Nose in a Book

The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood

Read for: The Canadian Books Challenge

I find the more Atwood I read, the more I appreciate her writing.  Sometimes I don’t love the plot but her writing is brilliant.  If you’ve read Oryx and Crake you might recognize the setting and some of the characters in this novel.  It took me a really long time to clue into this though.  I did read Oryx and Crake right when it first came out so it’s been a while.

In this novel, there’s been a supervirus (the waterless flood) that’s spread through out a large majority of the population.  The story is told through two of the survivors, Ren and Toby who have managed to avoid the plague by being isolated from the general population.  Through flashbacks we learn that Toby and Ren were once part of the same religious group – called the Gardeners – and have since left for various reasons.  Eventually, Ren and Toby are forced to leave their respective hideouts and they are able to find others from their pasts and eventually each other.

I really liked this novel.  I sometimes have a hard time reading dystopian literature because it can be so disturbingly accurate.  Somehow this one didn’t get to me the way others have. (And not because it’s unrealistic.  Maybe I’m just becoming desensitized to it because I’ve read so much lately!)  With people making such a big deal over the swine flu and a possible pandemic it becomes a lot more real to read about a virus that killed huge portions of the population.

The characters in the book were likable and realistic.  It was really interesting to read how Toby viewed  Ren after they were reunited and see how different it was of Ren’s own view of herself.  I think this is quite often true in the real world.  How we see ourselves can be very different from how others view us.

I have a really hard time writing reviews of Atwood’s work because there is so much to talk about that I just don’t know where to start.  I also feel like I don’t want to give away too much of the story because it’s so much better to read it without knowing what’s coming next.  So for those reasons I think I’ll stop now.  Just read the book yourself!  It’s good.

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

Read for: Banned Books Week, 1% Well Read Challenge, Canadian Books Challenge

The more I read of Atwood, the more I come to realize what a brilliant writer she is.  I read a few of her books about ten years ago and I think I just wasn’t ready for them yet.  Everything I’ve read of hers recently (even the ones I haven’t enjoyed) have really struck me in some way or another.

Most people have read this one, and those who haven’t usually know what the general plot is so I’m going to make my summary brief.  This one is another dystopian society – Gilead.  Offred is a handmaid which means that her sole purpose is to procreate.  Handmaids are sent to Commanders and their Wives in the hopes that they will conceive a child.  If she does, she bears the child and then moves on to another Commander.  Handmaids (and in fact all women) are allowed almost no freedoms and are carefully watched to be sure that they do not  step out of line.  As the novel unfolds, Offred, whose real name is never revealed, reveals Gilead came to be.

I really liked this book, actually a lot more than I was expecting to.  Once I started reading, I couldn’t put it down (which for me and Atwood is rare).  As I mentioned earlier, Atwood is a brilliant writer, but besides that she has the ability to tell a really great story.  Even though, Offred was in a truly depressing situation, Atwood kept giving little hints that all was not lost, there was hope yet.  Offred clung to the hope of her daughter and husband from “before”.  She was able to find friendship in unexpected places.  I liked that in the darkest of times, Offred was able to see the simple beauty in the flowers (or perhaps she imagined them, which makes it that much more amazing).

On the other hand, parts of this book were terrifying because Gilead is so plausible.  Almost every part of this society has some historical (and some not-so-historical) counterparts.  There have been times in the past and in the present in parts of the world, where women have been treated as less than human, as just bodies to clean up, cook and have babies.  Even the way Gilead was formed was scarily real and even reminiscent of certain incidents following 9/11.

I am really glad I finally took the time to read this book, but I’m also glad I waited until this point in my life because I don’t think I would have understood it as well without the lens of experience I’ve been able to view it through at this time.

Other reviews:

• Book Nut
• things mean a lot
• read_warbler
• it’s all about me

If I missed yours, please leave a link in the comments.

This week weekly geeks asks:

This week, tell us about a book (or books) you have been meaning to read. What is it? How long have you wanted to read it? And, why haven’t you read it yet?

When I first read this, I wasn’t really sure how to answer.  I have several books on my TBR list, I also have a TBR to my son list.  I could just post those on my blog, but I thought that might be kind of boring.  Then I remembered The Handmaid’s Tale.  I’ve been meaning to read this for several years.  I want to read it because I feel it’s a Canadian classic and because, come on, who hasn’t read it?  The reason I haven’t read it?  I’m pretty sure it’s not really my kind of book.  I’m not usually a fan of the whole dystopian future thing or the ultra feminist thing.  I’m sure it’s a great book, and I know that Margaret Atwood is a great writer (I love The Blind Assassin and Alias Grace) I’m just not sure I’m ready to tackle this one quite yet.  Some day, but probably not soon.  I’m not sure it’s a book I can handle right now.  (I’m pregnant and somehow it’s changed my response to what I read.   I’ve not noticed this with my previous two pregnancies, but this one has been totally unique in every way!)

Anyway, someday I will read The Handmaid’s Tale, but I haven’t yet.

The Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood

Read for: The What’s in a Name Challenge – book title with a profession in it, The 1% Well Read Challenge

I’m still unsure about how I feel about this book.  I finished it last night and after sleeping on it and reading some other reviews, I’m liking it a bit more than I did initially.

The story is about three women who are connected by their hurt at the hands of a single woman, Zenia.  Zenia is supposedly dead, but on the day that the novel begins, the friends are meeting for lunch when Zenia walks into the restaurant.  As each of the women leave the restaurant that day, they begin to remember the circumstances that brought Zenia into their lives and caused them so much pain.

Zenia is extremely manipulative and she knows exactly how to act and what to say to each of these women to be allowed into their lives and to steal their men.  We never really learn anything else about Zenia because everything she says is a lie.  Her history is a story carefully tailored for the person she’s telling it to, in order to garner the most sympathy.  Zenia must be extremely intelligent to be able to determine exactly what will work the best on each of these women, but she is not at all likable.  Her motivation for destroying these women’s relationships seems to be none other than because she can.

The story is told, in turn, from the viewpoint of the three friends.  First we hear from Tony, then Charis and lastly Roz.  Each of the women, from their own point of view, seem weak but when we view them from the other women’s perspective they become stronger and much more likable.  Isn’t this true of real life?  Are the people around us able to see our strengths better than we can ourselves?  I liked the book a lot better once I realized this.  I was feeling disappointed that the characters were all so weak-willed when I noticed that they weren’t really.  It was just their internal voice that was, but these women were a lot stronger than they thought they were.

The book was centred around Zenia and I thought it was about her, but I’ve realized that it wasn’t about her at all.  It was about the three women.  This is their story, not hers and that’s what I like about the book.  This book definitely isn’t for everyone, but if you like Atwood’s other books, you’ll like this one too.

Other reviews: caribousmom, dancing badger

The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood

*Warning – There are spoilers in this review!*

I was going to do this book as one of my favourites, but I’m not sure yet that I can put it up there with some of the other books I’ve reviewed.  I did just reread it and couldn’t put it down.  I think I even liked it better this time around.  Anyway, onto the review!

Atwood starts the book with this line: “Ten days after the war ended, my sister Laura drove a car off a bridge.”  She just dives right in.  The book is divided into alternating parts.  One set of sections is narrated by Iris Chase Griffen at the age of 83.  Her writings are a journal that she is writing for her estranged grand-daughter, basically the story of her life.  The other set of parts starts with newspaper articles that tell more of Iris’ story and alternates with a novel attributed to Iris’ sister Laura, and published posthumously by Iris.  Laura’s novel is also called The Blind Assassin.

Iris begins her story with Laura’s death and then begins to describe their childhood as daughters of a  successful industrialist.  As the girls grow up they lose both of their parents and Iris is married to one of her father’s competitors.  As a result Iris and Laura end up in Toronto living with Iris’ husband, Richard.  Iris’ marriage is not a happy one and Laura does not get along with her brother in law at all.  As the novel goes on, we realize that there is a very good reason for Laura’s hatred of Richard, which Iris is unaware of.

Meanwhile,  the reader is treated to Laura’s entire novel.  It’s a story about an unhappy married socialite carrying on an affair with a communist agitator in hiding.  There are no names or details in Laura’s novel but as the story continues, you realize that the story is autobiographical and that Laura is not the author.  The details of the affair are never described, but he tells her a story in instalments.  It is in this story that we meet the blind assassin.

What I love about this novel is the way Atwood tells the story.  The reader starts out with many questions.  As the story goes on, all of those questions are slowly answered.  I just love the way Atwood gradually reveals more details as the novel unfolds. I also love the way she tells a story within a story within a story.  (I read one website that described compared them to Russian nesting dolls.) You’d think is might be complicated and confusing but Atwood does such a good job timing and relating the different parts of the story that it’s easy to follow.

The novel isn’t a happy novel with a happy ending, but I do think it’s very well written and very poetic.  This is the kind of writing that is truly amazing.  I can see why it won the Booker.  Other books by Margaret Atwood that I would recommend are Alias Grace and Oryx and Crake.  (Two entirely different books though…I’m warning you!)