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3.29 AVERAGE
3.29 AVERAGE
Atwood certainly has a knack for conjuring up the awkwardness and discomfort of crumbling relationships. These people are dysfunctional and in pain, but not annoyingly so.
challenging
emotional
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
it’s a book that will make me think for a while. i don’t know what to make of it. i want the world to be a better place and this book doesn’t show that kind of possibility. so, is it a depressingly cynical story? or is it an exploration of three deeply flawed humans and their search for belonging, meaning, and identity? is it a good book if i recognize it is a genuinely amazing construction of very real and round characters, but i despise one of them with every fiber of my being, making the reading experience rather tiring?
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Cancer, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Mental illness, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Grief, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, Classism
.5 STARS
"Imprisoned by walls of their own construction, here are three people, each in midlife, in midcrisis, forced to make choices--after the rules have changed. Elizabeth, with her controlled sensuality, her suppressed rage, is married to the wrong man. She has just lost her latest lover to suicide. Nate, her gentle, indecisive husband, is planning to leave her for Lesje, a perennial innocent who prefers dinosaurs to men. Hanging over them all is the ghost of Elizabeth's dead lover...and the dizzying threat of three lives careening inevitably toward the same climax." (From Amazon)
I finished the novel - but then again I was on the bus and needed something to read. SNORE...a well-written feminist novel if you are interested in that. It made me dislike women rather than men. This is exactly why I hate some of Atwood's books.
"Imprisoned by walls of their own construction, here are three people, each in midlife, in midcrisis, forced to make choices--after the rules have changed. Elizabeth, with her controlled sensuality, her suppressed rage, is married to the wrong man. She has just lost her latest lover to suicide. Nate, her gentle, indecisive husband, is planning to leave her for Lesje, a perennial innocent who prefers dinosaurs to men. Hanging over them all is the ghost of Elizabeth's dead lover...and the dizzying threat of three lives careening inevitably toward the same climax." (From Amazon)
I finished the novel - but then again I was on the bus and needed something to read. SNORE...a well-written feminist novel if you are interested in that. It made me dislike women rather than men. This is exactly why I hate some of Atwood's books.
Sometimes I forget how much I dislike books where the entire plot centres around infidelity, and then I read one… Why are there so many books like this? Miserable, traumatized people making the people they “love” miserable and traumatized.
The only thing I did like about this book was the setting - I enjoyed touring Toronto in the 70s as the characters travelled to work and read the news between being awful
The only thing I did like about this book was the setting - I enjoyed touring Toronto in the 70s as the characters travelled to work and read the news between being awful
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-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
p. 242: Mummy. A dried corpse in a gilded case. Mum, silent. Mama, short for mammary gland. A tree whose hungry mouth is pressed. If you didn't want trees sucking at your sweet flowing breast why did you have children. Already they're preparing for flight, betrayal, they will leave her, she will become their background. They will discuss her as they lie in bed with their lovers, they will use her as an explanation for everything they find idiosyncratic or painful about themselves. If she makes them feel guilty enough they'll come and visit her on weekends. Her shoulders will sag, she will have difficulty with shopping bags, she will become My Mother, pronounced with a sigh. She will make them cups of tea and without meaning to but unable to stop will pry, pry like a small knife into their lives.
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I picked this up from a second hand store on a whim because I like Margaret Atwood. Unfortunately I didn't really enjoy this book, it fell completely flat for me. The book seemed to be a study of the games that people play, with each other's minds and with their own minds, fooling others and fooling themselves. I wasn't interested in the characters and the ending was an anticlimax. I don't mind endings that leave me guessing, but this one just left me cold.
dark
emotional
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
An understated character study. I loved the dynamics of the love triangle, and watching the changes in Lesje and Elizabeth.