The Edible Woman

Rating:
Summary: A tasty treat!
Review: I will have to admit that curiosity is the prime reason for reading this book. The back cover blurb doesn't give much by way of details of the actual storyline, just that the main character feels like she is being eaten. I couldn't stop myself from reading this book after reading that! However, the story wasn't exactly what I was expecting, although it was still pretty good.

Set in Canada in the late 1960s, the women's role in life is slowly trying to break free from the 50s television version of the housewife that vacuums in pearls and heels. Marian, a recent college graduate, considers herself a pretty independent woman. Even her relationship with her boyfriend, Peter, doesn't get in the way of her independence. She lives on her own with her roommate and best friend, Ainsley, and she makes her own living as copywriter for a survey service. But when, out of the blue, Peter proposes marriage, strange things start happening. Marian begins to feel consumed with making plans, quitting her job, moving in with Peter, and settling down for her role as housewife. All of a sudden she can't eat certain things and she has strange panic attacks that come from nowhere. Her freedom is being threatened, but Marian sees no way out. Or is there?

While Marian's story is the core of this novel, the host of supporting characters intrigued me the most. Ainsley decides she wants to have a baby and begins her search to find the lucky man to help her out. Marian's friend, Clara, and her husband, Joe, provide a stunning example of what married/family life will be like (and not always in a good way). Then there's Duncan, a man who answers the door when Marian is out doing surveys, who has his own issues. All of these storylines are full of feminist symbolism, and I believe it is important to know this before you read the book. It will definitely help you understand the novel more clearly.

I'm a new Atwood fan, having read and loved The Handmaid's Tale just a month ago. And while The Edible Woman is not as exhilarating or fascinating like Handmaid, I still found it to be very well-written with an interesting storyline, despite its heavy symbolism that mostly went over my head (I'm not too good at picking that stuff out!). I have two other Atwood books on my shelf and I'm looking forward to reading them. I believe that imagination and originality is Atwood's forte, and I have high hopes that the rest of her novels will provide a healthy dose.

Rating:
Summary: Witty and Original
Review: I'd give this 3.5 stars, for the record...

I was pleasantly surprised by this book, especially after reading the blurb which loudly declared "The Edible Woman" to be a book about wild sex. Luckily it actually turned out to have more substance than that: if anything, the sex scenes are so low-key as to be nonexistent. Instead the focus is upon the psychological aspects of Marian's relationships with her fiancee and with Duncan, and most of all upon the way she views herself. While on the surface "The Edible Woman" can be viewed as a feminist rant against marriage and commitment, this would be in my opinion a reductive perspective to take. "The Edible Woman" is primarily the charting of one woman's loss of identity as she attempts to mold herself to conform to the expectations of others.

Despite the serious and even dark undercurrents, this is a light, fun read. The characters are almost caricatures, even the main character, saying and doing things that no one in their right minds would ever do in real life. Fortunately this cartoonish treatment of the characters works in the novel's favor: it makes Marian's strange disorder more believable, and ultimately the message of the book being carried through in such a manner makes it--dare I say--more palatable. Atwood may have an axe to grind, but she does it with such delicate strokes that one can only appreciate the elegant subtlety she employs.

Atwood's prose is lucid and witty, and she takes some playful jabs at academia that are truly hilarious. The assembled cast of characters, even while they are too zany to be real, are also vastly entertaining. This book is not incredibly deep or substantial; though it does deal with some complex themes, it is in the end exactly as it comes across on the surface: a fun read. I probably wouldn't read it again, but I'm glad to have read it once.

Rating:
Summary: was a very annoying book
Review: I'm an Oac english student and i read this book for an independent study unit and i found it to be the most annoying book ever with no help and i couldn't find any symolisms in it so if you have any infro on symbolism in this book email me at [e-mail]....thanx

Rating:
Summary: Fun with the world of metaphor
Review: I've got a few Atwood books and this is by far the oldest one, so if it's not her writing debut (as opposed to poetry, which I think she did as well) it's pretty close and I have to say that I was pretty impressed with how strong her narrative voice was and how confident the book feels. Reading it you get a sense that the author knows exactly what she's doing and how to go about it. That sense makes the book that much more fun to read, even if it's not going to be recognized as one of her absolute masterpieces. The story concerns a woman named Marian, presumably in her mid-twenties, who after getting engaged starts to lose her desire to eat most kinds of food. But even that description is a tad misleading because the eating aspect doesn't even come into play until almost halfway through the book. Indeed those looking for a feminist version of "Thinner" should probably go the other way right now. Instead it's an examination of a woman's role in both society and marriage and that gives the story more weight, balancing the often silly and humorous situations Marian finds herself in. It's definitely the lightest book I've read by Atwood, it's hard to believe this is the same woman who did the ultra-depressing Life Before Man. But the main focus isn't even on Marian's quasi-eating disorder but on her interactions with her fiancee, her roommate (the subplot with her wanting a baby is absolutely hilarious in a darkly absurd way) and an odd graduate student she meets while out doing a survey for her job. That graduate student and his monologues was my favorite part of the chapter and probably represents Atwood's poke at the academic world, but definitely shows off her gift for words. But be on the look out for metaphors, just about everything means something else it seems, even the switch from first to third person struck me as odd until I realized even that represented something. In the end the metaphors get stretched a bit too far and the only truly silly moment is right at the end. But it's immensely enjoyable for an Atwood novel and one of the few that you'll find yourself laughing more than feeling glad you aren't the characters.

Rating:
Summary: Too much symbolism for a simple folk like meself
Review: It was ok, but I missed a lot of the "irony and metaphor" that the back cover
assures me was in there! Just "whoosh" right over my head, I guess.

Marian McAlpin becomes engaged... and inexplicably, her eating
habits change - first she can't eat meat, picturing the living
breathing animal it once was. Then eggs. Then everything else! She
knows she should eat, she knows she must eat, but food of any sort
revolts her. Mix in a nutty roommate who decides to get pregnant,
and starts looking for an unwitting "donor" to be the father, and
Duncan, a bizarre grad student Marian meets during work (She works
at a survey service, and had to go door to door doing a survey), and
you have a strange yet amusing story about a woman resisting the
loss of her identity when she marries. I guess that was what it was
about anyways.

Cute but it seemed a bit light to me, as if Marian just "felt" these
things but didn't really state them to the reader. There was some
certain shallowness about the book that I can't quite describe.

Rating:
Summary: Atwood is a genious
Review: Many authors who have risen to the heights of fame and acclaim that Atwood has reached have forgettable first novels, but Atwood is a clear exception to that. The Edible Woman is brazen, thought-provoking,and amusing all at the same time.

Marian McAlpin is a recent college graduate living in an unnamed Canadian city. She began dating Peter, an attorney, just as she started her job as a copy writer at a marketing research firm. Before she even realized that their relationship was serious or "going somewhere", she and Peter become engaged. Strangely enough, it happens after a fit of anxiety that literary causes Marian to run frantically into the night, away from Peter and the possibility of captivity.
The wedding plans are hastily taken over by Marian's family, the plans for the rest of their life are taken over by Peter (plans that included Marian quiting her job and becoming a housewife) and Marian begins to feel consumed.

Marian's onset of food aversions are comical, but also very symbolic--the thought of being coldly and methodically consumed keeps Marian from eating during the weeks leading up to her wedding as she tries to imagine giving up her independence.

Nearly every aspect of this novel is a symbol, a cultural comment of some kind. The most obvious, of course, is about food, but there are others, including the deep pit Marian stares into just days before her wedding. The characters are also neatly compartmentalized into varying degrees of traditional stagnation. They range from the stodgy old sexless landlady; the 3 "office virgins" at Marian's company; Clara, a college friend who is deeply immersed in the doldrums of wifery and motherhood; and the scheming Ainsley, Marian's roommate who plots to become pregnant with the help of an unsuspecting man. Peter, Marian's fiancee, openly balks at marriage at the novel's beginning; however, superb plot development shows that men have nothing to lose and everything to gain. It's the wife-to-be who is expected to surrender everything. Not-so-subtle remarks about uppity women who "trap" men by becoming pregnant (like Ainsley and the wife of Peter's friend Trigger) and about the perils of educating women (it's a risk to allow them to get ideas, you see) make this novel all the more wonderful.

This is not a lightweight novel, in spite of its somewhat silly subject matter and hilarious plot twists. Only those who go in with their eyes wide open will finish this novel having been enriched and satisfied.

Rating:
Summary: Atwood's best book
Review: Margaret Atwood always depicts fascinating, well-rounded women, but Marian and company are the best of the bunch. Each is torn in a different direction by her female identity and ideas of her obligation to normalcy. Marian plans to marry but shows no real enthusiasm for the idea and begins to disappear as the engagement continues. Ainsley is determined to bear a child to fulfil her biological destiny, but sees men purely as a means to an end. Clara, married and a mother, is bewildered and somewhat disgusted at having three children and appears to Marian as a queen termite figure, giving birth over and over. The book is full of deliciously mean humor as the women wander baffled through the stages of traditional womanhood and attempt to save their senses of self on the way.

Rating:
Summary: Husbands - who needs them?
Review: Marian - a public researcher in a dead end job. She feels restless and unfulfilled, not realising that this is due to having no prospects and no true place as a woman in society.

Into the bargain steps Peter a trainee lawyer, her boyfriend and a devotee of society. In a fit of expressive melancholic madness Marian agrees to marry him, dragging herself further into her self delusion and unhappiness.

This novel is concerned with the roles society offers us and what happens when we either do not fit in or openly avoid them. Written at the peak of 'women's rights', Atwood takes a moral stance with her character - Marian - denying both male superiority and the need for social acceptance. She does this superbly, adapting the gritty realism of the real world into a humourous relationship where nothing seems to work out just right! The snide jabs at society are all first class right down to the last chapter, where (for all those that want a sneak preview) Marian goes one up on Duncan after realising he is as trapped as she is. In short: An excellent book that should not be missed!

Rating:
Summary: The edible woman is the cake
Review: Marian does not want to fold under the pressures of society or of the people in her life. After realizing she can't run away or hide from her problems, she confronts them and solves them by eating them. This story was awesome. Although slow at first, this story was very thought-provoking.

Rating:
Summary: Pretty Tasty Tidbit
Review: Most people would agree that Margaret Atwood's later work is much stronger than her earlier, but this book may be an exception. Though not a standout like "Alias Grace" or "The Handmaid's Tale," "The Edible Woman" is engaging storytelling.

The characters are interesting and the story is engrossing. The tension, discontent, and yearning is almost palatable. A good read!