Cat's Eye

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Summary: beautiful
Review: A wonderful book...the symbolism and imagery are spectacular throughout. The Madonna imagery is particulary striking. Excellent!

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Summary: One of the Best book's I've ever read
Review: I had to read Cat's Eye for A'level exam, and I must say that from the first line "Time is not a line" I was captivated. This book not only tells the story of a girl growing up and her struggles, but about life. "Nothing ever goes away" to me was one of the key phrases in the novel. It tells us that in life no matter how much we try to get rid of the past, it's always there , similar to how Cordelia was always there somehow.

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Summary: Cat's eye seen through my eye
Review: This amazingly close to home account of a young girls struggle to try and fit in with her "friends" as they torment her is chilling. This novel is riviting I could not bring myself to put it down. Margret Atwood delivered with her amazing account of Elaine's persona and along with the encouragable Grace and Carols persona, were spectacular, and in your face. Atwood's attempt to put a little humanity in Cordelia's persona was not greatly accepted by myself. I will always veiw Cordelia as a coniving, vendictive,pretentious little girl who takes pleasure in seeing others squirm in her presence.

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Summary: Pretentious, tedious and incredibly dull.
Review: I had the experience of studying this book for A-level. It is full of uninteresting detail, its heroine is self-pitying. The novel is composed of incredibly long sentences with the occassional very short sentence that is obviouisly intended to be 'significant'. THe self conscious imagery and style make this one of the worst books that I have ever read/

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Summary: an astounding and truthful book
Review: This is the story of some of the pains that childhood can bring. Very true to life in my opinion. It's the story of a little girl who has never had real friends before and when her parents settle down in a home she is thrown into a life she has never known. She doesn't know how girls are supposed to be treat. So her friends shamelessley bully and torture and this changes the course of her life forever. She becomes a feminist artist and marries twice. She also has an affair with one of her teachers. The girls who bullied her changed her life forever she will never know what it will be like to grow old with friends who are close...an exellent book.

Rating:
Summary: Engrossing
Review: Often overshadowed by its more famous sister, Cat's Eye is a book about coming to terms with one's past actions. One of the things I loved about this book is that no character is cast either as 'the bad guy' or 'the good guy'. Everyone in the book is very human -- petty, selfish, confused and blundering through life just hoping to make the best decisions possible. The book is a complexly interwoven tapestry of time, emotion and thought. I wouldn't reccommend it for everyone, though. Often, this sort of book doesn't have wide appeal. If you have enjoyed previous Atwood books, or would enjoy an intensely introspective book, this is definately a book to read.

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Summary: Absolutely compelling novel that everyone can relate to!!
Review: Margaret Atwood's Cat's Eye is a wonderful novel that really shows the harsh world that children live in, influenced by their peers. Atwood does a wonderful job creating for the readers Elaine's strange and lonely world. Her descriptions of Cordelia's cruelty makes one want to cry, and one can really relate to Elaine's suffering and pain. It is obvious that this book is written in autobiographical style, which only strenghtens the novel by bringing it to reality. I think that Atwood's descriptive and heartwrenching writing is fantastic, and Iwould recommend this novel to anyone!!

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Summary: I DON'T SYMPATHISE WITH ELAINE !!!
Review: I read this book for my A- level course and i enjoyed it. Atwood is a very talented writer and this book is evidence. But i can honestly say that i don't sympathise with Elaine. Cordelia seems to give a reason as to why she bullied Elaine (not that that means she should have) but Elaine had no reason to bully Cordelia herself. She took advantage of Cordelia's deterioration .Everything is in her mind...... and she is a psyco. But the book is very interesting and i don't regret reading it

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Summary: Too precious to lend out!
Review: Never in my life have I had such a personal encounter with a book as I have with "Cat's Eye." This book made me feel as if my soul and inner most feelings were exposed. Atwood is a truly gifted writer with the ability to bring fiction to life and make Elaine's painful memories of her childhood friends as real as my own. Because this book is thick with parallels between the past and present, every time I read it will be an exhilarating experience.

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Summary: You will feel transported back in time!
Review: In this rich, nostalgic, yet deeply disturbing novel, Atwood touches upon the special moments and inevitable cruelties that are part of childhood friendships. I was fascinated by the character of Cordelia, Elaine's childhood friend. However, I was distressed to find that, somewhere in the middle of the book, I lost track of Cordelia and her influence on Elaine's life. This made the last half of the book anticlimatic for me because I didn't find the other characters half as interesting as Cordelia.

I'm still not sure that I like Atwood's method of storytelling in which she relates the very dramatic parts of her novel in the same even tone as the most mundane event. It's an interesting writing technique, but I don't think it's for me.