FABClub (Female Authors Book Club) discussion

Next up - The Robber Bride!

I enjoyed how in depth Atwood was about the character development in this novel. It's been a while since I read it but I feel like the majority of the actual story was creating the histories of each of the women?
I thought it was neat that there was a short story included in her new collection, Stone Mattress, that came back to the characters in Robber Bride.

My library lost their copy of this! So now I'm waiting for my Interlibrary Loan request to show up, hopefully in just a few more days.

Hurry up library! I want to talk about the events at the end of the book and whether anyone thinks there was an element of magic at work.

This looks like it might be rather grim, as if one were to take Cat's Eye and turn the malice up ten times. Yet there are still some really funny lines in here, for example: "She keeps hoping for Tony's spiritual improvement, which would consist, no doubt, of a discovery of previous lives, a partial lobotomy, and an increased interest in gardening."

I just finished the initial part, Toxique. I'm really impressed with how she can put me so thoroughly into the point of view of each of these three characters, including their touches of disdain for each other. So at one moment I'm completely immersed in Tony, and her opinions of the others, and then I've completely switched gears and am completely identifying with one of the others - that's such a skillful trick!

This is so interesting - on one level it's a contemporary novel about friendship, yet on another level it can be read as a fairy-tale re-imagining, and then on a third level it's a psychological drama.

I just finished this - I think I found the ending a bit anti-climactic? I think I most enjoyed the way it can be read on three different levels - and the fantastic character development.

Magic? As in causing the death, or just in seeing it?

There's also a poem in Morning in the Burned House that relates to this.