In Grimm's tale of "The Robber Bridegroom", a cunning man lures young maidens away to his woodland lair and then cuts them up and eats them. Until, of course, he comes across a maiden who is more than a little skeptical and who, with the help of an old crone, avoids the trap and dramatically outs the murderer later on the day of their wedding.

In The Robber Bride ( )

Dark, but very interesting. Great character development, and excellent writing. A bit of cheeky humour too. ( )

Zenia, a woman who steals other women's men, the link between 3 women. The 3 are invited to her funeral, but are shocked to see her soon after in a cafe. Is she back to haunt them, is she real?

Tense book, great read. ( )

In Grimm's tale of "The Robber Bridegroom", a cunning man lures young maidens away to his woodland lair and then cuts them up and eats them. Until, of course, he comes across a maiden who is more than a little skeptical and who, with the help of an old crone, avoids the trap and dramatically outs the murderer later on the day of their wedding.

In The Robber Bride, Atwood turns the fairy tale on its head by creating a dastardly villain in the form of Zenia, a woman who skillfully manipulates other women and runs off with their husbands/boyfriends (which she then chews up and spits out). But Zenia is the foil against which she places Roz, Charis and Tony, now three middle-aged women who knew Zenia in college. Roz is a outgoing, assertive, successful entrepreneur and Tony is bookish history professor specializing in warfare. Charis is what one might call a free spirit, with an uncanny sense of knowing. She works in a shop which sells New Agey stuff like crystals and incense.

The book begins by telling us that each of these women, although they hated Zenia for their own various reasons, attended her funeral five years ago upon the request of the dying woman (according to her lawyer). The women, who all live in the Toronto area, get together periodically for lunch, of late at a bistro named "Toxique". While dining and chatting, the women are shocked when Zenia walks into the bistro and takes a table across the room. This sets off a chain of events which Atwood slowly plays out for us, while giving us the backgrounds of Roz, Charis and Toni and their particular history with Zenia. The stories are not particularly upbeat, and Atwood laces the tale with some wicked and subtle humor which made me feel complicit so that I felt guilty everytime I snickered or giggled. We never hear Zenia's story except from the perspectives of the other characters, although she does speak in the book. There's a lot to think about in this provocative story, about power, moral choices, history, the difficulties of being 'liberated', our personal monsters, and especially about our relationships with other human beings. I think Atwood is also saying something about storytelling. As a final note, I add this excerpt from the beginning of chapter 17. Tony falls into thought while writing a presentation she will make at a future conference (we should note that Tony, who is a converted lefty, likes to write backwards, and enjoys palindromes):

"All history is written backwards.... We choose a significant event and examine its causes and its consequences, but who decides whether the event is significant? We do, and we are here; and it and its participants are there. They are long gone; at the same time, they are in our hands. Like Roman gladiators, they are under our thumbs. We make them fight their battles over again for our edification and pleasure, who fought them once for entirely other reasons.
Yet history is not a true palindrome, thinks Tony. We can't really run it backwards and end up at a clean start. Too many of the pieces have gone missing; also we know too much, we know the outcome. "

I should note that this is a reread for me. I first read the book when it came out in 1993, but it seems I am in a much better place to appreciate it this time around. ( )

Zenia dies, but she keeps coming back to haunt three betrayed 'friends': Roz, Charis, and the war historian. Set in Toronto, Charis lives on the Toronto Islands, the war historian in some Annex or Cabbagetown house, and Roz, hmm.