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A review by jatridle
Bodily Harm by Margaret Atwood
1.0
Though I've really liked other Atwood books in the past (Alias Grace, The Handmaid's Tale) I wasn't a fan of this book at all. As I read, I felt like I was trapped inside a cheesy romance novel while a much better novel was going on all around it.
In the book, the protagonist, Remmie Wilford, retreats to a Caribbean Island. She's there to write a light travel piece and to emotionally regroup after undergoing a partial mastectomy and also losing her lover. But, as it turns out, all the "good islands" have been taken, so she gets sent off-the-beaten-path to a less than picturesque island which has crappy hotels, crappy restaurants, crappy beaches and no real interest in attracting tourists-- and which also happens to be in the midst of a political upheaval.
All sounds interesting enough, does it not? And it would have been if we hadn't been forced to experience it all through the lens of a self-absorbed, unpleasant woman who seems to have no interests whatsoever other than finding a man to love her. I kept wondering throughout if I was meant to hate her as much as I did, or if I was supposed to actually find her witty and sympathetic. I didn't.
I'll admit, the book does offer some pay-off in the end (in the last 50 pages or so,) but to get to it you have to wade through page after page of tedious whining about "men, men, men and why they don't love me." If you like reading about women whining constantly about men, this may be the book for you. Otherwise, I'd skip it.
In the book, the protagonist, Remmie Wilford, retreats to a Caribbean Island. She's there to write a light travel piece and to emotionally regroup after undergoing a partial mastectomy and also losing her lover. But, as it turns out, all the "good islands" have been taken, so she gets sent off-the-beaten-path to a less than picturesque island which has crappy hotels, crappy restaurants, crappy beaches and no real interest in attracting tourists-- and which also happens to be in the midst of a political upheaval.
All sounds interesting enough, does it not? And it would have been if we hadn't been forced to experience it all through the lens of a self-absorbed, unpleasant woman who seems to have no interests whatsoever other than finding a man to love her. I kept wondering throughout if I was meant to hate her as much as I did, or if I was supposed to actually find her witty and sympathetic. I didn't.
I'll admit, the book does offer some pay-off in the end (in the last 50 pages or so,) but to get to it you have to wade through page after page of tedious whining about "men, men, men and why they don't love me." If you like reading about women whining constantly about men, this may be the book for you. Otherwise, I'd skip it.