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3.96 AVERAGE
3.96 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Beautifully written with complex, well developed characters. The chapters are all quite short so despite being a longer book, I got through it faster than I would have otherwise.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying
Moderate: Abortion, Suicide attempt
Good prose and interesting, compelling vignettes, but unfortunately I got through the whole thing and still wondered when the plot was going to start. It's meandering, with a narrator who isn't very self-aware, and claims control of her life and actions only rarely. On the one hand, I understand why: it was published in 1988 and is about a woman who was a child during WWII. It's about women of that era's lack of agency, and the way they take their frustrations out on each other and themselves rather than changing their lives, simply because they don't have the resources to lead a fulfilled life. But it makes for a dull, dragging story, especially when told from the first person. I could have done without most of the adult part of the narrative, especially the modern-day part about the narrator returning to Toronto for an art show. Elaine, the narrator, is so lacking in self-awareness she's almost repulsive in her tediousness. I don't think every protagonist needs to be likable, but it helps if they're passionate about something, which Elaine doesn't seem to be. Is there anyone or anything that she truly loves? ... We get no relief from Elaine since everything's told in her voice. Perhaps if it had been in the third, with a more reflective third-person narrator, the story would have worked better as a story, and not just a collection of memories and ruminations.
I was able to stop reading at many points, with no urgency to know what happened next. The book seemed to lack any forward movement, which may have been the point—but I prefer books that suck me in. This book took me more than two years to complete. It was one of those things that I could easily put down and forget about, and not feel like I was missing out by not knowing what happened next.
That said, I gave Cat's Eye three stars because the narrative about the childhood friendships was amazing, and the imagery and prose style were quite effective here. If the book had been a tighter telling of Elaine and Cordelia's relationship, with some of Grace and Grace's family and a bit of Carol, I would have likely been able to find the plot, and felt compelled to keep reading.
If you want to try Margaret Atwood, start with one of her later works or her short stories instead. Tighter plotting, and protagonists that are more compelling.
Note: I listened to the audiobook version, which was narrated by someone who sounded like she'd been educated in New England private schools, not like someone who'd spent the first half of her life in Toronto and the second in Vancouver. Irritating. This voice actor seems to be really popular for audiobooks of a certain era, so I was able to blot her stylings out a bit since I'd heard them so many times, but occasionally I did get irritated and want to yell at the mp3 player, "You'll never convince me you're Canadian!"
I was able to stop reading at many points, with no urgency to know what happened next. The book seemed to lack any forward movement, which may have been the point—but I prefer books that suck me in. This book took me more than two years to complete. It was one of those things that I could easily put down and forget about, and not feel like I was missing out by not knowing what happened next.
That said, I gave Cat's Eye three stars because the narrative about the childhood friendships was amazing, and the imagery and prose style were quite effective here. If the book had been a tighter telling of Elaine and Cordelia's relationship, with some of Grace and Grace's family and a bit of Carol, I would have likely been able to find the plot, and felt compelled to keep reading.
If you want to try Margaret Atwood, start with one of her later works or her short stories instead. Tighter plotting, and protagonists that are more compelling.
Note: I listened to the audiobook version, which was narrated by someone who sounded like she'd been educated in New England private schools, not like someone who'd spent the first half of her life in Toronto and the second in Vancouver. Irritating. This voice actor seems to be really popular for audiobooks of a certain era, so I was able to blot her stylings out a bit since I'd heard them so many times, but occasionally I did get irritated and want to yell at the mp3 player, "You'll never convince me you're Canadian!"
Classic Atwood. Razor sharp prose, acutely rendered characters, and a stunningly meandering plot. Not much actually happened in the 400+ pages, and yet the novel felt so full, so busy, so thoughtful.
If anyone asks me what this book is about, I’m not sure I’ll be ready to answer it. Yet.
If anyone asks me what this book is about, I’m not sure I’ll be ready to answer it. Yet.
I do not rock with this book as heavy. Like good work and all but was a little bit boring. I really only finished it because I have to finish books when I start them.
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Fuck exam season for getting in the way of me finishing this sooner seriously. LOVED IT. By the end of reading it I was getting scared when chapters ended because I got worried it was the end of the book but I just needed it to keep going. I am still so invested in Elaine's life and its so easy to identify with her experience with girlhood. I was already obsessed with Atwood but this has just prompted an Atwood binge I can feel it
This is probably the most devastating book I have read in years. I literally had to put it down at times and take refuge in some YA book in order not to descend into my long repressed childhood darker days and get lost over there in some sort of hibernation process. That having been said, this is also one of the most brilliant books I have read in my life. It comes closer to human psychology than Never Let Me Go, and it is so much more hurtful.
Because everything in Cat’s Eye rings true. It is exactly like it was in my primary school. Girl politics are a dirty business. It is true there are wild and tame kids. It is true that the wild ones have bad days and good days, and one can do nothing but to hope tomorrow it’s a good day. Because on the good days, the wild girl smiles at you and you feel special, you feel that you absolutely have to share all your secrets so she will be friends with you forever. And somehow, those glimpses of light carry the bullied through all the other days in which the alpha girl feels a little less entertained and abuses her unassertive but good-willing friends with a cruelty that only kids can truly display.
The alpha girls I met during my lifetime have never tried to hurt me physically or force me to do things that would probably cause my death – which happens in Cat’s Eye. But they did make me feel unworthy, like an abnormal person, clumsy and like I’m only acting like I am someone because in fact I’m not even entitled to being it. And your teen years do indeed save you, because it’s the first chance you get at defining yourself, doing what it takes to exist beyond the image bullies create of you. When I turned thirteen, I started wearing black, little by little, because a part of me believed that would create a distance between me and the stereotype of me as a goodie girl that had made me an easy target up until then.
However, the reason this book is so devastating is not because it reminds me of my own past, but because things like these are still happening somehow somewhere, at this very instant. Kids are cruel, not only girls, but also boys. It’s only that girls usually have to resort to non-physical forms of imposing their supremacy of power in their relation with other girls, which makes them more creative and therefore crueler.
There is so much to be said about this book. And yet I am at a loss for words. Just read it. It’s such an honest book it breaks you to pieces. I guess I would also like to ask Cordelia ‘why’. But I know why. So does Elaine. I think we just wish we didn’t.
Cat’s Eye grabbed me from the first paragraph. Sometimes I can find myself accidentally skim-reading a book, as I did sometimes with my last, The Colour of Magic. With Cat’s Eye I knew from the start that each sentence carried weight and I paid close attention.
The book follows the life of painter Elaine, from childhood to middle age, where she is attending a retrospective of her work in her hometown of Toronto. Each section of the book starts with a chapter set in “present day” (1988), and the rest of the chapters in that section follow her life from childhood to her teenage years and adulthood, finally bring us to the present. Her earliest memories are of life on the road, travelling the countryside as her father collects insect specimens for research. Her first real experience of girlhood begins when they settle into a stable life in the city and this part of the book was the most interesting to me. Some aspects of this were familiar to me and stirred long-buried thoughts and feelings. The aspects more relating to girlhood were of course less familiar to me, and were all the more interesting and revealing for me.
The book has two main antagonists: her childhood friend Cordelia, and Toronto. Both are obsessions for Elaine, sometimes sinister, and always heavy on her sense of self. These two influences formed her and made her into the person she is today, and she’s not happy about it. Cordelia led a small group of girls, whose chief game of choice was tormenting and bullying Elaine, who was powerless to her so-called friends. She grew callous and cold, and this hardening of self laid the way for her teenage years and early adulthood. She becomes disinterested in other people’s inner lives, looks out for herself only, and learns to enjoy the plight of others. Specifically this attitude is directed towards women, as men have always been accessible allies to her, perhaps sensing how different she is from other girls.
Her adult relationships with women are shallow or non-existent. Her deeply embedded anger and suspicion towards them manifest themselves as resentment and sometimes vengefulness. Despite this (or rather because of it) her paintings and artistic career are rooted in images of females and femininity. The described works portray womanhood in unflinching and often unflattering ways, but include powerful representations featuring subjects that exude influence and control. In particular the nasty and judgemental mother of one of her friend/bullies is recreated in a series of surreal and symbolic images. These strong representations appeal to the burgeoning feminist movement and accidentally ingratiate Elaine with them, despite her isolation from other women and how alien the idea of female camaraderie is to her.
I got this in a charity shop in Sale, Victoria on the day we were offered jobs picking oranges in NSW and needed to buy some work gear and head off.
The book follows the life of painter Elaine, from childhood to middle age, where she is attending a retrospective of her work in her hometown of Toronto. Each section of the book starts with a chapter set in “present day” (1988), and the rest of the chapters in that section follow her life from childhood to her teenage years and adulthood, finally bring us to the present. Her earliest memories are of life on the road, travelling the countryside as her father collects insect specimens for research. Her first real experience of girlhood begins when they settle into a stable life in the city and this part of the book was the most interesting to me. Some aspects of this were familiar to me and stirred long-buried thoughts and feelings. The aspects more relating to girlhood were of course less familiar to me, and were all the more interesting and revealing for me.
The book has two main antagonists: her childhood friend Cordelia, and Toronto. Both are obsessions for Elaine, sometimes sinister, and always heavy on her sense of self. These two influences formed her and made her into the person she is today, and she’s not happy about it. Cordelia led a small group of girls, whose chief game of choice was tormenting and bullying Elaine, who was powerless to her so-called friends. She grew callous and cold, and this hardening of self laid the way for her teenage years and early adulthood. She becomes disinterested in other people’s inner lives, looks out for herself only, and learns to enjoy the plight of others. Specifically this attitude is directed towards women, as men have always been accessible allies to her, perhaps sensing how different she is from other girls.
Her adult relationships with women are shallow or non-existent. Her deeply embedded anger and suspicion towards them manifest themselves as resentment and sometimes vengefulness. Despite this (or rather because of it) her paintings and artistic career are rooted in images of females and femininity. The described works portray womanhood in unflinching and often unflattering ways, but include powerful representations featuring subjects that exude influence and control. In particular the nasty and judgemental mother of one of her friend/bullies is recreated in a series of surreal and symbolic images. These strong representations appeal to the burgeoning feminist movement and accidentally ingratiate Elaine with them, despite her isolation from other women and how alien the idea of female camaraderie is to her.
I got this in a charity shop in Sale, Victoria on the day we were offered jobs picking oranges in NSW and needed to buy some work gear and head off.
‘You don’t look back along time but down through it, like water. Sometimes this comes to the surface, sometimes that, sometimes nothing. Nothing goes away.’
Elaine Risley, a painter, returns to her hometown of Toronto, Canada, for a retrospective show of her art. Returning ‘home’ reminds Elaine of her childhood, and especially of her childhood ‘friendships’. Three girls were an important part of Elaine’s childhood: Grace Smeath, Carol Campbell and Cordelia. Cordelia, the latecomer to the group, becomes the ringleader. And it is Cordelia’s passive aggressive behaviour towards Elaine which scars her.
‘I worry about what I’ve said today, the expression on my face, how I walk, what I wear, because all of these things need improvement. I am not normal. I am not like other girls. Cordelia tells me so, but she will help me.’
The other girls (of course) follow Cordelia’s lead. Elaine is never completely ostracised but becomes very ill after one cruel stunt. While Elaine does break away from this group, her self-esteem remains fragile. But Elaine reconnects with Cordelia later and while she eventually loses contact, Cordelia continues to occupy Elaine’s mind.
This is a story of a journey through memory, through the events which influence lives. The story shifts between Elaine’s childhood and the present in which she is preparing for the retrospective show. Elaine’s story also takes us back to Canada just after World War II. Ms Atwood’s observations about the traditional roles of women (with the partial exception of Elaine’s mother) were also true in relation to regional Tasmania where I lived a decade later. Memories of cat’s eye marbles and friendship cliques also return.
I am ambivalent. Not about the storytelling, which is superb, but about the story contents which contain many jagged memory splinters.
‘Nothing goes away.’
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
Elaine Risley, a painter, returns to her hometown of Toronto, Canada, for a retrospective show of her art. Returning ‘home’ reminds Elaine of her childhood, and especially of her childhood ‘friendships’. Three girls were an important part of Elaine’s childhood: Grace Smeath, Carol Campbell and Cordelia. Cordelia, the latecomer to the group, becomes the ringleader. And it is Cordelia’s passive aggressive behaviour towards Elaine which scars her.
‘I worry about what I’ve said today, the expression on my face, how I walk, what I wear, because all of these things need improvement. I am not normal. I am not like other girls. Cordelia tells me so, but she will help me.’
The other girls (of course) follow Cordelia’s lead. Elaine is never completely ostracised but becomes very ill after one cruel stunt. While Elaine does break away from this group, her self-esteem remains fragile. But Elaine reconnects with Cordelia later and while she eventually loses contact, Cordelia continues to occupy Elaine’s mind.
This is a story of a journey through memory, through the events which influence lives. The story shifts between Elaine’s childhood and the present in which she is preparing for the retrospective show. Elaine’s story also takes us back to Canada just after World War II. Ms Atwood’s observations about the traditional roles of women (with the partial exception of Elaine’s mother) were also true in relation to regional Tasmania where I lived a decade later. Memories of cat’s eye marbles and friendship cliques also return.
I am ambivalent. Not about the storytelling, which is superb, but about the story contents which contain many jagged memory splinters.
‘Nothing goes away.’
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
emotional
reflective
slow-paced