mass market paperback, 208 pages
English language
Published Jan. 13, 1983 by General Pub. Co..
Not my favorite Atwood, but there are moments of beautiful prose (duh).
A dense thought provoking read, and the best existential book with a female protagonist I have read since the Bell Jar. A dense, thought provoking book with vivid, savage landscapes and disconnected characters. I wish I had read with a group of students or thoughtful people. Rich with environmental and feminist commentary, unique, a Canadian Deliverance, the writing was stunning at times.
I had seriously considered skipping this book. By the time I got to it after reading other books first, I had drifted into some depression. Based on what was said, I didn't think the thing to help my attitude was to read about a psychotic person. But, because I hate to turn away a book, I started in. I figured it was short, if nothing else.
I really dislike this book. I don't like any of the characters. Even depressed I cannot relate at all to the main character, and if I was not in a low, I still would be unable to relate to her at all. She starts out with some serious issues, she contradicts herself (ie, the point where she talks about how much she felt after her first sex with Joe, yet later says she hasn't felt anything for years and years), and is extremely confusing …
I had seriously considered skipping this book. By the time I got to it after reading other books first, I had drifted into some depression. Based on what was said, I didn't think the thing to help my attitude was to read about a psychotic person. But, because I hate to turn away a book, I started in. I figured it was short, if nothing else.
I really dislike this book. I don't like any of the characters. Even depressed I cannot relate at all to the main character, and if I was not in a low, I still would be unable to relate to her at all. She starts out with some serious issues, she contradicts herself (ie, the point where she talks about how much she felt after her first sex with Joe, yet later says she hasn't felt anything for years and years), and is extremely confusing to read.
The writing style is confusing. We drift between present and past with no distinction. I wondered a bit about the characters past for a few chapters, but at half-way through the novel, I no longer cared. The MC's attitude that everyone is out to get her is inherently judgemental, yet she pretends she is not judgemental at all, just observing. Ugh! I won't go on. As for the other characters, I found them flat. What little character they expressed was dispicable.
I got the feeling Ms. Atwood had no concept of history and did very little research. It took forever for me to figure out how old the character was, I was drifting anywhere from 18 to middle-age when finally she says something about Anna being older than her and in her 30s. Based on what had already happened to the MC, I figured that put her in her late 20s. The beginning of the novel gives me a setting of the 70s, but maybe I'm all wrong on that one. The MC talks about her childhood and "the war," with lots of references to WWII type conflict. Yet, Joe seems more of a post Vietnam war vet than a WWII vet, and again there is a descrepancy in character age, apparent time frame for "present" and when the past could have occurred.
The anti-Americanism also gets old. I guess if you hate America/Americans, than it wouldn't bother you. Maybe its that I've read several fiction books lately full of anti-Americanism and I'm tired of being hated because I live in America.
All in all, if I hadn't heard Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale is wonderful, I would never read another novel by her again. I dislike the novel and the writing so much that I would recommend against her. But maybe I'm just depressed and crabby and over-reacting. Definitely, I think I should have skipped this novel.
I did read the end, but I wouldn't say I finished it.
