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.

This is a beautifully crafted story about three women the reader gets to know very well and one that remains an enigma throughout. I was drawn in from the start to the finish. ( )

The Robber Bride is set in Toronto. It has four women characters Tony (Intellect), Charis (Intuition) and Roz (Street-Smarts) who battle with Arch-villainess Zenia who tells them all how it really is. Zenia is the woman who manipulates, tells stories, takes what she wants and utters uncomfortable truths. What Tony, Charis and Roz discover is that whatever Zenia takes has been made available to her through the gullibility or greed of others.

I found it interesting a bit like a superhero comic (maybe that's just me or maybe that's the way Atwood made these characters, kind of cartoony). I was in a particularly surly mood coming to read it and then found parts of it quite funny!

I thought it was great. Probably the girliest Girlybook I've read by Margaret Atwood. Three woman characters without good mothering challenged by an archetypal villainess written by a woman writer. It deals with relationships, partnerships, motherhood, daughterhood and the healing nature of female friendships even between such tripolar characters.

Zenia and her dreadfulness made me positively gleeful ( )

Margaret Atwood’s writing is at its finest in The Robber Bride - a novel about three middle-aged women friends who first meet as college students. Their friendship is strengthened through encounters with Zenia, a cunning and beautiful woman with a penchant for enchanting men and wreaking havoc on their lives and the lives of their significant others. The story opens in the Toxique (conjuring up the words toxic, intoxicating, and toxin), an unusual restaurant in Toronto where Charis, Tony, and Roz are meeting for lunch. It is many years after their college experiences and a few years past Zenia’s funeral…although Zenia is always there in spirit - in the atmosphere and their unspoken words, and lurking in their shared history. So, when the physical, living Zenia (more beautiful then ever and with enhanced breasts and skin) walks into the Toxique, no one is entirely surprised.

Atwood spins her tale from the present, back to the past, and returns to the present - revealing the rich and complex inner lives of her characters and weaving together a story about truth, lies, and the paradox of good and evil existing at the same time and within a single person. A major theme of the novel is the idea of duality. Atwood writes about Tony:

'She looks like a very young old person, or a very old young person; but then, she’s looked that way ever since she was two.' -from The Robber Bride, page 19-

Tony Fremont is obsessed with history - specifically with war - and views the world both forwards and backwards. Abandoned by her mother, and somewhat of a loner throughout her childhood and into her young adult years, Tony creates an alter ego: Tonmerf Ynot (her name backwards) who is powerful and courageous.

Charis believes in spirits and possesses the gift to heal and see into the future. But as a child named Karen, Charis was filled with rage fueled by an abusive upbringing. These dual parts of her personality create conflict for Charis, but also define who she has become.

Roz, a wealthy business woman, is both Catholic and Jewish - two conflicting religions she is unable to reconcile. Her twin daughters are a physical embodiment of the duality in Roz’s life .

And finally there is Zenia - a woman whose past is elusive. She is outwardly beautiful and charming, adept at uncovering exactly what everyone needs. But what lies beneath her exterior charm is a woman of contradictions and mystery. Zenia is almost a mystical creature, one to be admired and feared.

Atwood’s language in this book is rich and gorgeously constructed, baring the souls of her characters while weaving a compelling mystery. Disturbing and dark at times, The Robber Bride evokes what is essentially human about all of us, including those emotions we are most likely to conceal. When Atwood shows us Zenia’s character, we cannot look away:

'Zenia is full of secrets. She laughs, she throws her secrets casually this way and that, her teeth flashing white; she pulls more secrets out of her sleeves and unfurls them from behind her back, she unrolls them like bolts of rare cloth, displaying them, whirling them like gypsy scarves, flourishing them like banners, heaping them one on top of another in a glittering, prodigal tangle.' -from The Robber Bride, page 179-

The Robber Bride is the 6th Atwood book I have read - and it is by far my favorite of hers to date. Readers who sink into this amazing book will not soon forget its strong female characters and dark edges.

Highly recommended. ( )

I like this book because I find the story line to be at once disturbing and intriguing. My main drawback with the book is the characters; I do not find a single one of them likeable or relatable. I am intuitive and confrontational. If I ever was in a stiuation similar that of the three main characters, I would be incredibly leery if not entirely vengeful. I resent how all of these women could be so destroyed by one human being. ( )

http://bookchronicle.wordpress.com/20... ( )

I’ve read almost all the Atwood novels now, at least everything but the obscure ones, and this is my favorite. Why? The characters and the skill with which Atwood draws them for the reader. There are three women, all with very unique and distinctive characters, who all have their men “stolen” by what has to be one of the most evil villains in literature, the robber bride. I say the men were stolen, but they were duplicitous in their own downfall, of course.

This is not some cerebral, fancy-parlor novel of manners, but down-to-earth and grounded in real sin. Atwood spends considerable time and pages drawing the characters of the three victim-women, and detailing their interaction with the robber bride. I have to confess, after this was over and the denouement about to begin, that I had no idea how the novel would end. Surely there would be no cliche-ridden shoot out!. And I was not disappointed, but very satisfied with the ending that Atwood imagined for the readers.

Highly recommended. ( )

So what's your story, Zenia? Tinker, tailor, soldier, spy? Jezebel, martyr, Genet figure, Zen (huh, yeah, prolly, eh?) teacher?

None of the characters in this book are real. Not that that has to be the point, but I feel like they're trying to be - striving after realness - and Atwood is ruining it not by failing to deliver meaning and symbolic structure (become your foe in order to destroy her, but don't lose your way back - and when you get back, respect the bitch for the way she fought the fight), nor even for its misoandry (all men suck except those nice polite young gays - so '90s), but just because the details are all tonedeaf and wrong. Maybe because she's old? But whether it's the '50s prep "sophisticatiness" in the humour on display in the names Tony's students give her lectures ("Tender Buttons?" "Piss Party" would be closer, albeit still far) or Larry and Boyce's little relationship (EVERY GAY KNOWS EVERY OTHER GAY AND DOES HIM), or the fucking Toxique (only as satire, Mags, and you're not convincing me), the 1993 details are as wrong as the 70 and 83 are right, and drive you (me) to distraction and rage. Oddly, Roz's teen daughters are spot on. I guess Margaret has grandkids? ( )

This is now one of my favorite Margaret Atwood books. The story(ies) are wonderfully told, with compelling characters who can easily be related to. They have fully realized personalities distinct from each other, all very believable. I enjoyed the read from start to finish. Atwood is a master of the craft! ( )

The narrative of The Robber Bride is told through the eyes of three unlikely friends - assertive businesswoman Roz, New Ager Charis, and college professor Tony. They had been brought together by the machinations of a fourth friend (or "friend," better) Zenia, who ruined their lives and then died on them. Or not - they see her again years later when they get together for lunch.

Much of the story is told in flashbacks, each of the women's encounters with Zenia many years earlier, leading up to the present and their bewilderment at seeing her again. Atwood writes compelling female characters, as usual, but the actual plot is too unstructured for my liking, and the ending is left too open. It's not Margaret Atwood's most pivotal work, but it's engaging enough for a quick read. ( )

This isn't my usual sort of book, and it took me a long time to get into it. I enjoyed the strong structure and the insight into the different characters. But I found the choices that the characters made to be difficult to accept. I look for powerful heroes - these women were disapointing to me because they were so real, so human. ( )

Enjoyed reading the novel, but found Zenia too unremittingly evil to be believable, while Charis was just plain annoying! ( )

My favourite Margaret Atwood book...so far. Three female friends get together when a fourth friend dies. However, this fourth friend was not really a friend but a negative force that impacted their lives in a big way. The book is mostly flash backs to the 70's and each woman's story is told and followed to the present. ( )

This one is up there with Cat's Eye and the Handmaid's Tale as one of my favorite Margaret Atwood books. I sat up all night reading it, then made french toast. Like all her books, it borrows some themes and plot points from other novels, but always spins them out in a new way. I love the way it shifts focus between the three (very different) women characters, tied together by pure circumstance. ( )

Defiitely not my favourite Atwood book ("The Handmaid's Tale", "Oryx and Crake", and "The Penelopiad" however are top notch), but the characters were very rich and as always her prose is fantastic. It can become a little dragging at times, and the ending was nothing short of anti-climactic, but overall a satisfying read. A struggle that is well worth the push. ( )

Excellent ( )

3368. The Robber Bride, by Margaret Atwood (read Nov 17, 2000) I had this book at home, having picked it up for pennies at a rummage sale, so I figured I should read it. This is a 1993 novel, the third I've read by Atwood. I thought her The Edible Woman was so boring that I did not read any more by her until I read Alias Grace, which I really liked. This book tells of three women harassed by an evil woman. None of the characters seemed believable, and while the writing is smoothly flowing, the story seemed pointless to me. Also there is a lot of scatological language, which continually repulses. This book I concluded was not really worth reading, but Atwood's Blind Assassin has just won the Booker Prize, and I try to read those winners so I suppose I'll read that when it is available from the library. ( )

The Robber Bride tells the story of three accidental friends – Tony, Charis, and Roz – brought together by the destructive machinations of the beautiful and elusive Zenia. after Zenia dies, these three women continue to maintain a friendship fostered by their shared humiliation. So it was quite surprising for them when, five years after her supposed death, Zenia turned up while they were having lunch. Zenia, who is clearly very much not dead, and her sudden reappearance force Tony, Charis, and Roz to reexamine the role Zenia played in their lives.

Margaret Atwood is always readable, always smart, sometimes caustic but always witty. So why is it that I don’t have more to say about this book?

It’s not as consistent or as complex as Margaret Atwood’s other work. Then again, I read her later novels first (I was late coming in to the Atwood sect). The characters were flimsy, almost like caricatures. The dippy-hippie Charis, whose backstory actually had the most potential, was left undeveloped and instead turned into the archetypal flower child, complete with organic eggs for breakfast and yoga classes. Roz was ballsy and nouveau riche and had something to prove, and it was hard to empathize with her constantly bemoaning her too-handsome husband, her too-busy lifestyle, too-newly acquired wealth. Yawn.

The character Tony was the best-constructed of all four women. She was eccentric and contradictory and felt real; Tony’s fascination with war revealed knowledge of deception and understanding of revenge belied by her quiet, bookish appearance. Tony’s suffering when West leaves her both (!) times feels unfeigned. Tony is all about quiet suffering; feminists hate to admit it but women take back men who cheat on them all the time. Plus, Tony has the best lines and the most wit. I only wish the other characters had been created with the same attention to detail.

And what of Zenia, whose absence and the absence of the men she seduced in her wake have shaped these three women? That’s precisely it: she seemed more real when Roz, Charis, and Tony were talking about her. Her early appearances in the novel – when she was still subtly digging her claws into the the ladies’ hapless men – were far too contrived: Zenia faking she had cancer; Zenia faking being a child prostitute in Paris; and Zenia faking being a political journalist. When Zenia (kind of) admits to what she did, she’s an over-the-top villain, defiant and impenitent, even baiting the women she’s damaged with exactly why it was so easy for her to manipulate their men. (Read: it’s all about the pussy, apparently. No, seriously.)

So what did all this deconstruction lead to? I’m not quite sure, but I will say this about Margaret Atwood: she is a feminist who is not afraid of criticizing feminist thought, and she certainly has a better sense of humor than, say, Camille Paglia. Most importantly, she is a feminist who is compassionate, not self-righteous, and I think it’s this trait that really informs her writing, and why I still like The Robber Bride, despite it being frustrating and lesser than her other novels.

Originally posted on my Vox and my LJ. ( )

Zenia is a spiteful and manipulative woman. But now she is dead, and just to make sure of that fact, three women she betrayed - Tony, Roz and Charis - are at her funeral. However, when the unthinkable occurs and Zenia appears again, their lives are thrown into turmoil.

I felt a real undercurrent of malice while reading this book. The story and the writing fascinated me, and while I felt it dragged in places, I certainly intend to read it again at some point. ( )

I guess I felt more pity than compassion for Zenia. She was so desolately alone that she had to steal to make her life seem to have something in her own eyes. Always having to be something she clearly was not and degrading others that truly were. I’m glad she ended the way she did.

The individual perspective device is one of my favorites, and I’m glad Atwood used it here. Any other way of explaining the individual experiences of Zenia would have been cumbersome and time-consuming. She breaks up the memories of the past with the present just enough to keep you interested. ( )