Life Before Man

Rating:
Summary: Sluggish and disappointing
Review: As a true lover of Margaret Attwood's work, I must confess that I found this book to be a disappointment. To be sure it is well crafted and well written. However, the story line is uninteresting and repetitive.

Rating:
Summary: Loved the first half
Review: Atwood is one of the best writers around, but this is a minor work. It starts very well and I was quickly engrossed in the lives of the three central characters. However, nothing much happens in the latter half. The characters are serial adulterers; they become increasingly self obsessed and self pitying and long before the end I stopped caring what happened to any of them.

Rating:
Summary: atwood at her best
Review: atwood, like the greatest of literature, is a first-rate psychologist. She is an observer of humans, a listener. Somehow she has learned more than most of us.
Life Before Man is at its best describing the relations (and lack of such) between men and women. While it may seems obvious that her writings will open the eyes of men as to how women see and feel about them, it is even more eye opening to see how women feel about each other.
The title of the book refers to the fact that women can get along without men. For this reason women, not just men, will benefit greatly from Atwood's insights.

Rating:
Summary: atwood at her best
Review: atwood, like the greatest of literature, is a first-rate psychologist. She is an observer of humans, a listener. Somehow she has learned more than most of us.
Life Before Man is at its best describing the relations (and lack of such) between men and women. While it may seems obvious that her writings will open the eyes of men as to how women see and feel about them, it is even more eye opening to see how women feel about each other.
The title of the book refers to the fact that women can get along without men. For this reason women, not just men, will benefit greatly from Atwood's insights.

Rating:
Summary: A sub-par effort for an outstanding author
Review: Being a loyal Atwood fan, I decided to read the last of her unread novels recently. The title of the novel, Life Before Man, held the dark tones of mystery that I appreciate in literature; the hint of scandal, intrigue, or just the promise of what Atwood is so good at dishing up: a rich and intricate tale woven around several characters. This would not have been unlike my favourite novels by Atwood, Cat's Eye, Lady Oracle, and The Robber Bride. I thought that with Life Before Man, I had saved one of the best for last. I was wrong.

What ensued in the next 400 pages was an embarrassing love triangle involving three warped and morally repugnant morons. Even all the sinnin' and flirtin' couldn't save this book from falling flat on its face. The story became not only frustrating, but agonizingly boring - the development of any sympathetic or likeable characters was bogged down by over-tedious use of language and metaphor.

The story did not challenge new borders in literature and failed to violate *my* expectations as a reader. I was more interested in the page count and, sometimes, in the sparse poetic quality of the novel, than what was happening to the three main characters. By the end of the book, I was too disappointed to complain about the lack of resolution and was only glad to say that I'd finished what I'd begun.

A valuable read for true Atwood fans interested in noting the evolution of her work between then and now, but not a book to cluck cluck cluck over. Two-and-a-half stars.

Rating:
Summary: A sub-par effort for an outstanding author
Review: Being a loyal Atwood fan, I decided to read the last of her unread novels recently. The title of the novel, Life Before Man, held the dark tones of mystery that I appreciate in literature; the hint of scandal, intrigue, or just the promise of what Atwood is so good at dishing up: a rich and intricate tale woven around several characters. This would not have been unlike my favourite novels by Atwood, Cat's Eye, Lady Oracle, and The Robber Bride. I thought that with Life Before Man, I had saved one of the best for last. I was wrong.

What ensued in the next 400 pages was an embarrassing love triangle involving three warped and morally repugnant morons. Even all the sinnin' and flirtin' couldn't save this book from falling flat on its face. The story became not only frustrating, but agonizingly boring - the development of any sympathetic or likeable characters was bogged down by over-tedious use of language and metaphor.

The story did not challenge new borders in literature and failed to violate *my* expectations as a reader. I was more interested in the page count and, sometimes, in the sparse poetic quality of the novel, than what was happening to the three main characters. By the end of the book, I was too disappointed to complain about the lack of resolution and was only glad to say that I'd finished what I'd begun.

A valuable read for true Atwood fans interested in noting the evolution of her work between then and now, but not a book to cluck cluck cluck over. Two-and-a-half stars.

Rating:
Summary: bleak but brilliant
Review: I found this novel to be thoroughly compelling and enthralling, if not exactly life-affirming. It is a bleak tale, true, but to me its strengths lie in its uncompromisingly fatalistic outlook. The ordinary idea of heroes and villains in a story are eschewed by a set of protagonists who are each in their own ways pitiful and hateful; in other words, real people - in each one is visible some characteristic of ourselves that we recognise, but are probably not proud of. Elizabeth is manipulative and greedy, but only learnt that from her tyrannical Auntie Muriel. Her husband Nate seems likeable and mild mannered, but you become frustrated with his inability to maintain a relationship. The young Lesje, the object of Nate's desire, is the most agreeable but she allows herself to become embroiled in other people's cattiness. The standard of writing is exceptionally high, although a little hard going, for behind every line there is some hidden meaning, some clue to the personalities of the three main characters. Very little dialogue takes place, with most of the characters' motivation and feelings being revealed through inner monologue; this not only allows the characters total honesty with themselves and the reader, but it also makes us realise how little of our own feelings we communicate to those we know, and how this can create a feeling of resentment and isolation amongst people.

I am a slow reader on the whole, and as I said, this book was challenging in its use of metaphor and subtext, but I polished it off quite quickly, as I found myself connecting with the characters. I did not particularly like any of them, but then they did not like each other. That is not necessary in the reading of this story, you just have to care about them. I would highly reccomend it to anyone who, like myself, enjoys a little melancholy.

Rating:
Summary: Gloomy, but fascinating
Review: I have not finished reading this book yet, so I can't comment on the ending, but I am so fascinated by Atwoods writing that I simply can't wait to review it... . I decided to give this book a 4 star rating. Why ? Because the characters are real. Allthough it seems easy to write about real people, Atwood prooves clearly that it is not. To write with such accuracy and nuance, one needs a thorough psychological insight. I could find no clichés in this book, only a description of real, unpredictable, complex human beings in constant interaction with a lot of things: other people, themselves, images of the past, wishes for the future, and so on... . Because of this the reader can recognise parts of each character , not only in himself but also in others. This is a quality I value greatly in books. The last time I read a novel with the same level of human insight was with Peter Careys 'Oscar and Lucinda', although Atwood beats Carey as far as the realistic story is concerned. Why not 5 stars then ? I had some trouble picking this book up for the first 30 pages or so. Perhaps this was due to the gloominess of the story, perhaps it had to do with the English vocabulary I don't master as well as I wish I would. Also, the story didn't really appeal to me at first, I found it hard keeping on track with the constant changement in perspective. On the other hand, once I got through the first part, these changes of perspective started fascinating me very much. In short: I recommend this book to everyone who likes a good psychological novel. Dragging yourself trough the first pages is certainly worth the bother !

Rating:
Summary: Life Before Man
Review: I originally bought this book because of the description of Lesje's character-her obsession with dinosaurs. Throughout the book, she was my favorite of the three. Nate was nice but so soft that he could never argue with Elizabeth, who I hated because of her extremely manipulative tendencies. I thought it was interesting how she was depicted at the end, and I loved the last line of the book. Very depressing, and I didn't catch most of the symbolism the first time around, so I'll have to re-read it.

Rating:
Summary: everyone is crazy
Review: I related to every facet of this book. Lesje's feeling of being clothed in who Nate wanted her to be. Nate's clueless caring way. Chris's imbalance and suicide. William's dark side. But mostly I related to Elizabeth's rules, the way she was careful and secretive. Put all these characters together and there I will be. Atwood writes in such an intimate way that I was drawn closely to these people and all that they had.

This story was well-told and quiet. It had a somewhat disjointed feel as the days were slightly mixed up. This is a book of secrets, and as such, I could see myself in it everywhere. Each word was unspoken in a way that I would unspeak it, and that held a certain sense of comfort. It was like the story was being told as the secrets could no longer be held in. Like it was all leaking out, and it was all just resigned to be leaking at this point. Because there were no choices left.

I felt dragged through to the end, but I believe this was intentional. Or I'd like to think that it was.