Sneaking in an extra little post this week in honour of Margaret Atwood’s birthday – and #MARM – hosted by Marcie from Buried in Print and Naomi from Consumed by Ink.
I have been enjoying some Margaret Atwood reading for #MARM – a re-read of Surfacing which I reviewed last week – and Moral Disorder – which I have just finished. Despite previously saying I would leave my read of MaddAddam for another time, I find myself sat here contemplating it in a way which probably means I will start reading it later. November was going to be the month of little, tiny books I said – oh well the best laid plans and all that.
I’ve been thinking about how long I have been reading Margaret Atwood books – admittedly with gaps as it’s so easy to be distracted by other books. I must have begun to read her in the late 1980s when those virago editions pictured above began to emerge. Those are the titles I want to re-read the most – because I remember so little – and I wonder now if I wasn’t a little too young to appreciate them fully. I do know The Handmaid’s Tale eclipsed all the others in my memory – it was a novel that stayed with me clearly for many years – until I got around to re-reading it with my book group a little over three years ago. For me that book is still an out and out classic. I continued to read her novels through The Blind Assassin, The Robber Bride and the Alias Grace years – though it was much, much later that I began to read her short stories.
There have been a couple of books which I liked rather less (but I won’t talk about those) so I hope that shows I can be objective – but as the years go on I have become an even bigger fan.
In middle age I suppose I have come to appreciate her in a different way, finding I connected with her wisdom and keen eyed view of the world in a way I may not have done in my late teens and early twenties. I found my way to her shorter fiction and her dystopian/sci-fi novels and Oryx and Crake and The Year of the Flood – and how I loved them! I watched those tv adaptations of The Handmaid’s Tale and Alias Grace breathlessly. I longed to meet her – well at least be in the same room while she spoke, perhaps queue up and get something signed – but it wasn’t to be – when Margaret Atwood was at Hay – I was too slow to try and get tickets – when she was in my home city of Birmingham – guess what? I was in Devon. Oh well, I suspect Margaret Atwood would be rather less thrilled to meet me than I would be to meet her – so perhaps it’s best I keep my fan girling to myself.
Here are some links to some of the Margaret Atwood I have read in the last couple of years.
Hag-seed – the story of a man’s obsession to stage The Tempest and take revenge on the people who ruined him, she in fact tells an updated story of The Tempest. The old story within a story thing, that both Shakespeare and Atwood have employed before. With practised skill Atwood weaves a story of greed, revenge, grief, and magic.
The Year of the Flood – the second of the MaddAddam trilogy. The narrative of this book runs parallel to that of Oryx and Crake – in year twenty-five, a catastrophic event has effectively wiped out the vast majority of the population on earth. Strange, savage hybrid creatures wander the desolate landscape as an unforgiving sun beats down on the few fragile human beings left, and vultures hover overhead. Who, if anyone, is left alive?
Life Before Man –The novel’s three main characters are deftly explored, people trapped in damaging relationships, in thrall to their various love affairs. I found it immensely readable. The stories of these three people are told in alternate chapters with events told from each character’s perspective.
The Testaments – Not a book which requires an introduction I don’t think. The Testaments is not a continuation of The Handmaid’s Tale as such. Instead it is more of a re-examination of the Gilead we think we know, from Atwood’s 1985 classic. Set around fifteen years after the end of The Handmaid’s Tale, The Testaments offers us another view of the society of Gilead.
Anyway, it’s a big happy birthday to Margaret Atwood from me – if I had some cake I would eat some in her honour but the closest thing I have are gingernut biscuits. So, I will make a cup of tea break open the biscuits and carry on with my book.
Happy birthday, Margaret Atwood, indeed! Like you, I’ve not loved everything I’ve read by her but her books have never failed to make me think. She’s an extraordinary writer.
She really is an extraordinary writer. She’s so inventive, but also wise and fiercely intelligent.
She is such an interesting writer – HB MA!
Yes she is. I’m reading MaddAddam now, so imaginative.
She came to Hobart here in Tasmania earky this year and I had the chance to see her. She is so mentally sharp and quick witted. The audience loved her. When her plane landed in Hobart, she told the audience, a voice came over the loud speaker and said, “Welcome to Gilead!”
Wow, that’s a fabulous story. She is so sharp.
Lovely post Ali! Like you, I tended to hoover up her fiction in my early years of reading her, but nowadays I’m often drawn to her shorter works or non-fiction. She really is a tremendous and inspirational woman!
Yes, so inspirational and someone I am sure I will continue to read.
Definitely a Happy Birthday to Margaret Atwood! Thank goodness her insightful and blunt voice is still speaking out these days.
She’s undoubtedly a voice that we have needed the last few years.
A lovely post, Ali. I wish I could share your fondness of Atwood, but she’s an author I admire rather than love (if that makes sense). Maybe I just haven’t found the *right* books for me amongst her oeuvre, it’s difficult to tell. Nevertheless, her achievements over the years have been tremendous, there’s no doubting that. I’m glad you have gained so much pleasure from her work – it’s lovely to see.
We can’t all like the same things can we. Perhaps there is a book that you would enjoy, I don’t know which ones you have tried. I wonder if you would like Hag-Seed.
Because she shifts her structure/focus so dramatically (and story becomes more/less important accordingly), there are remarkable differences between books, so I would be inclined to think that you just haven’t found a match for your reading taste yet, rather than that there is no match to be found. There are certainly works of hers that I admire but do not love (then again, maybe I will change my thinking on those, if I reread after time passes).
Yes! Good point, she is so varied in her storytelling. Then of course there is her non fiction and poetry which I am less familiar with.
Lovely post Ali! Like you, I’ve been reflecting recently that perhaps I was too young for her writing when I started reading her in my late teens. Much as I enjoyed her then, I think I’d get much more from her work now.
I am certain that I engage with Atwood’s writing better now. She has such versatility.
I love this post. The wonderful thing about Margaret Atwood is that, with her, we have a past and a present because she’s been at it so long and written so many books. We’re able to go down memory lane.
I am also having ginger cookies for her birthday! (I’m assuming they are very similar to gingernut biscuits). I feel sure she likes ginger cookies/biscuits, too. 🙂
Oh I am sure she must like ginger biscuits, all the best people do. 😉
Gorgeous post, Ali! And I loved getting a peek at your collection in more detail. I like how both editions of Handmaid’s are nearby (and such a contrast). Are those your original paperbacks of the earlier works? It looks like you read them a LOT. In watching the doc about Year of the Flood recently, I noticed that the UK edition has the most beautiful (and startling) lime green end papers, not at ALL like the staid and symbolic Canadian hardcover…they would match the bird’s wings on Maddaddam nicely. Thanks so much for joining in the November celebration. I’m having an almond cookie instead of cake. I feel sure that she would politely nibble at any delicacies we care to serve in recognition of her special day. 🙂
Thank you, those paperbacks were the ones Virago published in the 80s. I assume there may have been some earlier editions when particular novels were published in the UK.
In Lennie Goodings’ memoir about publishing, I was struck by just how significant a role MA’s books were, in building their press (as consistent and recognizable best sellers)!
Those 80s paperbacks are the ones I have, too! I haven’t really read her since then, but I’ve kept the books as I’ve weeded and weeded the collection to keep it under control …
They are lovely editions, and I am glad I kept them to re-read. Though I have had to buy a new copy of Cat’s Eye, I don’t know what happened to my 80s virago edition.
How wonderful. I still have LOTS of Atwood to read!
I haven’t really read her nonfiction or poetry, and those titles I read thirty odd years ago I want to re-read.
She just published a book of poetry but… I probably won’t read it. And I’m not into non-fiction, really. But there are many of her novels and short stories I’d love to read. I got into Atwood very late.
You have lots to look forward to then, happy reading.
Happy birthday Margaret, Hope you had a great day
I’m sure she did.
[…] 18th was Margaret Atwood’s birthday. Ali wrote a birthday blog post for the occasion, and Rebecca attended the CWWA Symposium. I was tied up most of the day, but did […]
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Woaa, what a beautiful collection! I hope my shelves will host all these books in few years time – I plan to buy them one by one, as I also read them 🙂
Thank you, it is a nice collection.