by Margaret Atwood
I really wanted to like this book. It is about the subtle manner in which girls cut down each others\’ self esteem…. as far as I could tell. The main character ended up being an artist; the first part of the book is mostly flashbacks of her schoolgirl days, with interspersing chapters of her dealing with a retrospective show of her artwork in Toronto… I wanted to read more about her as an artist, but it just wasn\’t getting there quickly and my interest lagged. Maybe I\’ll try this one again later.
Abandoned 480 pages, 1989
Edit 12/12/08: I\’ve read it now. Read what I thought here.
4 Responses
I do encourage you to give this one just one more try, sometime. It is one of my favorite books, ever.I love Margaret Atwood\’s stuff and my favorite of all time is Alias Grace.It\’s a joy to discover your terrific blogpage about books.
Cipriano, I do intend to try this book again someday; it did not make it off my TBR pile but just got shifted. Thank you for the visit, the link and the compliments on my blog!
I concur with Cip (who led me to your blog).Cat\’s Eye is my favourite Atwood novel. She captured the horrible cruelty of young school girls perfectly. It\’s truly worth a 2nd look.
I felt the opposite with this book (as I did with Blind Assassin which I prefer to Cat\’s Eye). I felt myself wanting to read about the girls\’ childhood and adolescence rather than her as an adult. I didn\’t really relate to Elaine as an adult–although I enjoyed reading the descriptions of her artwork–mostly how the pain she experience crept its way into her art.