|
|
|
| Current Issue |
|
|
| Resources |
|
|
|
Revenge of the Repressed
| Article
# : |
11684 |
|
|
Section : |
BOOK WORLD
|
| Issue
Date : |
2 / 1994 |
2,598 Words |
| Author
: |
Roberta Rubenstein
Roberta Rubenstein is professor of literature at American
University in Washington, D.C., and the author, most recently,
of Home Matters: Longing and Belonging, Nostalgia and
Mourning in Women's Fiction Palgrave/St. Martin's Press,
2001).
|
THE ROBBER BRIDE
Margaret Atwood
New York: Doubleday/Nan A. Talese, 1993
560 pp., $24.00
From her first novel, The Edible Woman, to the just-published The Robber Bride, Margaret Atwood has trained her eye on the complex relations between the sexes as well as on the larger conflicts of value and meaning within North American culture as a whole. By turns sardonic, witty, caustic, and somber, her fiction and poetry demonstrate an uncommon versatility with language, balanced by a strong social commitment.
Atwood is widely acknowledged as one of Canada's most distinguished writers, equally accomplished as the author of fiction and poetry. Her published oeuvre to date includes nearly a dozen volumes of poetry (several of which have been honored with such major literary prizes as Canada's prestigious Governor-General Award), eight novels, and four volumes of short stories and miscellaneous prose pieces. Additionally, she has written illuminatingly on literary subjects; Survival (1972), her critical study of major themes and ideas in Canadian literature, remains a significant study of a national literary tradition that Atwood herself helped to establish. As if this were not enough talent in a single person, Atwood is also artistically accomplished: She created the cover designs for several of her own collections of poetry.
The daughter of an entomologist who conducted research in the rural northern areas of Ontario and Quebec while his three children were young, Atwood did not receive formal schooling until she reached adolescence. Instead, she learned at home, reading widely and teaching herself to write poetry, novels, stories, and plays. She attended the University of Toronto; her first volume of poetry was published in 1962, the year she graduated. After receiving an M.A. in Victorian literature at Harvard, she taught English for a time, until the publication of her second novel (Surfacing, 1972) permitted her to pursue a fulltime career as a writer.
Although a reader new to Atwood's fiction will discover rich rewards in The Robber Bride (1993)--which I have no hesitation in saying is her finest and most profound novel to date--this splendidly realized narrative is particularly satisfying for a reader familiar with her previous fiction. One can observe the way Atwood deepens and transforms certain ideas and themes that originate in her early novels. In The Edible Woman (1969) and Surfacing
...
Read Full Article
Look for this article in Ask.com
|
|
