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Title: Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood ISBN: 0-385-49102-6 Publisher: Anchor Pub. Date: 20 January, 1998 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.11 (92 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Haunting Memories & Gut Feelings
Comment: Good books rarely give me great ideas just vague memories and gut feelings. Often I find it hard to articulate why the book I've just read has moved me as much as it did but I sense it's special power. I first read Margaret Atwood's poetry and was was much drawn to it for so many reasons but especially it's awarness of nature and the use of nature as a metaphore for struggles within human relationships especially the relationship with self. This closeness to nature is also evident in her novel 'Surfacing' which is a must for anyone interested in 'wilderness' Cat's Eye was recommended me by a woman friend as one of the author's better novels. It took me a long time to read (I'm a very slow reader). A year later, and while the detail is extremely fussy the gut-feelings are ever as strong. Despite the drabness and almost deprived lower middle-class backdrop of the Canada of the late 40's and 50's described in the book, Atwoods accounts of her heroine's interralionships are so real, so compelling and so precisely observed that you have to read on. This is not a light book by any means, but it's full of the wisdom of the survivor and Atwoods special brand of black humour; it holds points of reference and insight for all of us. My abiding image/feeling is of the cold water in the creek under the bridge and the the deep inner glow of Our Lady of Perpetual succour (note the cover in this edition). Get stuck in and feel the power of Atwood's writing!
Rating: 5
Summary: This is one of the most important books I've ever read.
Comment: With Cat's Eye, Margaret Atwood handles deftly two complex situations--the relationships women have with each other, and the cyclical nature of abuse. Often in literature it seems as though women are only affected by their relationships with the men in their lives: fathers, brothers, lovers. Atwood vividly shows that a young girl can be profoundly affected by the friendships she forms with other girls. Elaine is changed and wounded deeply by her relationship with Cordelia; and also haunted by it. But Atwood offers no easy answers; Cordelia has also been wounded. As is the case with a lot of Atwood's work, this book is thick with descriptions of the smells and colors of food and furniture. This only pulls the reader more deeply into Elaine's world. Like a later book of Atwood's, The Robber Bride, (another book about the relationships among women), Cat's Eye is at times bleak, but never hopeless. Atwood looks at the reader straight in the eye, and doesn't flinch.
Rating: 3
Summary: A woman's retrospective on her childhood.
Comment: CAT'S EYE is a formative examination of one woman's often-painful childhood memories of bullying and loneliness. Elaine Risley returns to her childhood city of Toronto to participate in an art gallery show displaying her work throughout her career as a "painter." Upon arriving Elaine is at once confronted with Toronto's transformations since her youth and thus she engages in a thorough revisiting of her childhood memories in this city. After the Risley family relocates to Toronto after living a vagabond lifestyle in the north, Elaine becomes acquainted with a group of schoolgirls that are often cruel and unfriendly under their innocent exteriors portrayed to others.
Margaret Atwood performs a magnificent feat of displaying the complexity and convoluted nature of relationships between young girls and women. The sections pertaining to Elaine's childhood are often painful and frank in their honesty. While reading I couldn't help feeling empathy for Elaine while simultaneously being strangely comforted in my realization that my own strained relationships with women are not unique. But despite these factors I failed to enjoy this book as a whole. Once Elaine reached high school I felt the narrative lost steam, became unexciting, and was often bogged down with unneccessary details and painful minutiae of the setting resulting in my careful skimming of the last half and a sour taste in my mouth. Nevertheless, although this isn't by far my favorite Atwood book, it is still worth reading for the aspects outlined above.
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Title: The Robber Bride by MARGARET ATWOOD ISBN: 0385491034 Publisher: Anchor Pub. Date: 20 January, 1998 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: Lady Oracle by MARGARET ATWOOD ISBN: 0385491085 Publisher: Anchor Pub. Date: 13 April, 1998 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: Alias Grace : A Novel by Margaret Atwood ISBN: 0385490445 Publisher: Anchor Pub. Date: 13 October, 1997 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: The Edible Woman by MARGARET ATWOOD ISBN: 0385491069 Publisher: Anchor Pub. Date: 16 March, 1998 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood ISBN: 0385720955 Publisher: Anchor Books/Doubleday Pub. Date: 28 August, 2001 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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