Margaret Atwood

This is an incredibly delayed post. I finished the first of my last two List books over 2 months ago, and sat on writing about it while a slew of laziness ensued. My computer also died, and I waited to replace it for no reason other than stubbornness for at least a month, at which point I had already started my second Atwood book, which spurred me to wait to report on the first one until that finished. In all honesty I could even have finished the second book weeks ago, but the thought of writing about it haunted me and I dragged finishing off the last 30 or so pages on for weeks. It's a wonder I'm even alive and not 600 pounds, based on how unmotivated I am in all aspects of life.

Anyway.

Having pasted the book cover image in here, I just now realized she's behind bars. I'm so slow. Wow.

So Alias Grace in my opinion, was not as good as A Handmaid's Tale (which is obviously why it's not nearly as famous), but entertaining enough. I'm less attracted to this speculative/fictionalized version of a historical incident that has so many questions attached to it - virtually everything about the murder at the center of the story is in question and shrouded in mystery - than a concrete one such as In Cold Blood, which if you look back, I quite enjoyed. I did, however, find this excerpt from the beginning of chapter 18 particularly funny. Mansplaining through the ages, if you will (and so throughly Atwood):

"Today Dr. Jordan looks more disarranged than usual, and as if he has something on his mind; he does not seem to know quite how to begin. So I continue with my sewing until he's had time to gather himself together, and then he says, Is that a new quilt you're working on, Grace?
                  And I say, Yes it is, Sir, it is a Pandora's Box for Miss Lydia.
                  This puts him in an instructive mood, and I can see he is going to teach me something, which gentlemen are fond of doing."

Bahaha.

As for Cat's Eye, it was quite a change of pace compared to the others. I kept forgetting that it took place in Canada and got confused every time they spoke about America as if it were another country. I guess that shows the similarity between the two. I like it though, because I can relate to it, I think. A lot of Elaine's childhood memories really hit home for me and made me self-aware and uncomfortable while I was reading them. I recognize girls I knew in her friends, and my own insecurities in her's. Her adult life as an artist felt familiar to my college days as well; the way it is created (as something literal and personal), then perceived (as something else), and the community surrounding it. I don't personally have a Cordelia, but I suppose everyone has someone or something haunting them, no matter who they are, and that's what Cordelia is. It's quite a beautifully relatable book.

Less importantly, but still distractingly, the copy I read (Anchor Books) had a lot of typos. You know how much that throws me off, so points off there. Strange, because the others didn't have this problem at all.