood April. My read will be Lady Oracle which I've heard nothing about so I'm going in with a blank slate.

Thanks for starting up this thread, Mark :)

OK--I am in but not sure what I will read. I wanted to re-read Cat's Eye, so maybe I will go with that, but I can't find my copy. So irritating.

Carmenere -- I just LOVED Lady Oracle when I read it, maybe 30 years ago. I can't remember anything about it though!

I am about 250 pages into Cat's Eye. So far it is typical Atwood - except there is no element of a dystopian future. Just a bleak present for the characters.

I managed to talk my book discussion group in real life into doing something by Atwood in April. Cat's Eye was what we chose. It will be interesting to see what the ladies have to say when we meet on April 8.

Added to the group wiki...

Are you joining us, Jim??

Haven't thought that far ahead... :) I've been interested in Oryx and Crake, and may use this as an excuse to finally get to it.

What? Are you working on a big project or something? Jeez!! I think Oryx and Crake is a perfect place to start.

I'm in, just not sure which books yet.

I've got my options narrowed down to Lady Oracle or Cat's Eye or The Penelopiad (all on the tbr), or Oryx and Crake which I'd borrow from the library. I'm sort of leaning on dipping into the tbr though... so it'll probably be Cat's Eye.

I have a copy of The Blind Assassin sitting around unread, so maybe that will be my Atwood for April.

The Handmaid's Tale for sure; a reread but I read it so long ago that I don't remember much about it. Also, her short fiction collection, Wilderness Tips, is a possibility.

Ooh, count me in. I read through the Oryx and Crake trilogy last year, finally read Blind Assassin earlier this year, and the plan is to read Alias Grace for Atwood April!

I'm about 3/4 of the way through Alias Grace and stalled so I promise I will get that one finished. Loved it so not sure why I stalled. Guess other books got in the way.

I also have on my shelves Dancing Girls and Other Stories and Negotiating with the Dead: A Writer on Writing.

I may or may not get to those.

The three Atwood books I have out are Cat's Eye, Alias Grace, and The Robber Bride. April is shaping up to be a really busy month!

> 16: Indeed!

Great to see everyone, lining up their Atwoods!

Cathy- I will kick off the month with Negotiating with the Dead. I have not read any of her short fiction and have not heard of Dancing Girls. It doesn't seem to get as much praise as her novels.

>16 AuntieClio:- You got that, right! Anyone else, also doing the Morrison-AAC?

> 18 Negotiating With The Dead is non-fiction.

I was referring to Dancing Girls. Sorry.

> 20 gotcha, now that is fiction! :-)

I'm in. I'll read The Blind Assassin next month.

I'm going to read the Penelopiad.

I'll be reading Alias Grace.

And since last April I loved her book of poetry, Morning in the Burned House, this year I'll be reading The Door.

I read Oryx and Crake this month (it's still March!) and it was a 5 star read for me. I might follow up with The Year of the Flood seeing as it's Atwood April.

Oh I need to find the Atwood poetry! It will fit with the April RandomCAT challenge. Thanks for that tip >24 streamsong:!

ETA: The library has both Morning in the Burned House and The Door. I requested Morning.

I was positive I had a copy of The Blind Assassin around here somewhere, but I've ransacked the house and it seems I don't. So I think I'll be reading Wilderness Tips, or else re-reading The Handmaid's Tale.

Wow, I saw this just in time. I am planning to read Bluebeard's Egg and I'll move this up so I read it in April.

I've never read Atwood before, but this seems like the perfect time to take the plunge! I'll be reading Alias Grace.

I'm in - one of my favourite authors. I have Bluebeard's Egg starting at me from my bookcase.

I will be reading Oryx and Crake this month for this challenge.

I finished reading Cat's Eye and didn't think it was anything too exciting. But it did make me think.

I read Atwood's introduction and prologue to Negotiating With the Dead over my coffee this morning. I love her writing; I wish more of her fiction appealed to me. I did enjoy Alias Grace quite a lot, but I can't approach the dystopian stuff.

"Possibly, then, writing has to do with darkness, and a desire or perhaps a compulsion to enter it, and, with luck, to illuminate it, and to bring something back out to the light. This book is about that kind of darkness, and that kind of desire."

- Negotiating With the Dead

^I am enjoying this one. There are a few slow spots and then she'll rally back. I did like hearing about Atwood's childhood and school years, while growing up in Canada. She will be turning 75 this year. That is quite a reading life!

Planning on listening to The Year of the Flood. Last year was my introduction to Atwood, and I read two really good ones - The Handmaid's Tale and Oryx and Crake. Looking forward to getting back to her.Thanks, Mark, for setting this up!

Go Mamie! Go Mamie!

"This was very reassuring to me. The books were declaring that they were my pals; they promise to accompany me on my travels; and they would not only offer me some helpful hints, they'd be right there by my side whenever I needed them. It's always nice to have someone you can depend on."

I did finish Negotiating With the Dead. I had mixed feelings about it. She does mention, in the introduction that this was not about her writing life, but that is what I really wanted. She is so smart and incredibly well-read and there is much to savor here but it also comes across dry & "arty", dealing with more the ascetic angle of books and writing. I wanted meat & potatoes, something like Stephen King's excellent memoir. Ann Patchett also had an essay or two, in her recent collection that also discussed her writing life, that I really connected with. I am judging this book on what it isn't but there it is. The opening chapter that discusses her growing up in Canada was my favorite. She also name-dropped her friend, Alice Munro a few times, which, of course I loved.

I found Cat's Eye to be very "arty" as well. It is book about a very different topic, but the main character is a painter so there are long sections of the book that are about art. By extension I figured Atwood was really writing about being an artist and writing from her own experience. She claims that Cat's Eye is not biographical but I am not sure.

Currently reading Cat's Eye.

Reading Cat's Eye is making me a little anxious. I think only Margaret Atwood's prose would keep me reading a book about schoolgirl bullies. I'm about halfway through and I keep hoping things will work out, because I know how horrible that situation is.

Please no spoilers.

Cat's Eye will be next Atwood. I think I will try it on audio.

Well, I just finished reading Alias Grace. It couldn't touch The Blind Assassin for me, nor was it as enjoyable as the Oryx and Crake trilogy. I rated it down with The Handmaiden's Tale as not one of my favourite Atwood books - I wasn't left with the same awful and unsettled feeling, but I'll admit to drifting off and not feeling captivated by the story at some points. And yet I feel like I should re-read it.

Hooray, Atwood April! I have started to read The Blind Assassin today.

Hmm...I was planning on Alias Grace, but now I'm torn between that and The Blind Assassin. (I won't have time to read both.) Which one should I choose? I haven't read any Atwood before, so I really don't know what I'm getting into... :)

#44
If it is any help - I loved Blind Assassin. Like #42 it has been my favorite Atwood book so far.

to muddy the waters: I much preferred Alias Grace to The Blind Assassin. But, I like historical fiction and mysteries, which Alias Grace was a blend of. I did not like The Blind Assassin, and the multi-stories.

>44 christina_reads: Perhaps it would help to know that Alias Grace is sort of a mystery/historical fiction novel based on a "true crime" situation, whereas The Blind Assassin is a story-within-a-story-within-a-story, one of which is a science fiction tale. I have read Alias Grace and enjoyed it very much, but the set-up of The Blind Assassin doesn't appeal to me so I haven't tried that one.

>47 laytonwoman3rd: that's exactly what I was trying to say!

>48 raidergirl3: Sometimes, an author can get too clever, you know?

Thanks, all! >47 laytonwoman3rd: The problem is, both of those premises sound interesting to me! Ultimately I suspect it'll come down to what I have time for.

>50 christina_reads: In that case, something ELSE must give way...you need time for both!

Cat's Eye - I am giving my copy away, if you would like it, please PM me.

Atwood's prose and storytelling kept me going to the very end, although it was touch and go for me in the first half of the book because of the bullying. Sometimes, things just hit a little close to home.

Elaine's story starts when she is young and her family lives out of the family station wagon going from place to place doing research for her entomologist father in Canada during World War II. They eventually settle down in Toronto, where Elaine and her brother enter the school system.

Over the years, Elaine becomes best friends with a girl named Cordelia, who is the bane of Elaine's existence even after they go their separate ways.

Told in flashback/memoir style, Cat's Eye is a retrospective of Elaine's life told while she's invited to mount a retrospective of her paintings back in Toronto, which she visits from her new home in Vancouver.

While I did end up liking this book, it was pretty intense and I'm not convinced Cordelia ever got put into the box well enough.

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood (324p)

*****disclaimer*****
DON NOT READ THIS REVIEW IF YOU WANT TO READ THE BOOK, BUT HAVEN'T YET DONE SO. SPOILERS ABOUND.
*****end disclaimer*****

The story is of and by a woman. A woman who has had her freedom stolen and replaced with sanctioned sexual servitude. Set in the future, in what was the state of Maine, society has fractured. Religious zealots have taken over and dictated that the recent trend of infertility and deformed births will be rectified by creating the position of 'the Handmaiden'. These rare gems, fertile women, are billeted to powerful men whose wives want a baby. They have ceremonial sex and await impregnation before being moved elsewhere for the same routine. The wider society is heavily stratified and restricted to the point of armed defense and walls. 'The colonies' are where you are sent if you break the rules, and there you die from over work, under nourishment or radiation poisoning. We get all this information drip-fed to us through the life of our hero, the handmaiden. Seeing as she is old enough to remember freedom, she reminisces throughout the story. In this way we are able to get a full picture of life.

****end spoilers****

It is clever, and the information cleverly dispersed. It raises so many issues about personal freedom, government and conflicting ideologies. I am so glad this book finally got to the top of my tbr pile. I hope it gets to the top of yours soon too.

I just started listening to MaddAddam but it's been a while since The Year of the Flood, and I never read Oryx & Crake, so am very confused to get started. I'll persevere!

I'm waiting to get The Odyssey (in graphic novel form) before I read The Penelopiad

#54
I have been interested in reading The Penelopiad but decided that this year I would do Cat's Eye instead. Maybe next year for Atwood April I will do Penelopiad.

My real life book group had talked about doing another Atwood book - we read Handmaid's Tale a few years ago. This year we decided on Cat's Eye and we had a great discussion about it. We kept asking ourselves "Were girls really like that?" One person had been reading Ann Patchett's new book Story of a Happy Marriage and we spent much of our time talking about art and how society views artists. We all agreed that this was a book that we would be thinking about for a long time and thought that it was well worth spending the time reading it.

It was a good book discussion book because it was the type of novel about which a reader could ask many questions. A book that does that makes for good discussion.

>55 benitastrnad: - sounds like a good book group! I just finished Cat's Eye; now to gather my thoughts!

I am reading the Handmaid's tale. I am really excited about it. This group gave me an excuse to move it to the top of my to read pile. Thanks group leader!

>57 tmsaguid:- You are more than welcome! Enjoy!

How is everyone doing with Maggie? I plan on starting my 2nd one, Cat's Eye, later next week.

I finished Cat's Eye and my real life book discussion group had a great talk about it on Sunday, April 13. The book had enough material in it to keep us talking for almost 3 hours just about the book and not wandering off the subject. I don't want to talk about it until Mark gets done reading it, but the question that kept coming up in our discussion was "Are girls really like that?" If you belong to a real life book discussion group this title is a good one to generate discussion.

We also talked about Atwood as an author because this group has now read three Atwood books for discussion - Oryx and Crake, Handmaid's Tale and Cat's Eye. The three books are from different times in Atwood's career and we noted a progression of ideas from the early "Cat's Eye" to the later "Oryx and Crake." We really thought that there is a progression of reasoning regarding environmental themes that are there in all three books that gets stronger and stronger while her feminist ideas seem to take a back seat the farther in her writing life she goes. Did anybody else who has read Atwood books notice this?

Interesting thoughts, Benita! I would agree on the thoughts about the progression of work, I prefer her earlier work.

Here are my thoughts on the book: https://www.librarything.com/work/4150

Yes, little girls can, and are like that. Bullying by girls is less physical and more psychological and often, more devastating that the physical bullying done by boys. It's awful, horrid and sad.

Finished my Atwood read: The Handmaid's Tale. I get it. Authors want to get their viewpoint across. But I hate it when they do that with such a heavy stick. Not a fan. I'll give her another shot next year.

#62
Like you I was not a real fan of Handmaid's Tale. It was good but I thought very heavy handed. However, for me Handmaid's Tale took on a level of meaing that wasn't there until I read CAt's Eye. When I view the second novel as a progression from the earlier work, it makes more sense.

Am I the only one reading Lady Oracle? Gotta love a book that begins in this way: "I planned my death carefully; unlike my life, which meandered along from one thing to another, despite my feeble attempts to control it."

Question for Mark...was Maggie bullied as a child? That was a big part in Cat's Eye and is also mentioned in Lady Oracle. LO also contains a Story-within-a- story, which I ended up skimming in Blind Assasin as it was Sci-fi. Her internal story in LO is gothic romance, another genre I don't care for. Still, I am liking Joan's search for a new identity...so far.

I read Morning in a Burned House, an Atwood poetry collection. I was pleasantly surprised. Her lyrical prose makes great poetry.

>62 countrylife:- Sorry you didn't care for Handmaid's. I agree, she is not very subtle at times but this one really worked for me and remains my favorite.

Donna- Atwood did give some personal details in her writing memoir but I didn't see any mention of her being bullied or even having a hard time making friends. Of course, my knowledge is limited. LOL.
I hope to get to Lady Oracle next AA.

The Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood - TIOLI #6. Read a book with a word in the title that suggests something bad (robber)

This? This is a "thumping good read," and what a deliciously, ironic ending. Brava, Ms. Atwood, Brava.

Zenia preys on people, for fun and, mostly, for profit. She is an evil scheming sociopath with no scruples, morals or ethics.

Tony, Charis, and Roz knew each other slightly from college, but become fast friends when they bump into each other at Zenia's first funeral.

The Robber Bride is the story of these three women from childhood. It's the story of how Zenia wreaked havoc on their lives, and how they carried on.

And it's deeper than that. It's a look at how decisions made by others shape our lives without our knowledge, and how some people are just no good.

Be warned: there are possible triggers in one particular chapter.

I am loving Alias Grace.

“Your truths, painful and boring
repeat themselves over and over
perhaps because you own
so few of them.”
— Margaret Atwood, from We Are Hard On Each Other



Artist- Oksana Zhelisko

>64 Donna828:, >66 msf59:: Mark, there was an author interview in the back of Lady Oracle in which Peggy, as she likes to be called, stated that she had a very happy and normal childhood. I guess she just likes to write about bullying. Lady Oracle ended up being a fun, quirky read.

#66
I read something somewhere that Atwood said Cat's Eye is NOT biographical. If not - she sure has a way of making you believe it is personal experience.

>67 AuntieClio: I guess I can't call myself an Atwood fan until I read The Robber Bride. I need to get on that ASAP.

>69 msf59: I love that picture!

Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood

This is another "thumping good read." I'd like to believe Grace was other than what she was convicted as, but the truth is we'll never really know for sure. And Margaret Atwood does a great job of recreating this historic situation.

Grace Marks comes from the stereotypical "bad" Irish family in the 19th century. Mom keeps having kids and Dad drinks the money away. With the help of an aunt and uncle, and under the auspices of making a "fresh start" for themselves, Grace's family sails from Ireland to Canada. The poor girl never had a chance.

By the time they reach their new home, mom is dead and dad is just as horrible as ever, if not more so. Grace does the only thing she can and starts hiring herself out to the big houses as a servant. She eventually works her way up to better pay and is offered a job at the home in the country of a single man, by his "housekeeper."

Merely two weeks into this new job and things go sour so fast that Grace finds herself running away to America with the stable boy in order not to be implicated in the murder of both the housekeeper and master of the house.

They are caught and extradited, in a manner of speaking, back to Canada where they stand trial. Both are found guilty and sentenced to hang, but by the graces of intervention from a group of concerned citizens, Grace's sentence is commuted to life imprisonment.

After time in a lunatic asylum, Grace is moved to a women's prison and becomes the day servant at the governor's (warden's) home, where she meets Dr. Jordan and the group of concerned citizens.

Dr. Simon Jordan is from America and has his own set of troubles. His hopes are to continue researching mental illness and to set up an asylum which treats the patients humanely, instead of the barbaric way they are treated in his time. Grace's story is told mostly in conversation with Dr. Jordan as he tries to get her to unlock her amnesiac memories of the day in question. But he winds up getting himself in a spot of trouble and runs away back to America.

The book is written in both first person (Grace's point of view) and third person, when Grace is not involved. While I worried that some questions would remain unanswered, Atwood was meticulous at answering the ones she set up. Mostly. Answering "what happened to Jeremiah," and "what really was going on during the hypnotism scene," would remove some of the charm and mystery of this story. Better to leave it up to the reader to decide and speculate.

I found this book enthralling. And while wondering what really happened, I know that Atwood did the best she could with the materials at hand to weave a compelling story about servant girls, class prejudices, and the state of treatment for mental illness in 1860s.

>72 sturlington: Why do you say that?

>75 AuntieClio: just because I see so many good reviews of it, of which yours is the most recent. :-)

>76 sturlington: Oh. I don't know what to say to that.

"Old lovers go the way of old photographs, bleaching out gradually as in a slow bath of acid: first the moles and pimples, then the shadings. Then the faces themselves, until nothing remains but the general outlines.”

“This is the middle of my life, I think of it as a place, like the middle of a river, the middle of a bridge, halfway across, halfway over. I'm supposed to have accumulated things by now: possessions, responsibilities, achievements, experience and wisdom. I'm supposed to be a person of substance.”

-Cat's Eye

^I liked this book a lot. Her writing is so strong and effortless. I did prefer the first half and the second half, began to drag a little, but her prose and her uncanny human observations continued to amaze.

**I have a softcover copy of this one, in good condition. If anyone would like it, send me a PM.

Negotiating with the Dead by Margaret Atwood - TIOLI #13. Read a book in a genre you haven't yet read from in 2014 (LitCrit)

Negotiating With the Dead is a series of six essays based upon the Empson Lectures Margaret Atwood delivered at the University of Cambridge in 2000. These lectures/essays discuss big questions like: "What is art?", "What is Writing?," "Why do Writers Write?", and "What is the relationship between Writer and Reader?"

To each of these questions, Margaret Atwood applies her prodigious thoughtfulness, knowledge and wit. And, while not entirely useless for another creative soul looking for company, there is far too much navel gazing going on.

I usually enjoy reading/talking to other artists about their creative processes and their thoughts on creativity. Stephen King's On Writing is an excellent example of discussing the craft. Negotiating With the Dead, on the other hand, is LitCrit theory, vague and ethereal with only questions to circle around.

The biggest question I walked away with is, "Does it really matter?" If the muse calls, one answers regardless of theories about why. I'm much more interested in knowing Atwood's process and her thoughts on craftsmanship.

>78 msf59: Mark, so many people have told me how much they enjoyed Cat's Eye and I don't know what to say. I didn't that much. And I think that has to do a lot with the bullying that takes place in the first part of the book. It just sort of overrode everything else for me and I was always a bit anxious about whether she would see Cordelia again and what that would be like.

Cat's Eye was one of those books that made me go umh? I read the book becuase my real life book discussion group thought it was time to read a Margaret Atwood book again and I talked them into doing in April in conjunction with Atwood in April group read here on LT. Everybody in the group liked the book and we talked for hours about it. They bullying was a big part of our discussion but another big part was the questions about art. Our group has two painters in it, and they enjoyed all the writing about what is art?

We talked long time about the incident at the creek. Where Elaine fell into the water. Who was it she saw on the bridge? I said it was the Virgin Mary. Another woman said it was her Mother. I said that her Mother came to the creek and found her. Others said that Elaine walked all the way home and that her Mother never understood that she almost froze to death. I didn't think all of this was important but one woman in the group called me about two weeks after the discussion and questioned me about it. I felt that she was sort of grilling me. It was very important to her that I understand that Elaine's mother did NOT come to the creek and help her home. Elaine did it all on her own. I kept thinking that it wasn't that important, but to this woman it was. I finally said that for me the beauty of Atwood's writing was that in this story there was lots of room for interpretation since Elaine honestly didn't remember lots of events from her childhood and was surprised to find out a different version that what she remembered years later from her mother or brother, etc. That seemed to difuse the situation, but I was surprised about how important it was to this woman that we both agree on a "correct" interpretation of this one incident.

My other question about this book, was - if a child was peeling off the skin of her feet until they bled, wouldn't the mother notice this and do something about it? Like take the child to the doctor? It seemed to me that the adults could not have been that clueless.

>81 benitastrnad: Benita, wow. The way I interpreted when Elaine nearly drowned, her vision was like a near-death experience, and I think at one point she says it was Mary rescuing her. But if one interprets it as a vision, then it could easily have been her mom. And I agree with you, not that important.

The peeling feet also concerned me. I just went with it.

#82
Just goes to show how this writing is deceptive. It seems so simple and straighforward but it is incredibly neuanced. It could mean one thing - but it could mean another. I like the idea of it being a near-death experience with a vision built into it, but if it wasn't that is OK too. It would have made no difference in the power of the story.

>79 AuntieClio: I've only dipped into Negotiating with the Dead, but my reaction is much the same as yours so far. Every once in a while Atwood expresses a thought so clearly that I mark it with one of my trusty page points, but the book doesn't seem to be addressed to me, for the most part. Maybe I'm just not Cambridge material!

I finally read The Handmaid's Tale. I didn't realize it was set in Cambridge - I thought that since Atwood is a Canadian author, the book would be set in Canada. Nope! I'm guessing the former university with the wall is Harvard.

I find it a little hard to believe that a religious revolution would start here and not in the Deep South, but the book is almost 30 years old, so things could have changed.

I'm a little late to the party, but I've started reading The Robber Bride. I've always been a big fan of Atwood and am enjoying reading the comments on this thread.

I have a little under 2 hours of Maddaddam (and 3 days) to listen to. It is making me want to go back and read about Oryx and Crake now as I hadn't read the first book.