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3.79 AVERAGE
3.79 AVERAGE
“Male fantasies, male fantasies, is everything run by male fantasies? Up on a pedestal or down on your knees, it's all a male fantasy: that you're strong enough to take what they dish out, or else too weak to do anything about it. Even pretending you aren't catering to male fantasies is a male fantasy: pretending you're unseen, pretending you have a life of your own, that you can wash your feet and comb your hair unconscious of the ever-present watcher peering through the keyhole, peering through the keyhole in your own head, if nowhere else. You are a woman with a man inside watching a woman. You are your own voyeur.”
Because I am utterly predictable, this is my current favorite of Margaret Atwood's books. A pulpy revenge tale based in fairytale of a villainess whisking away men? SIGN ME UP!
It's decidedly more fun than Atwood's other works. There is the usual examination of gender roles & societal roles of women, but it felt decidedly less.... weary? this time around.
Zenia is a VAMP, full caps, and I lived for every minute she was on the page (especially the final confrontations with our protags, ohoho so delicious).
Because I am utterly predictable, this is my current favorite of Margaret Atwood's books. A pulpy revenge tale based in fairytale of a villainess whisking away men? SIGN ME UP!
It's decidedly more fun than Atwood's other works. There is the usual examination of gender roles & societal roles of women, but it felt decidedly less.... weary? this time around.
Zenia is a VAMP, full caps, and I lived for every minute she was on the page (especially the final confrontations with our protags, ohoho so delicious).
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Couldn't stay interested, unfortunately. I wanted to!
Very beautifully written, but since I wanted to strangle the main characters during most of the book, I can only give it three starts. The female protaganists' martyred attitudes about the men in their lives was truly infuriating and eyeroll-inducing. (I know this was the point, but it annoyed me anyway.)
It was okay. It felt like Atwood was trying to tell a cooler story than the one she ended up with.
It's not my kind of thing. It's sooo slow for me that I just can't get into it.
Tony, Charis, and Roz are three woman bound together by a similar experience: dealing with Zenia, a fourth woman. In turn, Zenia comes into each of their lives and leaves each of them wrecked and devastated. As they search for answers to why, they slowly become friends.
When I read this book in my 20s, I found it odd and unrealistic--no one could be as horrible as Zenia, a woman who seemed to exist only on pure malice, to go from woman to woman sucking the energy out of them and devouring their lives bit by bit. 20 years later I've actually met people like Zenia and it doesn't ring anywhere near as false anymore. Zenia remains entirely unknowable, a dark force, and anima, but the heart and strength of the book is its portrayal of the three main characters and their friendship. Each of them is fully-fleshed, totally believable, and very different from each other, and their friendship seemed entirely true to me--the way they love each other without always respecting or ever really understanding each other, for example.
On of the things I found annoying in my first reading does still hold true--Zenia takes turns swiping each of their men, who are all unfaithful to the protagonists, but none of the women hold their men in the least responsible for this--the poor dears, they can't really be expected to be faithful, it's all Zenia's fault. On a second reading, I suspect that's meant to be annoying and nag at the reader, and I admit it's also a very common reaction in reality, so... (but it's still annoying!)
"The Robber Bride" isn't tidy, and doesn't really give much closure at all. Zenia's life, personality and motivations remain as shifting as smoke, and sometimes there's a feeling that she might be mostly a projection for each of these women. And yet it's all fascinating and I rooted for them all to survive her--woman, spirit, symbol, whatever--and transcend her.
When I read this book in my 20s, I found it odd and unrealistic--no one could be as horrible as Zenia, a woman who seemed to exist only on pure malice, to go from woman to woman sucking the energy out of them and devouring their lives bit by bit. 20 years later I've actually met people like Zenia and it doesn't ring anywhere near as false anymore. Zenia remains entirely unknowable, a dark force, and anima, but the heart and strength of the book is its portrayal of the three main characters and their friendship. Each of them is fully-fleshed, totally believable, and very different from each other, and their friendship seemed entirely true to me--the way they love each other without always respecting or ever really understanding each other, for example.
On of the things I found annoying in my first reading does still hold true--Zenia takes turns swiping each of their men, who are all unfaithful to the protagonists, but none of the women hold their men in the least responsible for this--the poor dears, they can't really be expected to be faithful, it's all Zenia's fault. On a second reading, I suspect that's meant to be annoying and nag at the reader, and I admit it's also a very common reaction in reality, so... (but it's still annoying!)
"The Robber Bride" isn't tidy, and doesn't really give much closure at all. Zenia's life, personality and motivations remain as shifting as smoke, and sometimes there's a feeling that she might be mostly a projection for each of these women. And yet it's all fascinating and I rooted for them all to survive her--woman, spirit, symbol, whatever--and transcend her.
I read this book when it first came out, and it stayed with me for a long time. Atwood knows more about women's relationships than most women. I was also fascinated by the role of fathers in this book - they are all either physically or emotionally absent.
I'm rereading this book today because some dipshit decided to make a low-budget movie of it. They basically took the title and the merest chip off the premise, and chucked the rest. If you saw the movie before reading this book, let me apologize on behalf of the producers and director, with whom I am not acquainted. Just erase it from the PVR in your mind and start from scratch with the novel, please.
I'm rereading this book today because some dipshit decided to make a low-budget movie of it. They basically took the title and the merest chip off the premise, and chucked the rest. If you saw the movie before reading this book, let me apologize on behalf of the producers and director, with whom I am not acquainted. Just erase it from the PVR in your mind and start from scratch with the novel, please.
"Names were not just labels, they were also containers. 'Karen' was a leather bag--a gray one. Charis collected everything she didn't want and shoved it into this name, this leather bag, and tied it shut. She threw away as many of the old wounds and poisons as she could. She kept only the things about herself that she liked or needed. She did all of this all in her head because the events there are just as real as anywhere else."
This is basically what I did when I started coloring my hair red.
This is basically what I did when I started coloring my hair red.