Rating: 
Summary: Far beyond the "step-by-step" approach...
Review: "Who are you writing for? Why do you do it? Where does it come from?" It is hard to make a generalization about "Negotiating With the Dead," but the quote above (via the introduction) really sums up Margaret Atwood's goal in developing her partial-memoir, partial-commentary on literature and the business of writing.
At times, the language and references were cumbersome while addressing 19th Century literature and rhetorical prose that fit her ivy-league student lectures. Atwood was well-versed on both accounts having studied at prestigious East Coast schools and becoming an avid lover of classic literature. But her story doesn't end there. Atwood is more than a sum of her credentials and literary awards. At a time when the United States was in a state of political and cultural upheaval, Atwood stepped out of the conservative would-be-wed circles and developed her own style and voice before the burgeoning Bohemian crowds in back-water coffee shops and underground poetry circles. In these ways, Atwood was truly inspiring. It was comforting to know that she did not fit in with the bourgeois crowd having grown up in the dense Canadian wilderness while her father studied rare insects. She and her brother were forced to use their imaginations rather than a television or radio program to spark their creative forces. And most of all, she read and read and read. If there were a mantra for her commentary, the overall secret password for an aspiring novelist would be, simply, "read."
Part feminist commentary, part mystery of the craft, and part personal experience all come together to serve the reader well with a helpful dose of "process." Writing is a process if it is anything at all, and Atwood skips the patronizing tone of successful authors who spout mantras and secret ingredients to make a story work well. Atwood, in contrast, looks at the craft as a whole, how it exist naturally full of its quirks and diamonds. Most of all, according to Atwood, writing deals with mortality and that is the moral of the story, and if you are compelled to put pieces of words on paper, just do it, and do it well with some conviction. After all, the clock is ticking. Thank you, Margaret.
Rating:
Summary: Far beyond the "step-by-step" approach...
Review: "Who are you writing for? Why do you do it? Where does it come from?" It is hard to make a generalization about "Negotiating With the Dead," but the quote above (via the introduction) really sums up Margaret Atwood's goal in developing her partial-memoir, partial-commentary on literature and the business of writing.
At times, the language and references were cumbersome while addressing 19th Century literature and rhetorical prose that fit her ivy-league student lectures. Atwood was well-versed on both accounts having studied at prestigious East Coast schools and becoming an avid lover of classic literature. But her story doesn't end there. Atwood is more than a sum of her credentials and literary awards. At a time when the United States was in a state of political and cultural upheaval, Atwood stepped out of the conservative would-be-wed circles and developed her own style and voice before the burgeoning Bohemian crowds in back-water coffee shops and underground poetry circles. In these ways, Atwood was truly inspiring. It was comforting to know that she did not fit in with the bourgeois crowd having grown up in the dense Canadian wilderness while her father studied rare insects. She and her brother were forced to use their imaginations rather than a television or radio program to spark their creative forces. And most of all, she read and read and read. If there were a mantra for her commentary, the overall secret password for an aspiring novelist would be, simply, "read."
Part feminist commentary, part mystery of the craft, and part personal experience all come together to serve the reader well with a helpful dose of "process." Writing is a process if it is anything at all, and Atwood skips the patronizing tone of successful authors who spout mantras and secret ingredients to make a story work well. Atwood, in contrast, looks at the craft as a whole, how it exist naturally full of its quirks and diamonds. Most of all, according to Atwood, writing deals with mortality and that is the moral of the story, and if you are compelled to put pieces of words on paper, just do it, and do it well with some conviction. After all, the clock is ticking. Thank you, Margaret.
Rating:
Summary: Part of a Great Tradition
Review: Boring and depressing and really not much help to anyone who wants advice on the art of writing. More of a memoir and not much of one at that. And even the cover was poorly done - don't bother.
Rating: 
Summary: Brilliant, a thinking person's book.
Review: I agree that this is a graduate level course in one book, and I think the reader who wanted to give it zero stars was probably over her head. It is brilliant, philosophical and witty, as no doubt the author is also, but it is not an easy read memoir. Although there are elements of memoir, it's really a fascinating glimpse into the mind of a literary writer. Yes, these -- the problem of the double in myth and literature, the demonic/godlike sources of inspiration, the moral responsibilities of the artist, the meaning of the book as go-between of author and reader, and the different historical answers to all of the above -- these are the thoughts that occupy this writer. While the rest of us are absorbing entertainment, she is analyzing civilization and here she tells us what she thinks. A most valuable book! I also recommend her novels, especially Oryx and Crake, and The Blind Assassin.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant, a thinking person's book.
Review: I agree that this is a graduate level course in one book, and I think the reader who wanted to give it zero stars was probably over her head. It is brilliant, philosophical and witty, as no doubt the author is also, but it is not an easy read memoir. Although there are elements of memoir, it's really a fascinating glimpse into the mind of a literary writer. Yes, these -- the problem of the double in myth and literature, the demonic/godlike sources of inspiration, the moral responsibilities of the artist, the meaning of the book as go-between of author and reader, and the different historical answers to all of the above -- these are the thoughts that occupy this writer. While the rest of us are absorbing entertainment, she is analyzing civilization and here she tells us what she thinks. A most valuable book! I also recommend her novels, especially Oryx and Crake, and The Blind Assassin.
Rating:
Summary: Margaret Laurence, NOT Margaret Atwood...
Review: I feel the need to respond to reader "Liz," who believes that the author's "alcholism" [sic] was to blame for her disappointment in this book. Liz clearly confuses Margaret Atwood for Margaret LAURENCE, the brilliant and troubled Canadian writer who committed suicide in 1983. Atwood is alive, well, and (according to all reliable reports) in no way suffering from "alcholism." I would respectfully suggest that a little more scholarship and considerably less judgmental commentary (not to mention careful proofreading) are in order before posting reviews on Amazon.com. As a longtime fan of Atwood's work and as a writer myself, I found her insight fascinating, though I can understand the disappointment some readers felt; this is not a handbook or a how-to, it's an intellectual memoir and will consequently be a let-down for many. But if you are curious about analysis and process more than in absolutes, there is much here to interest and entertain. Atwood-the-writer can seem remote in her fiction; here she is personable and humane. Anyone who has put pen to paper will recognize and value much that is to be found in this volume.
Rating:
Summary: Successfully inhaled more Atwood prose
Review: I have collected M.E. Atwood books for years now, and it was by accident that I came across Negotiating with the Dead in the academic section of my university's bookstore. Sure, it's not a novel or book of poems, but if it has her name on it, I buy it. I wasn't dissapointed. I love MEA's characters and stories, and now I love her take on literary aspirations and operations. Her refreshing, cynical angle on this field was inspiring and very interesting. Buy this book if you love Atwood, but also if you love writing and don't know why you do.
Rating:
Summary: A Graduate-level Course in 220 pages
Review: I just finished reading this book--twice!--and may just read it again. An intelligent, provocative, and very funny discussion of life lived in the writing realm. Each of Atwood's chapters could support a book-length volume of its own. Her ability to cross the boundaries of time, genres, genders, the human and the divine is astonishing. She is genius. The back matter--notes, bibliography, acknowledgments, and index--are invaluable, and if you'd like you could launch a lifetime of study just using her references as the guidepost. This book has gotten me excited again about literature--a dive deep into the profound waters, far from the frothy, frivolous "acclaimed" writing that has increasingly made me feel so discouraged and alienated. No, this is not a how-to. This is a wondering-how-and-why.
Rating:
Summary: Just finished and need to read it again
Review: I love the new perspectives I gained from Atwood. She provides her view of the relationship between the text and the reader, the author and the text, and the reader and the author. She delves into literary theory in way I find approachable. I gained much insight from her literary references (allusions, if you will) and find the endnotes and bibliography to be a treasure trove. At times, I felt a bit disconnected to the text, but after reading a library copy, I need to get my own, so I can write in it.
Rating:
Summary: Part of a Great Tradition
Review: You have to wonder if most of the previous reviewers of this book have actually read any of Atwood's fiction. If they had, they would have known the kinds of topics that interest her and that she might pursue in lectures about her career as a writer. It's hard to imagine, for example, criticizing Atwood for drawing references from 19th century literature. I see this book as following in the tradition of Virginia Woolf and Eudora Welty, by combining stories about the author's life as a woman with her reflections on what it has meant to write fiction of the highest order.
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