The Edible Woman

by Margaret ATWOOD

281 p.

– published in 1969 –

ABOUT THE BOOK

The Edible Woman, a 1969 novel that helped to establish Margaret Atwood as a prose writer of major significance, is the story of a young woman whose sane, structured, consumer-oriented world suddenly slips strangely out of focus. Following her engagement, Marian feels her body and her self are becoming separated. As Marian begins endowing food with human qualities that cause her to identify with it, she finds herself unable to eat, repelled by metaphorical cannibalism. – wikipedia

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Margaret Eleanor Atwood, CC, O.Ont, FRSC (born November 18, 1939) is a Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, and environmental activist. While she may be best known for her work as a novelist, she is also a poet, having published 15 books of poetry to date. Many of her poems have been inspired by myths and fairy tales, which have been interests of hers from an early age.^[3] Atwood has published short stories in Tamarack Review, Alphabet, Harper’s, CBC Anthology, Ms., Saturday Night, and many other magazines. She has also published four collections of stories and three collections of unclassifiable short prose works.

She is among the most-honoured authors of fiction in recent history; she is a winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award and Prince of Asturias award for Literature, has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize five times, winning once, and has been a finalist for the Governor General’s Award seven times, winning twice. – wikipedia

MY THOUGHTS

First, starting with this review, I’ll try from now on to insert information about the book and author from wikipedia.

If you follow this blog, you probably already ran into my comments about my love-hate relationship with Mark Twain. I admit I have the same kind of problem with Margaret Atwood: I enjoy very much the style and quality of her writing, but the content has the tendency to totally creep me out – yes, I know, it’s supposed to. The problem then for me is that I’m both attracted and repelled. As this book was published in 1969 and fit well into my own Reading Challenge [books published in the first 5 years of my life], AND because this is Atwood’s first novel, the attraction prevailed.

I enjoyed the beginning of the book, her writing always flows so well, I felt drawn into the lives of the characters, but at the same time, I was wondering when the creepy things would begin! Well, they do little by little, and this is part of the grandeur of the book. And when Marian hits rock bottom, things get better again. So as a whole, it is actually a much more positive books than others by the same author, as the outcome seems to be for the best – as far as I could judge.

The relations between love and possessiveness and freedom would be a very valuable theme to study and follow as you read along.
All the characters feel very true, each with his/her own bizarreness.

So I really enjoyed this book, and it may help me overcome my hesitation to read at last the Year of the Flood.

HAVE YOU READ THIS BOOK YET?
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