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Summary: The Edible Woman
Review: Once into the story I couldn't put it down, and after I wasfinished I was sorry there wasn't more.The thoughts and emotionswere incredibly real. The way she painted their desolation with actions and settings created the most beautiful mental pictures. As an extra plus, the character Duncan was one of the best, most appealing male characters I have ever encountered. A great thought provoking story, that if not for the lack of health consciousness (much drinking and smoking), it could have been written yesterday.
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Summary: The Edible Woman was delicious!
Review: The best feature of this book is its ability to enthrall. Clearly, Margaret Atwood's style in this novel is still green, as she wrote this book when she was only about 24, but I think that it contributed to my enjoyment of this book. While it is slightly reminiscent of some of her later fiction, it differs significantly in the narrational flow, allowing the reader to be gently assimilated into the message of the book without feeling as if he or she should always be "on the lookout" for pithy hidden messages. Some may claim that this book is superficial and a run-of-the-mill attempt at distinctive women's lib literature, but this is not so. It is simply subtle insight into human nature in all aspects--including the aspects of both women AND men. Also be reminded that Atwood actually wrote the book before the brunt of the women's lib movement, but unfortunately, it was not published until 1970, marking it as correlative to the movement. I highly recommend this book, especially, in fact, for those who are dissatisfied with Atwood's prose style and writing techniques. Perhaps this book will equalize your perception of her. Although I enjoy Atwood across the board, this book is one of the most refreshing and engrossing reads I've encountered.
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Summary: A great book by a great author
Review: The book "The Edible Woman" was fantastic. The story was great and the book was actually fun to read. I'm in oac English and have a hard time finding books I want to read but this one caught my eye. It grabbed me from the beginning and kept me wanting to read right until the end. The content of the book was challenging but not to confusing or mind boggling. Therefore it was enjoyable. I really enjoy Margaret Atwoods books and I hope she continues to write some excellent novels like she has in the past!!
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Summary: Enightening and a superbly written book
Review: The Edible Woman was a genuine, outstanding book to read. It was rich with irony and metaphors. I couldn't put it down. It made me think about how society can have such an affect on an individual. It made me realize that in a way that is happening to me and everyone. In the book, Marian wasn't able to eat. She was like being "consumed" by society.
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Summary: read it, very good book, but not subtle, end sad (spoiler)
Review: the edible woman was given to me by a friend over two years ago and i never got around to reading it because i am not a big fan of books with messages and symbols - and usually prefer more straight stories. last week, i was looking for something to read and picked it up and could not put it down; it is very well-written. even before i started i was intrigued by the idea of controlling food in reaction to emotional stress and feeling out-of-control internally as it is too familiar a way of coping in myself and other women around me. i read the book mainly for the story. it was instantly captivated by the many well-developed characters. speaking of characters, pretty much everyone in this book, especially these grad student characters, are at times very funny! PLEASE DO NOT READ THIS IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THE BOOK:
there were no problems at all until the very very end, <I'M WARNING AGAIN, SPOILER>. this is where i am slightly confused. i did not read the book with any kind of symbolism in mind - i am one of the lucky souls who are able to turn off the internal literary analyst and simply not attend to them if i don't feel like it. at the same time, i was of course aware of the numerous symbolic elements in this book like one might be aware of passing by trees on a walking path. when the end came, i thought "is the book really is as simple as this: she leaves peter, gives the cake to this duncan dude? and her only problem was peter all along? where is the enlightenment? where is the maturity? where is the feminist bladiblah where you make a cake and finally break free of all the molds, make your own mold, say "hah!" not just to peter, but to the world and eat the whole damn cake yourself." see, what marian does is, forget what a great thing she did with the whole cake thing (as if it's one of her other dissociated episodes througout the book), says "it's just a cake" to a comment by ainsley and a few days later, oh, happens to remember there is some left over and finds it on some shelf and feeds it to duncan... seems to make a nice ending i know. but it is a sad ending. what did marian really learn? she appears still just as detached from herself. is she even a little wiser? i can't tell. what will she do next time a man comes to "destroy" her? maybe she will not eat again. maybe she will compulsively clean. if this was atwood's intended ending, then it is a very sad ending. very subtle and given what we know of marian not unlikely either, she is not the type to have sudden enlightenment. that would be cheesy... maybe this is intended. in that case it is quite a brilliant observation about women who can't quite break free. but a deeply sad one. but if atwood wrote the more simple book where we were actually supposed to sympathize with marian and see this as a book where she refuses conservative peter and lets the emaciated oddity duncan consume her, i would be quite disappointed. if this is the book we're talking about, it's a book of breaking free. and then if marian is breaking free, really why let _any_ man eat her cake?
<END OF SPOILER> 4 stars and not 5 because the symbolism was overpowering and not very subtle. everything in the book seemed to revolve around the one issue of men/women, sometimes at the expense of making narrative unnaturally focused on certain things. you may or may not like that. a couple of times i felt like i was in a gender studies class.
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Summary: Engaging, a quick read
Review: The Edible Woman, though written several years ago, contains characters (both male and female) that are easily recognizable today. Not as fully imagined as The Handmaid's Tale or The Robber Bride, but still an engaging look at societal expectations and interpersonal relationships. A good read!
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Summary: If Alanis Morrissette never sang a note
Review: This book is clearly by a woman and for other women, kind of like so many magazines. Being published in 1970, its social setting is frankly dated. However, what sets it apart is a deeper level that, frankly, only hit me between the eyes as I reached the halfway point of the book, down to the page. Just who is this Duncan character anyway? And what makes him tick? Atwood's photo reminds me of Alanis Morrissette plus 25 years and, in a way, so does her writing; at least there's a family resemblance :) I'm a man and I don't understand women but this book helped NOT :) But I couldn't put it down. Good read, but she's no Tom Wolfe.
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Summary: symbolically in your face
Review: This book was a bit challenging to rate because I had read all of Margaret Atwood's other novels before I read this one; her first. Ms. Atwood is a brilliant author and conveyor of the feminine mind and perspective. Some of her novels are outstanding while most are at least very good. "The Edible Woman" is an excellent beginning for the author but it has its' flaws. The main flaw is the symbolism. The symbolism is too forced and it doesn't work well. I found myself wondering if I wanted to spend the time trying to figure out the symbolism. I decided that I didn't. The symbolism centers around the inability of the main character to eat a growing number of foods. I guess this was to coincide with the events in her life in which she was being "consumed" by those around her. The author's talent gave us a good enough story without the food distractions. It is a story of a young professional woman who seems to know what she wants but lets others call the shots. She enters into relationships with two different men neither of whom is in anyway suited for her. We are glad that the relationship with her fiance fizzles but we are left wondering why she ever got involved with the graduate student. We rejoice at her ultimate independence but are made to sift through the final installment of symbolism in order to do so. Ms. Atwood has used symbolism since her opening act as a novelist. However, to her credit, she learned to be more subtle about it. This was a good beginning and it only gets better from here on.
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Summary: symbolically in your face
Review: This book was a bit challenging to rate because I had read all of Margaret Atwood's other novels before I read this one; her first. Ms. Atwood is a brilliant author and conveyor of the feminine mind and perspective. Some of her novels are outstanding while most are at least very good. "The Edible Woman" is an excellent beginning for the author but it has its' flaws. The main flaw is the symbolism. The symbolism is too forced and it doesn't work well. I found myself wondering if I wanted to spend the time trying to figure out the symbolism. I decided that I didn't. The symbolism centers around the inability of the main character to eat a growing number of foods. I guess this was to coincide with the events in her life in which she was being "consumed" by those around her. The author's talent gave us a good enough story without the food distractions. It is a story of a young professional woman who seems to know what she wants but lets others call the shots. She enters into relationships with two different men neither of whom is in anyway suited for her. We are glad that the relationship with her fiance fizzles but we are left wondering why she ever got involved with the graduate student. We rejoice at her ultimate independence but are made to sift through the final installment of symbolism in order to do so. Ms. Atwood has used symbolism since her opening act as a novelist. However, to her credit, she learned to be more subtle about it. This was a good beginning and it only gets better from here on.
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Summary: THE LIFE OF A SINGLE WOMAN IN A CITY; Society as it is today
Review: This book was enchanting, it was a pain to have to put it down. This is rather another one of those books about 20-somethings trying to find a place in life, but in this case in a more flavorful way. Duncan is perhaps one of the most appealing male characters I've yet to come across, even though he's a skinny little white boy. Read this book! The metaphors didn't boggly me dow :) It was a hoot to read!
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