FABClub (Female Authors Book Club) discussion

And now we turn to Margaret Atwood's fifth novel!

I'm going to be starting this in the next day or two. Anybody else? Only a month behind, but I'm trying to get caught up!

I just started this; it feels very different from anything else she's written, so far. What completely surprises me is how connected I'm feeling to the main character, as opposed to my reaction to Life Before Man. I guess this is something that a good writer can turn on or off, depending on her goals?

And then this one seemed to turn totally surreal!

Reading this, I can't say there is any evidence of any fantasy or magical realism elements at all - yet still it's a different level of reality than Life Before Man was. That was nitty-gritty realism, here the protagonist seems to be moving in a cloud - or we only see parts of what's around her - so we're slightly separated from the action, which reminds me more of the experience of reading her first three novels.

I'm only about a third of the way in, but I'm enjoying this a lot. The main character is basically the character from the story "A Travel Piece" from Dancing Girls-- I really liked that story so I'm excited to read more.

Yes, isn't it fascinating to see how these recurring themes emerge!

On the back of my just received volume of "True Stories" it says it "intensifies and extends many of the themes in ... "Bodily Harm": (view spoiler)[the necessity of bearing witness to the crimes of repressive political societies and the redemptive power of friendship (hide spoiler)]."

I can see the first of those as a theme here, but the second...?

Haha... I haven't finished Bodily Harm yet but I have a feeling there isn't going to be very much friendship happening before the end, unless this is all going to turn into a buddy cop story in the second half.

I'm even at a bit of a loss as to who the friend was supposed to be?

Actually, several of the poems in True Stories feel like they could have been written by the protagonist here. It's interesting!

I'm finally starting this!! I've been collecting used copies of her works and it took a while to find this one.

Great! I thought this one was really thought provoking.