April Group Read: Atwood's Cat's Eye

Just getting set up ...

WOW, what a Great Book! I started "Atwood in April" - with The Handmaid's Tale my first Atwood read. I love this book, one of the best contemporary novels I have read of late.
"Funny, unexpected, horrifying, and altogether convincing, The Handmaid's Tale is at once scathing satire, dire warning, and tour de force."
This pretty much says it all....

What Atwood book should I read next? I cannot wait to try another.

I think your subconscious wants to try Cat's Eye. ;)

I read Cat's Eye. It was a painful book to read. My review is here

http://www.librarything.com/work/4150/reviews/51093766

I am really not enjoying this book. In fact, I think I started it once, and that is why I had given up on reading more of Atwood (besides Handmaid's Tale, which is really good).

No I can't face more. There is just too much of it.

Review:
I think this is the second time I tried to read this. The first time was right after discovering Handmaid's Tale, and it was a very long time before I tried another. I love Atwood's other books, but am only half way through this one, and will not inflict the rest of it on myself. I'm glad that I have now read more of her books, and will keep reading more. But not this one.

The last two Atwood books I've read were Alias Grace and the Robber Bride, which I both absolutely loved. So I expected great things from Cat's Eye. Atwood meets mean girls -- sounds like a fabulous read to me. But it took me a long time to get into. I'm now half-way through and enjoying it quite a bit, but it's not as good as others I've read. Parts of it I really like, and I'm not sure what should have been edited out, or if it's just the whole package. The parts I'm not liking are the parts that seem more like they're written by Alice Munro or Margaret Laurence than Margaret Atwood. It's an odd one, that's for sure.

MarthaJeanne- can you tell me more about what you don't like about this one?

In the front pages of the book Atwood lists the painters that inspired her in writing this book. I just spent some time looking them up in Google Images, which was an interesting exercise. No real surprises--Atwood describes Elaine's art in a way that I can visualize it easily, but still interesting. My favourite artist from the list is Louis de Niverville, but I also really like Joyce Wieland.

I guess basically, I'm just not interested. It doesn't seem as though it's going anywhere. I'm not at all interested in the girl part of the story. I'm not really interested in the adult part of the story either. It felt like work every time I picked it up.

If I'm reading non-fiction or something in German and it feels like work, fair enough. But reading fiction should be fun, or interesting, or something positive. This wasn't, and I have plenty of other books waiting to be read. Including, I should add, two other Atwoods that I really do want to read.

Dystopia seems to be a theme with her, in her realilstic novels as well as the alternate universe ones. Fine, and I liked Edible Woman (although I found it hard to get into that one as well). But there seems not only to be something very negative about living as a female in this book, but no positive side at all. Living as a girl is hell, and as a grown woman at best meaningless.

I completely see what you mean about it just not being that interesting . . . although there have been some really good parts. I'm about 3/4 of the way through and I think it's too long.

Interesting observations about living in a female body--last night I was beginning to wonder what exactly she was trying to say in that regard. I was sort of depressed when I put it down last night and turned off my light!

Anyway, thanks for explaining your thoughts.

Just finished Cat's Eye. I'll have to think a bit more before I write my review, but for now I'll say there were many parts that I really, really liked. Atwood really has a gift for describing people, places and feelings. However, there were parts that were dull or repetitive. I think this would have been better if it were about 150 pages shorter.