Cat's Eye

By Margaret Atwood

Controversial painter Elaine Risley returns from Vancouver for a retrospective of her work. Here, in Toronto, the city of her youth, she confronts the submerged layers of her past – her unconventional family, her eccentric and brilliant brother, the self-righteous Mrs. Smeath, and the two men Elaine later came to love in diverse and sometimes disastrous ways. But it is the enigmatic Cordelia, once her tormentor, then her best friend, whose elusive yet powerful presence in her life Elaine finally comes to understand. The realm of childhood and growing up, with its secrecies, cruelties, betrayals, and terrors, has never been so brilliantly evoked. By turns disquieting, humorous, compassionate, haunting and mordant, Cat’s Eye is vintage Atwood.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Dec 17, 2010
• ISBN: 9781551994895

Margaret Atwood

Margaret Atwood, whose work has been published in more than forty-five countries, is the author of over fifty books, including fiction, poetry, critical essays, and graphic novels. In addition to The Handmaid’s Tale, now an award-winning television series, her works include Cat’s Eye, short-listed for the 1989 Booker Prize; Alias Grace, which won the Giller Prize in Canada and the Premio Mondello in Italy; The Blind Assassin, winner of the 2000 Booker Prize; The MaddAddam Trilogy; The Heart Goes Last; Hag-Seed; The Testaments, which won the Booker Prize and was long-listed for the Giller Prize; and the poetry collection Dearly. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, the Franz Kafka International Literary Prize, the PEN Center USA Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Los Angeles Times Innovator’s Award. In 2019 she was made a member of the Order of the Companions of Honour in Great Britain for her services to literature. She lives in Toronto.

Reviews for Cat's Eye

[maryreinert · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I wasn't sure about this at the beginning which is set in Toronto Canada in the 1950's. Elaine is a young girl with parents who do not quite fit the mold of the community. When school begins, she gains some girlfriends, mainly Cordelia, Grace, and Carol. The first half of the book focuses on the childhood torments that the girls inflict on Elaine who is their "friend." Elaine is the narrator of the book throughout. Interspersed with the childhood chapters, are chapters of the adult Elaine who is returning to Toronto for an exhibition of her art work.The chapters of Elaine's college experiences, early marriage including motherhood are the best for me. The author captures the reality of women attempting to come to terms with all the expectations of life. How do those early years of girlhood affect the lift of a maturing woman.This is an early look at feminism as seen through the eyes of one woman who must come to grips with her own past.

[sparemethecensor · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Beautifully written like all Atwood's novels, but this is a bit of a slog in parts because it is so heavily detailed that it's hard to tell what's relevant and what's window dressing (literally). I hope this was cathartic for her to write. Not for first-time Atwood readers, but fans may like it.

[klmesoftly · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Mesmerizing like a train wreck! Such a great portrayal of bullying between girls and the repercussions of childhood trauma.

[perednia_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Harrowing, creepy, heartfelt story of growing up under the thumb of a controlling mean girl and how she turned out years later.

[mthelibrarian_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was a Canadian fiction pick for book club. I started it with a week to spare and then a Canadian friend died unexpectedly at age 43 leaving his wife and two young children. Thus, I did not finish the book before we met to discuss. Thanks to a fabulous conversation at the meeting, plus the knowledge that it was one of Kristy's all-time favorites, I was inspired to continue the book even though for awhile I was only able to read a couple pages at a time. Gradually I got back in the groove and was able to finish - but it's one time when I really needed "a little help from my friends" in finishing a book.

[isabelx_21 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

"The white socks, the Mary Janes, the always-inadequate birthday present swathed in tissue paper, and the little girls with their assessing eyes, their slippery deceitful smiles, tartaned up like Lady MacBeth".As middle-aged painter Elaine returns to Toronto for a retrospective, she is obsessed by the possibility of meeting Cordelia again, the 'best friend' who led their other friends in bullying her in grade school under the guise of 'improving' her. The power games continue until Elaine finds the strength to shun her so-called friends, but when she and Cordelia end up at the same high school a few years later, they become friends again. This time it is Elaine who has the upper hand as she is good at school work and is the one all the boys like, and I began to realise just how damaged Cordelia really is, and to be sorry for her too. This is my favourite of Margaret Atwood's books that I've read so far.

[zarad.garcia7alvarez · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

To decide to enter the fictional world transposed by Atwood is to willingly expect to submerge yourself into her protagonist's psyche -- because that's the power of her work. Regardless, of how unwilling you think you may be to be drawn into her story and/or stories (I pluralize this because she usually has more layers than one), you will have no choice to either be hypnotized or embodied by her world because the voice of her narrative is always so strong.

When I say strong, I'm not referring to the tone of voice or the strength of the characters themselves---though this may very well be true of them---I'm referring to the power of her narrative because the voice she writes in---this inner dialogue---is able to excavate marvellous truths with such clarity, originality, and precision.

Atwood is able to write with not only keen insight and provocative subject matter, she isn't afraid to offend you with jarring, raw imagery, language, or context. It's intentional in so far as she deliberately resists being conformed by stereotypical ideas or dogmas. What you expect to happen in novels, in how characters are meant to evolve, does not happen in the same way in Atwood's work. The rest comes from a well of either brutal honesty and truth on the part of the writer or the complete professional wizardry performed in the "magic" that Atwood creates with the written word -- or both, except there are no tricks with Atwood.

Magic denotes supernatural forces that flow out from nowhere, giving neither its master control nor credit. Atwood's artistry is magical in that she cannot be duplicated or outshone. But her manipulation of the language, her word power and passion for it, and story writing and "showing" -- not "telling" is accurately and expertly devised. It is without a doubt, mostly due to her natural, gifted, and crafted talent. And of course, her dedication to doing the work. (Trust me, she did not pay me to say these things, nor do I say them in a vain hope that she will give me her autograph after a two-day line-up at a book festival and acknowledge me as more than one of the literary cretins who hopes to one day step in her very large, very pointy, red shoes. Okay, well...maybe a little.)

And I think that's part of the reason why she's just as resented superficially on a global scale as she is worshipped -- the fact that she has been reigned as an iconic, Canadian, female writer and artist. The irony here, is that her ambition, drive, and self-confidence is what probably brought her to the iconic stratosphere, and no doubt, her natural talent as well -- but this exact kind of attention and glorification is what Atwood, I think, abhors -- and yet at the same time, on some atomic level, demands.

But this inner requirement is not her focal point -- it's not the driving force in her writing or why I think she writes. It's the natural talent that compels her. Writing, for any good writer---for any writer worthy of being acclaimed as having an ounce or more of talent---is driven by compulsion.

The words must come out. The story must be written down. There are no extravagant plans or blueprints. There is no trickery or shortcuts. There is only always, the writer, the compulsion, the muses, and the white page -- and then the actual act of writing.

A good writer need not have "good" muses or even "many" muses. A good writer need only a supersonic ear to listen to the muse he/she has chosen as well as the inner rhythm of language -- but most importantly, a "seeing" eye that understands something regular Joes also know, but cannot articulate. A good writer is a translator of universal truths. A good writer understands this instinctively. A good writer cannot be taught or bred. A good writer can only be born -- and then ruthlessly working in solitude for many hours and years to sharpen his or her 1) craft, 2) pencils, and 3) ego.

A bad writer can read many guidebooks, attend writing classes, and "feel" accomplished. A bad writer can even get published (Oh, man -- a lot of bad writers are published, which would explain the amount of bad reviews). Nevertheless, a bad writer will always be a bad writer. And it isn't a matter of opinion or even my opinion. It simply is an undeniable fact.

You cannot teach talent. You cannot imitate authenticity. You cannot counterfeit gold and expect to get your dollars' worth. A bad writer cannot impersonate good writing. You cannot be a fraud. You either have it or you don't. And if you do, then it's not a matter of luck or literary providence -- it's a matter of tenacity, 10-inch-thick skin, and of course, a great agent.

And Atwood is one of the privileged few who have "it" all. (Maybe not the 10-inch-thick skin -- writers usually don't, we simply pretend to. I suspect Atwood has had a lot of training.) But, give her credit, too. She's worked hard to climb the iconic ladder. Many writers are born with this elusive "it," but don't have the confidence or the stamina needed to create the work required to actually be recognized by both the literary community and by those outside of it.

And she's resisted the stereotype that writers -- that artists, especially female writers, require self-deprecation, dramatic illnesses (mental or physical), a man, or a manic disposition that inevitably leads to suicide or mysterious death. She's resisted this because she's alive -- and well. How about that?

So kudos to you, Atwood. Have another glass of red wine. You've heard it all before. Yes, so your stories and your characters are dark, sombre, and cynical. I've even heard from other people, that your work is "downright depressing." Damn right, it is! But it is also intelligent, poetic, stark, and dead-on. All the good words worthy of praise. All the praises for your good words.

Maybe you are, too: dark, sombre, cynical, downright depressed. But, maybe you are the one character you continually re-invent in order to shape shift into who you need to be depending on the weather or your mood (or who is critiquing or interviewing you). Maybe you re-invent yourself not only in your stories, but in order to cover your scent from public reviewers and critics, like myself, who hunt you down with pigeonholes. I get it -- I think.

Writing is the most vulnerable art available. There is no separating the divide between the writer and the work -- because there isn't one.

No, there isn't.

Not even when its said to be fiction. All good writers know that fiction---good fiction---is truth. Somewhere hidden behind commas, periods, and exhilarated exclamation points, it'll hammer you on the head. That is, if you can read. (Sorry, the literary snob is me just gave me a drop-kick.)

You either love Atwood's work or hate it. For some of you, you won't even tolerate trying to understand it. But there is no in-between, no grey area, no fence to sit on. Atwood makes you choose.

And she does so, in her novel, "Cat's Eye."

(I'd go into slight detail "about" the story, but that's what I believe inside flaps are for. Okay, okay...I'll give you a hint:

Elaine Risley.

Go out, borrow or buy the book.

Borrow or buy all her books.
Be dazzled. Be star struck.
Be jealous.
I am.

[brakketh-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The life of Elaine an artist and the events and people that shaped her life. Classic Atwood in tone and content.

[gypsysmom_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is my 250th book from the 1001 Books to Read Before You Die list. I chose to read this book for that milestone because I am Canadian and Margaret Lawrence is the Canadian author on the list with the most entries. It was only on the list for the 2006 edition so maybe Boxall felt it didn't live up to the rest of her books which is what I thought as I read this. There are the trademarks of the usual Atwood, wit, devastating commentary about people's foibles, philosophical musings but it just didn't completely click for me. I suspect it was because I found the protagonist unlikable and that is quite often a problem for me.Elaine Risley is a moderately successful painter living in Vancouver but originally from Toronto. She has returned to Toronto for a retrospective of her work being put on at an art gallery run by women. Her work is seen as being in the forefront of the women's liberation movement and therefore deserving of respect. Her return has triggered an avalanche of memories of her life in the city for her, particularly her childhood years. She and three other young girls were close friends but there were undercurrents of abuse in this friendship. Her relationship with Cordelia, in particular, was turbulent. In one memorable scene Cordelia threw her hat over a bridge onto the ice of the stream below and told Elaine to go fetch it. As Elaine floundered through the snow and then fell through the ice Cordelia and the other two vanished. In later years Cordelia asked Elaine for help and Elaine refused. Now, back in Toronto, Elaine thinks she sees Cordelia everywhere and expects her to show up at the opening of the retrospective. The chapters about the girls' friendship were very uncomfortable to read. Girls can be quite cruel to each other and there were certainly ups and downs in my childhood friendships which I regret now. I don't think I ever treated anyone as badly as these girls did (and if I did let me state my abject apology now). Elaine did manage to extricate herself from this relationship which is certainly praiseworthy. However, it seems to have damaged her ability to have a trusting relationship with anyone else. She left her first husband, Jon, to move to Vancouver with their daughter. Her second husband is very supportive of her but while she is back in Toronto she sleeps with Jon and doesn't even seem to feel regret. Even her relationships with her parents and her brother seem remote although, in her brother's case, that could be because he doesn't keep in touch much. I actually liked the way the brother was portrayed. He is exceptionally smart, probably a genius, and preoccupied with thoughts of the universe but lets his younger sister hang out in his room reading comic books. He grows up to become a renowned astrophysicist but there is a charming story about how he got arrested because he was pursuing some butterflies and crossed into prohibited government grounds without realizing he was trespassing. His death is probably the moment I will remember from this book.If someone asked me for a recommendation of an Atwood book from this list Cat's Eye would not make the cut. I would recommend The Handmaid's Tale and Alias Grace wholeheartedly but I really think that Atwood has gotten better with age. The MaddAddam trilogy is terrific and her rewrite of Shakespeare's Tempest, Hag-Seed, is maybe my favourite book so far this year.

[fromthecomfychair · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Many of the reviewers here have rated this their favorite Atwood novel, and I would have to agree. I read it years ago, but remember wincing through the scenes of girlhood cruelty. They really brought childhood back to me. Love to reread this sometime.

[leslie398 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I liked this better than the other Atwood books I have read. Perhaps this is due to the fact that it's the most realistic one. Though Elaine Risley grew up a generation earlier than I did, I could relate to her and her childhood in a way that I wasn't able to relate to characters in her other novels.

[helena81_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

As always with Atwood: wonderful. The ending perhaps didn't quite deliver all I wanted, but nonetheless this is a cleverly-written and engrossing novel. The narrative is haunting and the abuse Elaine suffered resonates throughout.

[voracious_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I have read several of Margaret Atwood's books and I have to say, few writers are able to write as eloquently and poetically as she can. "Cat's Eye" is the first of her novels that I have read which was not dystopic nor required a suspension of disbelief. Elaine is a middle-aged painter who is invited to attend a retrospective gallery exhibition of her work in Toronto, the city where she grew up. As she prepares for the exhibition, she is reminded of the events of her childhood including her relationships with her brother and close friends. Elaine's memories of her "friends" and their treatment of her were somewhat traumatic, and would be considered emotional abuse by today's standards. These events inspired her paintings over the years and also made her quite sucessful. This is an extremely well-written psychological narrative of a woman's life course, as subtlely influenced by the events of her childhood. I particularly enjoyed Atwood's poetic turn of phrase and the symbolic themes that repeated in various ways throughout her story. This would be a wonderful book club read due to the richness of the narrative and the timeless universal themes that are relevant to adult women.

[mikedraper · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Elaine Risley comes to Toronto for a retrospective of her art.The story is told in parts with flashbacks to Elaine's childhood.Elaine is starved for friends and when the family move to Toronto and have a stable existence, she makes friends with three other young girls.Cordelia dominates the group. She is demanding and sometimes cruel. Elaine is shy and doesn't want to endanger the friendship so does what Cordelia wants, even when it caused Elaine to be in a dangerous situation.One of the others is Grace Smeath. Elaine is invited to her house and learns about saying Grace prior to meals, Sunday Church service and a rule that it is only permitted to use four tissues when using the bathroom.We learn of Elaine through her thoughts, her friendships and her interests. Mrs. Smeath becomes one of her favorite subjects for her art. She even has one picture with Mrs. Smeath in a lounging position and covered with tissues.Elaine also decides she likes the Virgin Mary and becomes very interested in Her. She is also a subject for her art.This is a book that I think women will enjoy because it is literary and Elaine becomes courageous and comes out of her shell. Men will also like the book because of its literary style and that it tells more about women.

[vivl_6 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

There are enough autobiographical aspects to this story that the reader can't help wondering just where the boundary between fiction and real life is drawn: the early childhood years spent living out of tents and logging motels, following the wandering work of Atwood/Elaine Risley's forest entomologist father; the Toronto location once the family "settles down" (for most of the year at least). Then there are the adult hints: Elaine is a painter rather than a writer, but she is constantly cross-questioned in interviews about her status as a feminist ground-breaker -- a status with which she is uncomfortable. (I particularly liked Elaine's comment when a reporter asks why so many women like her work. Mustn't that be because she's a woman? She disputes this: people like a painting, and by analogy a novel, because they like it, not because the painter/writer is male or female. Indeed!)

Margaret Atwood has said that she's actually quite happy in life, theorising that she writes less happy than she is because she feels as though there are a lot of people out there who are unhappy, and so in a way she is reflecting the wider reality. Perhaps, or perhaps it's just that uneventful coping and happiness, while lovely things to experience in life, would (for me at least) make a pretty bloomin' boring novel.

And I'm glad that she expresses the sadness, the confusion, the slow-burn of lifelong regret, guilt, anger and shame, and the fact that even being in one's 40s does NOT make one immune from the fallout of earlier pain, or less likely to experience it now. I'm not saying my entire life has been one bleak tunnel of despair (nor, indeed, is this book), but I would feel an awful freak if no artists/writers/singers talked about the kind of negative experiences I have been through and that are, to a lesser or perhaps simply a different degree, still part of my life today, just shy of my 42nd birthday.

There were so many little observations in this book that made me go "Oh. Yes. I understand. That's me, too." It made me feel slightly embarrassed (how presumptuous of me to think there could be ANY kind of connection between myself and Margaret Atwood!!) but also comfortable. If these feeling are genuinely Atwood's (and how could she describe them so pointedly, so accurately, if they never had been at some time in her life?) then I am comforted by a feeling that I am not alone in this universe with ambiguities in my past and personality that I find so difficult to forgive.

I only wish I was as observant, as capable as Atwood in figuring out WHY I feel certain things, but perhaps those parts of the novel are just her current best guesses anyway. And perhaps it's all pure fiction after all. Who knows but Atwood herself?

May I just impress upon any reader of my review that Cat's Eye is not non-stop misery. There is lovely imagery, there is affection, there are beautifully-observed characters, none of whom are necessarily entirely likeable or unlikeable -- they are just real. There are occasional wry chuckles, and even the odd giggle.

One of my favourite lines -- not really a laugh, but at my age it raised a knowing smile and acknowledgement: "This goes along with another belief of mine: that everyone else my age is an adult, whereas I am merely in disguise."

[lisa.johnson.james · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Having read several of her post apocalyptic works, this book felt more "normal" to me. It's Elaine's story, told by her over the passage of years, about her life experiences, the cruelty of children to each other that can scar your adult years, growing up during WW2 through to her present, all of it triggered by her return to Toronto to do a retrospective of her artwork.It was interesting, haunting, sad, & thought provoking by turns. I was prepared NOT to like this book, because there were a couple of her books that I wasn't all that fond of, & was surprised to find myself liking this one.

[kimlarae · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Remarkable portrayal of the cruelty of young women, but for me the book dragged down as the artist grows into adulthood.

[katharinedb · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This year is the year of Margaret Atwood-I honestly can say that I have not read a book of hers I did not like or could not relate to the characters . Primal instincts and the cruelty of children hit home in this one

[wortklauberlein · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

In her stunning first chapters, Margaret Atwood richly paints a girl's life in the 1940s and 1950s. Her descriptions of smells evoke not just scents but emotions. I wonder though whether the book still would appeal to women not of a Certain Age. The plot didn't have the same perfect pitch of the descriptions, however, and toward the end I lost interest in Elaine altogether. But savor the language and dead-on descriptions of everything from marbles to manipulative mean girls.

[citizenjoyce · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Cat's Eye reads like an anthropological study of an unconventional woman from childhood through middle age. Elaine Risley is a feminist who is more comfortable with men than with women because she sees men's faults but finds them almost amusing while she has learned that women search out the faults in other women and use them for constant ridicule. She's is the victim of bullying who grows into a bully herself, or her polite version of a bully. Because of the bullying she is her own worst critic and even when enacting vengeance on her tormentors she sees their vulnerability and can't forgive herself her judgements. In fact, she can't forgive herself any of her faults or celebrate any of her virtues. Everything she does she does with reservation, she loves with reservation, she dresses with reservation, she paints with intensity but regards the results with reservation, she accepts the praise of others with reservation. One part of the artistry of this book is that Atwood can describe the wondrous workings of Risley's mind at the same time she emphasizes her self doubt. Intellectual pursuit is perhaps the only area Risley allows herself to simply enjoy the moment. She describes her father's dinner table conversation. I especially loved the idea that the discovery of insulin will lead to the destruction of the world: insulin is made from cows, the use of insulin allows diabetics to live longer and reproduce so there will be more diabetics needing more insulin from more cows. Cows burp methane, methane leads to global warming with all its resulting cascade of environmental destruction. She rolled her teen age eyes at this conversation, but she produces many of his scientific ideas and the normal thought processes of her exceptional family. Her brother is on the verge of discovering a unified field theory, the discovery of why everything exists - but senseless acts of life interfere. She allows her characters profoundly intellectual inner lives, but outer life, no matter how it looks, always fails to measure up.

[jayne_charles_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Fantastically well written, as are all of Atwood's books. The characterisation is excellent, and the obnoxious teenage girls remembered by the narrator are horribly real. I just wanted to see more of them at the end. Top marks for writing, not so great for plot.

[sarahzilkastarke · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I suppose I am a little biased as Margaret Atwood is one of my favorite authors but this book was amazing. The childhood story of ridicule and spite I was able to really identify with. Though Cordelia, Grace and Carol are Alison, Angela, Jennie and Sarah G. in my early 90's story it's all the same. Little girls are BRUTAL. They pick on the weakest. In reality it is only a reflection of their own imperfections and worries that bring out the worst in them. As an adult that's obvious but as a little girl that's as foreign a truth as understanding the falling of the Berlin Wall.

Atwood's ability to describe the life of a painter trying to escape her childhood is not only moving but also poignant in prose. This story does not disappoint in even a single paragraph. The imagery only gives more credence to an already realistic story.

I almost wonder if this book is semiautobiographical. Regardless it is worth reading again and again.

[auntieclio · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Atwood's prose and storytelling kept me going to the very end, although it was touch and go for me in the first half of the book because of the bullying. Sometimes, things just hit a little close to home.Elaine's story starts when she is young and her family lives out of the family station wagon going from place to place doing research for her entomologist father in Canada during World War II. They eventually settle down in Toronto, where Elaine and her brother enter the school system.Over the years, Elaine becomes best friends with a girl named Cordelia, who is the bane of Elaine's existence even after they go their separate ways.Told in flashback/memoir style, Cat's Eye is a retrospective of Elaine's life told while she's invited to mount a retrospective of her paintings back in Toronto, which she visits from her new home in Vancouver.While I did end up liking this book, it was pretty intense and I'm not convinced Cordelia ever got put into the box well enough.

[marthajeanne · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I think this is the second time I tried to read this. The first time was right after discovering Handmaid's Tale, and it was a very long time before I tried another. I love Atwood's other books, but am only half way through this one, and will not inflict the rest of it on myself. I'm glad that I have now read more of her books, and will keep reading more. But not this one.

[downtownlibrarian · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

At least in my experience, It is hard to go wrong with Margaret Atwood. This story of a successful artist revisiting her childhood is absorbing and vividly realized. I listened to this audiobook with great enjoyment.

[gwc_4 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a story about how being bullied as a child shapes your life. The characters are richly developed and believable. We've all known an Elaine or Cordelia in our early years - or we've been one. Atwood is a wonderful story teller and at times her words are more poetry than prose. The ending was a bit of a let down for me. I kept waiting for the twist or big revelation to surface. Instead, it just sort of bubbled to the top.

[jmoncton_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Elaine, a famous artist is invited to Toronto where she grew up, to assemble a retrospective of her art. The combination of the retrospective and coming back to her home town causes Elaine to think over her life, including some very difficult friendships she had as a child. Normally I love Margaret Atwood. I listened to the audio version of this book (narrated by Barbara Caruso) and I found her narration to be soooo incredibly slow and depressing. I don't know if it was the book or the audio narration. Definitely not my favorite Margaret Atwood.

[lesleynicol · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A very good read. Reading this book from about 12 years ago was so enjoyable and reminded me of how much I like Margaret Atwood. She has marvellous insight into the minds of young women and girls.This is the story of one woman's triumph over a terrible childhood experience when she was psychologically bullied by her three "so-called" best friends. She was unable to share her trouble with her parents because they were her "so-called" best friends so she suffered thinking it was all her own fault. After she left home and went to live in the city to study art, she drifted dangerously but managed to come through it to a satisfactory career as a painter, a happy marriage and a great relationship with her own two daughters. A heart-warming finish to a delightful book.

[marlene9nl · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

My Gosh I am reading 1 book a day these few past days. Just lying in bed and read read read. Yesterday I picked this book. it has been on my shelf for years and I finished it last night.

It is good but not near as good as Handmaid's tale but what i did notice that there is a lot to think about once you have read this book. There is a lot left in the air and once done it makes you wonder. I like that.

[shanaqui_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The writing in this book reminds me quite a lot of Atwood's writing style in [book: The Handmaid's Tale]: it feels contemplative, half-dreamy, slower than life. It also reminds me a bit of [book: The Bell Jar], somehow.

The way this book was structured was the most interesting thing for me: the past blending with the present, the present fading back into the past. Another interesting thing was the handle Atwood has on people -- specifically, little girls. I knew a Cordelia, a Grace, a Carol. An Elaine.

It's not a novel in which things happen, really. It's thoughtful, quiet, realistic. Some people would find it boring, others would find it deep and transforming. I have no particularly strong feelings about it, myself.