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A review by ajsterkel
Bodily Harm by Margaret Atwood
2.0
Likes: Like all of Margaret Atwood’s books, this one is brilliantly written. One of the things I admire about Atwood is that she seems to have a deep understanding of unlikeable people. Her characters aren’t heroes. The main character in Bodily Harm, Rennie, is infuriating. I wanted to step through the pages and say “Girl, no. Just stop.” She makes a series of bad choices that end with her being locked in a foreign prison.
Rennie is a slow-motion train wreck. Sometimes it’s hard to look away. Rennie recently survived cancer, a burglary, and a cheating boyfriend. To get away from it all, she visits a Caribbean island to write a fluffy travel story for a magazine. As she befriends the locals, the island paradise spirals out of control. Rennie isn’t very smart. She’s oblivious to the fact that the locals are drawing her into their violent political revolution. The reader can’t do anything but sit back and watch Rennie sink deeper into political quicksand. You know this won’t end well for her.
Dislikes: This isn’t my favorite Atwood book. She has grown a lot as a writer since Bodily Harm was published. This is one of her early novels, and it shows.
Rennie isn’t always compelling to read about. She’s very passive and has no sense of self-preservation. She allows bad things to happen to her. I found my attention wandering while I was reading because she wasn’t doing anything. Things just happen to her, and she goes along with them.
My edition of this novel was printed in 1984. I need to time-machine myself back there and kick the ass of whoever was in charge of quality control at the printer. This book was so hard to read! There are missing words, missing punctuation, weird spaces. Some of the print is so faint that it’s nearly impossible to see. It was hard to get invested in the story because each page revealed a new printing horror. How did this even happen?!
The Bottom Line: Not Atwood’s best work. If you’re a hardcore Atwood fan, then reading her early work might be interesting. If you’re not a hardcore fan, then skip this one and read her dystopias.
Do you like opinions, giveaways, and bookish nonsense?
I have a blog for that.
Rennie is a slow-motion train wreck. Sometimes it’s hard to look away. Rennie recently survived cancer, a burglary, and a cheating boyfriend. To get away from it all, she visits a Caribbean island to write a fluffy travel story for a magazine. As she befriends the locals, the island paradise spirals out of control. Rennie isn’t very smart. She’s oblivious to the fact that the locals are drawing her into their violent political revolution. The reader can’t do anything but sit back and watch Rennie sink deeper into political quicksand. You know this won’t end well for her.
“. . . the beige should not wear beige.” – Bodily Harm
Dislikes: This isn’t my favorite Atwood book. She has grown a lot as a writer since Bodily Harm was published. This is one of her early novels, and it shows.
Rennie isn’t always compelling to read about. She’s very passive and has no sense of self-preservation. She allows bad things to happen to her. I found my attention wandering while I was reading because she wasn’t doing anything. Things just happen to her, and she goes along with them.
My edition of this novel was printed in 1984. I need to time-machine myself back there and kick the ass of whoever was in charge of quality control at the printer. This book was so hard to read! There are missing words, missing punctuation, weird spaces. Some of the print is so faint that it’s nearly impossible to see. It was hard to get invested in the story because each page revealed a new printing horror. How did this even happen?!
The Bottom Line: Not Atwood’s best work. If you’re a hardcore Atwood fan, then reading her early work might be interesting. If you’re not a hardcore fan, then skip this one and read her dystopias.
Do you like opinions, giveaways, and bookish nonsense?
I have a blog for that.