As a confirmed Atwood fan I looked forward to this my fourth outing with her writing. I love Atwood's style and wasn't disappointed on that score, short paragraphs sharp dialogue and those Canadian settings. She takes the reader on a journey back to childhood - everyone knows how unintentionally cruel children can be, or even intentionally but Atwood hones this to a perfection in this narrative. The awkwardness of childhood, the need to fit in , the need to be liked familiar to all to some degree or other. Even to those who profess to have had a marvellous childhood full of friends and laughter, dark secrets can linger ready to come to the fore in adulthood. We are as adults just a by-product of our childhood are we not? We are according to Atwood. I doubt anyone could read this and not feel for the main character Elaine as she struggles as a little girl to understand the world around her and the other children that inhabit her world. We are shown the immediate post war period in Toronto with the new city growing from the drab suburbs, the girl grows up in the fifties with its styles and radio programmes then matures in the hippy sixties. The narrative leap frogs back and forth from the present day to the fifties and sixties in Toronto as the main character as a mature woman re lives her childhood. Gripping psychologically from the start it is both heartrending and chilling at the same time. The desperation of the small girls to fit in is very real and the surroundings and vivid descriptive passages make for sometimes disturbing reading though this may be truly dependant on the readers own childhood memories.
The narrative appears to depend on the idea that ones total adult experience is fully dependant on how your childhood affected you. Whilst the superb childhood reminisces work well here with real heartfelt ideas as seen through the eyes of a child the narrative does tend to come apart in a sense as the main character matures into adulthood. As a young woman the characters problems appear to be more a by-product of the age she lives in rather than what happened to her in childhood. Struggling young artists in 60's Toronto don't sound too interesting and despite Atwood's best efforts the narrative appears to lose focus. The first half of the novel fairly flies by with the adult/childhood narrative linked together but as we move toward maturity the character of Elaine becomes less plausible and there are liberal helpings of Atwood's feminist politics from some of her earlier works. Though this is skilfully handled by Atwood's brilliant writing style the plot is sometimes overshadowed by the very style that attempts to carry the story along. The delicate balance of plot and style swings away from the equilibrium at the beginning of the book too far in the direction of style toward the end. Strange plot lines wrapping up the story of her family appear "tagged on" to the plot as a whole and make no apparent contribution to overall storyline. I did wonder whilst reading it whether there was an aspect of autobiography to the earlier part of the story which could explain the razor sharp dialogue and descriptive passages, though I'm no expert on Atwood's life, it could explain why the story isn't as good toward the end. All in all a good read, in parts truly outstanding and thought provoking. A little disappointing at the end but as a whole well worth the time as all Atwood's novels do tend to set before the reader ideas and plots that challenge rather than sooth and this is no exception.
The narrative appears to depend on the idea that ones total adult experience is fully dependant on how your childhood affected you. Whilst the superb childhood reminisces work well here with real heartfelt ideas as seen through the eyes of a child the narrative does tend to come apart in a sense as the main character matures into adulthood. As a young woman the characters problems appear to be more a by-product of the age she lives in rather than what happened to her in childhood. Struggling young artists in 60's Toronto don't sound too interesting and despite Atwood's best efforts the narrative appears to lose focus. The first half of the novel fairly flies by with the adult/childhood narrative linked together but as we move toward maturity the character of Elaine becomes less plausible and there are liberal helpings of Atwood's feminist politics from some of her earlier works. Though this is skilfully handled by Atwood's brilliant writing style the plot is sometimes overshadowed by the very style that attempts to carry the story along. The delicate balance of plot and style swings away from the equilibrium at the beginning of the book too far in the direction of style toward the end. Strange plot lines wrapping up the story of her family appear "tagged on" to the plot as a whole and make no apparent contribution to overall storyline. I did wonder whilst reading it whether there was an aspect of autobiography to the earlier part of the story which could explain the razor sharp dialogue and descriptive passages, though I'm no expert on Atwood's life, it could explain why the story isn't as good toward the end. All in all a good read, in parts truly outstanding and thought provoking. A little disappointing at the end but as a whole well worth the time as all Atwood's novels do tend to set before the reader ideas and plots that challenge rather than sooth and this is no exception.
