Reviews - O femeie obişnuită

1.07k reviews for:

O femeie obişnuită

Margaret Atwood

3.67 AVERAGE

collin_p's review against another edition

4.25

challenging emotional reflective sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

As long as it took me to finish this book, I do think Atwood crafts a pretty focused drama that offers a charcuterie board of specific characters and symbols. It does take too long to get to the main literary event: the protagonist’s developing an increasing inability to eat food. Her metaphorical curse prevents her from inconveniencing the “lives” of her meals, imagining pulsating meat and carrots that scream when pulled from the ground. This is a clever way to illustrate the subtle fashion in which she begins to lose herself in anticipating a marriage to a conservative husband. She can’t even bear to clean up her roommate’s increasingly filthy dishes because she can’t bear to kill the mold, fungus, and germs they’ve become addled with. Peter, her fiancée, isn’t a terribly bad guy on the surface, but it’s in the stealthy, subconscious ways in which he controls her and sculpts her with each pet name that cause her to become accommodating to all but herself. Make no mistake, though, Marian is by no means perfect either, which is part of the fun. Atwood seems to excel in feminist narratives that emphasize the flaws of her oppressed characters as much as the sneaky ways the system works to oppress them. Really great overall, despite a slow pace.

smileysunflower's review against another edition

4.0

This is a very metaphorical and peculiar book. The ways that Marian's struggles and loss of identity were written was really compelling and upsetting and I really liked the ending (it was beautiful, in a way?) I probably shouldn't have resonated as much as I did with her mental state manifesting through a complicated relationship with food. Seeing the other characters doing what they were doing was interesting, though I have to admit that the point of some of their characters' went over my head at first (what the hell Ainsley) but it was never dull.

gingernolife's review against another edition

4.75

challenging reflective slow-paced

lorynharris1's review against another edition

3.25

challenging funny mysterious reflective slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

harrietsbookcorner's review against another edition

2.0

slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: N/A

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: N/A

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

lilyfeld5's review against another edition

3.5

A little hard to follow but I really liked the first half

kewlkat70's review against another edition

2.0

there really isn't anything "wrong" about this book, or anything else by Atwood (well, Surfacing aside). However I can't swallow anything she writes. Ha.