I was delighted that one of the Margaret Atwood novels I had tbr fitted snugly into one of the last years of my A Century of Books and I could join in with Margaret Atwood reading month, hosted by Buried in Print and Consumed by Ink.
Life Before Man is a fairly early Atwood novel, one I had missed in the late eighties when I first began reading her novels. In this novel, Atwood’s characters are not always very likeable – but I really don’t think that matters. The novel’s three main characters are deftly explored, people trapped in damaging relationships, in thrall to their various love affairs. I found Life Before Man immensely readable and thoroughly enjoyed it.
The stories of these three people are told in alternate chapters with events told from each character’s perspective.
Elizabeth is a woman struggling with grief – her lover Chris has recently taken his own life, and she can barely function for the silent rage inside her. Unhappily married to Nate, the two have lived separate lives from within the same house for a while. Her two little girls are oblivious to their mother’s turmoil, though even they sense something is wrong. They plan joyfully for Halloween, lighting jack-o-lanterns while it is still light. Elizabeth lies on her bed listening from a faraway place inside her.
“It used to touch her, that excitement, that fierce joy, the planning that would go on for weeks behind the closed door of their room. It used to twist something in her, some key. This year they are remote from her. The soundless glass panel of the hospital nursery where she would stand in her housecoat for each of them in turn, watching the pink mouths open and close, the faces contort.
She can see them, they can see her. They know something is wrong. Their politeness, their evasion, is chilling because it’s so perfectly done.”
Elizabeth’s husband Nate is a gentle, weak soul, but his relationship with his wife is in the past. Once Nate was a lawyer, but he gave that up to make bespoke wooden rocking horses in his basement. Nate knew all about Chris, everyone at the Museum where Elizabeth and Chris worked knew about them, there were no secrets, no sneaking about, just a strange chilly kind of politeness. All the time Elizabeth was seeing Chris, Nate had been seeing Martha. Nate and Elizabeth had an agreed timetable as to who was out when, and Elizabeth would meet up with Martha for a drink from time to time, to gauge how things stood. With Chris dead, Nate feels there is something of an imbalance – and with his relationship with Martha pretty much having run its course he ends his affair. Now though, he has his eye on a replacement.
Lesje is the innocent,and the young woman who Nate is interested in, though she seems far fonder of dinosaurs than men. Lesje, a young woman of Jewish/Ukrainian parentage works in the museum’s palaeontology department, her mind is never far from her favourite subject. However, soon enough the two are entering into an affair, despite the fact that Lesje is already living with William.
“Copulating with William was not unpleasant she thinks, but neither was it memorable. It was like sleeping with a large and fairly active slab of Philadelphia cream cheese. Emulsified.”
Lesje soon realises that in taking on Nate – she is also taking on his daughters, and Elizabeth is always in the background – or on the phone, not to mention around at work. Nate is finding things financially very tight – and his wooden horses are no longer selling very well. Everything becomes rather fraught.
One of my favourite aspects of the novel – aside from the wonderful writing – is the story of Elizabeth growing up, told in flashback. Elizabeth and her sister were taken into their Auntie Muriel’s house as young girls – the reasons become sadly apparent as the novel progresses. Auntie Muriel’s house was a joyless place of rules and embroidery.
“It’s the third of January. Elizabeth is sitting on the slippery rose-colored chesterfield in her Auntie Muriel’s parlor, which is truly a parlor and not a living room. It’s a parlor because of the spider and the fly. It isn’t a living room, because Auntie Muriel cannot be said to live.
Auntie Muriel is both the spider and the fly, the sucker-out of life juice and the empty husk. Once she was just the spider and Uncle Teddy was the fly, but ever since Uncle Teddy’s death Auntie Muriel has taken over both roles.”
Elizabeth’s life with Auntie Muriel and the fate suffered by her sister has blighted her life – and Elizabeth has never really recovered from it or forgiven her Aunt. This aspect of Elizabeth’s story is much easier to sympathise with, and in Auntie Muriel – who we mainly she through the filter of Elizabeth’s memory – Atwood has created a marvellously horrible character.
Hanging over the heads of all these people is the ghost of Elizabeth’s dead lover. Atwood’s characters are wonderfully realistic and she has a great ear for dialogue. As much as the story of these people has tragic undertones, Life Before Man is also frequently funny.
How serendipitous…I was just looking up Atwood’s books on Amaz because there are still so many of her novels I haven’t read yet, and I saw this title, which I’d never heard of before. I was wondering whether I should give it a try, and then I came straight here. Is it a sign ? I read the readers’ commentaries and those who loved it made it seem like it was totally up my street (“completely depressing, gives a glimpse into the life of fractured and damaged people, realistic portraits of people as opposed to a sugary caricature…”). Others hated it (“Margaret Atwood wrote one lousy novel”, “nothing like Oryx and Crake”…). I’ll definitely be buying it !
I saw over on Goodreads that this one rather splits opinion. I was quite surprised, though I suppose if a reader comes to Atwood through Oryx and Crake then perhaps this one won’t suit them in the same way.
Lovely post Ali. I haven’t read this in decades so can remember nothing! But I agree that it really isn’t essential to have likeable characters as long as you can make some kind of connection with them!
Yes, I became very interested in these characters so it became immaterial whether I liked them.
I read this so long ago I’ve forgotten everything about it, but your review has stirred some distant memories! I think the themes would probably mean more to me now than when I read it in my late teens, so I really should make time for a re-read.
Oh I hope you do, I spent many years not even having heard of this one.
I read this a long time ago but you’ve reminded me how much I enjoyed it.
Glad I could remind you of it.
You’re quite right, an Oryx and Crake reader would be shaking their head over this one! Heheh But, as you’ve said, there is a lot of recognizable Atwoodian stuff in this early book too.
I just finished rereading it last night myself, and I use the word ‘rereading’ only in a technical way, because I remembered nothing except the museum (which I don’t remember properly either, as it turned out, it was much more of a backdrop than I thought it was).
It’s strange, but I felt as though I didn’t really care too much whether any of them reached a kind of happier state, but I also didn’t want them to be unhappy – I felt very much on the margins of the story, feeling things but not intensely, and, then, in the end, just kind of shaking my head at the messy bits.
I loved that spider and fly observation. Also, in the scene near the end, the burial, I thought there were many clever and funny bits – go figure – and also some keen observations about death/life. A glimpse into the dark corners of O&C there maybe?! (Thanks for reading along in MARM!)
Yes so many great observations of people. I was shaking my head at them too. I really enjoyed joining in with #MARM, maybe I will read more next year.
Like others I’ve read this but it’s been ages and I barely remember it. But I find that Atwood’s novels bear rereading remarkably well. Lovely review.
I can see how they would bear re-reading, as I found re-reading The Handmaid’s Tale so very rewarding. Not sure when I will get round to it though, especially with Hag-seed, MaddAddam and several short story collections to read for the first time.
I have never read this one. What a complicated tangle of relationships! That first quote is heart-rending, while the second one is so funny.
Wonderful review! Thanks for participating in MARM!
Yes a real tangle of relationships. I was delighted to take part in MARM, I hope you both will be doing it again next year.
I hope so, too!
[…] Before Man (1979, finalist for the Governor General’s Award) Ali @ HeavenAli (Marcie read this one too but left a comment on HeavenAli’s blog instead of posting something […]
[…] Life Before Man (1979) by Margaret Atwood I read for Margaret Atwood Reading Month – it was one I missed when I was reading her earlier novels back at the end of the 1980s. It’s a novel about three people trapped by their various love affairs. Fairly unlikeable characters, fantastically explored, I thoroughly enjoyed it. […]
I really don’t think I’ve ever read this one which is weird, as I thought I ran through all hers in my late 1980s Atwood frenzy!
Yes it seems to be one lots of people miss.