June 2024: Margaret Atwood

In June, we are leaving the island where we had been stuck for the last few months and going to Canada to explore the work of Margaret Atwood (1939-11-18).

These days she is probably best known for The Handmaid's Tale. My introduction to her work was The Blind Assassin (a very long time ago and in translation) and since then I had explored a lot of her other work.

What do you plan to read? If you had read her before, which of her works is your favorite? And if she is one of your favorite authors, what would you recommend to someone who is about to meet her for the first time?

I've read lots of Atwood, especially her novels up to The Handmaid's Tale. My favorite is probably The Robber Bride. Of her recent books I thoroughly enjoyed Hag-Seed, a modern re-telling of Shakespeare's The Tempest. I also enjoyed her book on Canadian literature Strange Things.

I plan to read either The Heart Goes Last (a novel) or Burning Questions: Essays and Occasional Pieces, 2004 to 2022.

I have only ever read The Handmaid's Tale, maybe 10 years ago. I would probably re-read it and then maybe the sequel.

Only read Atwood's A Handmaid's Tale and was not impressed. It may have been because I struggled with the flow as she did not use quotation marks. I really have no desire for a re-read as I found the theme to be overused and predictable. I have The Penelopiad: The Myth of Penelope and Odysseus on my shelf and will probably give Atwood a second chance with this. If my library has Hagseed, I may take kathy's rec and try that.

>4 Tess_W: I had read The Tempest before I read Hag-Seed, and Atwood's novel actually helped me understand the play even more. Her book is set in a prison, where a director (not an inmate) volunteers his time to coach the inmates to put on The Tempest. So you learn even more about the play as he's teaching it to his actors/inmates. And there are some funny bits, too.

>4 Tess_W: I didn't remember that, but I too find it very annoying when authors do things like dropping quotation marks, scrunching dialogue into continuous blocks of texts, having excessively long paragraphs or no chapter breaks. I don't know if they think they're trying to be clever, but it does not work for me.

>4 Tess_W: I hadn't really been contemplating participating in an Atwood read, but had forgotten The Penelopiad, so thanks for the reminder. I've just read Pat Barker's two books The Silence of the Girls and The Women of Troy, and they reminded me that these myths are well worth exploring.

An interesting Atwood book that may not be read much anymore is Alias Grace, which is well written, but doesn't feel as if you are reading her - you can just enjoy it.

>7 SassyLassy: Yes, Alias Grace was another one I enjoyed, and it's loosely based on a real person in Canadian history.

I've decided to join the goup because by happenstance, I've been reading some Margaret Atwood. My favourites so far have been The Edible Woman and Cat's Eye. Earlier this year, I read Bluebeard's Egg, collection of short stories many of which are inspired from her childhood - I really enjoyed them.
Right now I'm reading Payback, an essay on debt: moral and financial. I'm loving it; she weaves so many concepts as they've emerged through time and it's fascinating.
I have a couple other of her books on my shelves, so I'll pick one for June.

Ive read most of her novels and short story collections Think my fav are Handmaids Tale, Alias Grace, Hag Seed, Robber Bride . also read Burning Questions: Essays and Occasional Pieces, 2004 to 2022. which for the most part I liked but after a while found lots of repetion of themes.

Plan to read her new collection of short stories old babes in the wood

If you haven't voted, visit https://www.librarything.com/topic/360838# to vote for the Jul-Aug-Sep authors.

Hopefully I'll have time to finish Payback. I'll also be reading Oryx and Crake which I've had since 2012.

I've read lots of Atwood, especially her novels up to The Handmaid's Tale. My favorite is probably The Robber Bride. Of her recent books I thoroughly enjoyed Hag-Seed, a modern re-telling of Shakespeare's The Tempest. I also enjoyed her book on Canadian literature Strange Things.

I plan to read either The Heart Goes Last (a novel) or Burning Questions: Essays and Occasional Pieces, 2004 to 2022.

I've started Burning Questions: Essays and Occasional Pieces, 2004 to 2022 and quite enjoying Atwood's wit and wisdom. I plan to read a few pieces each day, and hope to get through the 450+ pages by the end of the month.

now reading her new babes in the wood, another short story collection.

>14 kac522: I really enjoyed that, Its a good idea to just read a few at a time,I did find some pieces that were repetitives but I found a wealth of ideas there

I'm re-reading The Handmaid's Tale, am about half way through, it's good but I think it does sometimes meander a bit and could be a bit tighter.

I have finished a re-read of The Handmaid's Tale, probably Atwood's most famous novel for the general reader. It is a dystopian novel set in the US in a near future (compared to when the novel was published in the mid 1980s) where a theocratic and ultra-patriarchal society has taken power in a political coup, overthrowing and massacring the President and Congress. We only find out later how the coup succeeded and, as before, I was struck by how rather unrealistically quickly this new regime seemed to have altered the mindset of the majority of the population. The storyline is suitably horrifying and the dystopic element works well, though the narrative does meander somewhat and I found the timeline sometimes a little confusing. I had mixed feelings about the postscript describing a conference 200 years in the future discussing the Handmaid's story as a historical record, I understood the point and the backstory it provided was satisfying to read, but the novel would probably have ended more effectively without it. 4/5

>18 john257hopper: I may have had a different (earlier?) version than you. I listened to this on audio in 2018 and here was the last few lines of my review: Anything good I would have to say about the book was ruined by the last three chapters: 1) a question and answer period 2) an afterward by Atwood 3) an afterward by Valerie Martin (?) analyzing the main character and faintly singing Atwood’s praises. All the other reviews that I have read her on LT do sing the praises of this book. However, I disliked it so much that at this time I'm not willing to do a re-read! Nice review, btw!

>19 Tess_W: My edition had a short introduction by the author, but I didn't feel it spoiled the book in any way.

I have the sequel The Testaments which I will read at some point reasonably soon, but not quite yet.

>20 john257hopper: The afterward by the author got very political and just turned me off.