Hey!Who invited September?
Where is the summer going?
As the fall season of intense binge-reading rolls in, I’ve been thinking about one of my favorite writers.
Margaret Atwood.
Apparently, she will have a new book coming out THIS MONTH!
YES!
See it here!
“I don’t think you ever know how to write a book. You never know ahead of time. You start every time at zero. A former success doesn’t mean that you’re not going to make the most colossal failure the next time.”
-- Margaret Atwood –
Yeah RIGHT Maggie!
Like you don’t know how to write a book!
Gag me with a Booker!
I know there are a lot of Atwood fans out there. I want to take a poll.
Can you please use the comments section to answer my very simple question?
Here it is:
What is your favorite Atwood book of all time?
[If you tell me yours, I’ll tell you mine!]
Have a great Friday!
A great long weekend, Canada!
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A great long weekend, Canada!********
8 comments:
I have a confession -- I've never read Atwood. I realize this is a terrible failing, and I'll correct it as soon as possible :)
Cat's Eye, no question about it.
Now it's full night, clear, moonless and filled with stars, wwhich are not where we think they are. If they were sounds, they would be echoes, of something that happened millions of years ago: a word made of numbers. Echoes of light, shining out of the midst of nothing.
It's old light, and there's not much of it. But it's enough to see by.
I haven't read everything by Atwood, but what I've read, has not disappointed me. I'm with sfp; 'Cate's Eye', for sure. No other author has ever been able to fully capture so clearly and honestly the utter maliciousness that exists in the world of young girls. I could so relate to this book, on so many levels.
Oh, and guess what Puddle-boy? I already bought 'Moral Disorder' and finished it last night. Fabulous. Amazing. Delicious. Want more.
There are not too many people responding to this poll, but I will now reveal my own favorite Atwood.
They are all so good, but I think I've gotta say Alias Grace is the one I read with the most fervor. I loved it.
So, here is what we have so far. One person responded via email and said Surfacing was her favorite.
So, as of Sept.2nd:
Cat's Eye - 2
Surfacing - 1
Alias Grace - 1
It's so impossible to talk favorites with Atwood, Cipriano. You gave us too difficult a task here.
She is such a varied writer. Oryx and Crake. The Penelopiad. Surfacing. Handmaid's Tale.
They all do have some similar motifs and techniques, but you love each one for a different reason.
For personal reasons, Surfacing is my pick...but really, barring those reasons, I too would pick Alias Grace. That book is not only riviting, it has that Gothic theme going on between the lines. Cats Eye - just a fabulous and entertaining read. Memorable characters.
For sheer artistry - Alias Grace and The Blind Assassin.
An adorable friend of mine sent me Waltzing Again, which is a collection of conversations with her...and it too is wonderful.
Her brilliantly articulate way of discussing writing is direct and suffers no fools.
On the topic of variety, in one of the interviews, Joyce Carol Oates asks her about the number of different "voices" she uses in her work, and Atwood says that the discipline of prose (as opposed, say, to poetry) evokes a "totally different" consciousness and notes that she believes that she could invent a pseudonym for a reviewer and "no one would guess it was me."
I agree.
She seems to have an astonishing capacity for diversity in her writing. She goes on, skewering the critics who insist on reading her autobiographically, declaring that one needs to "think of writing as expressing 'itself' rather than 'the writer.'"
In a separate interview she had said with her typical Atwood wryness: "I'm not interested in "expressing myself" [i.e. write with emphasis on her own life]: "If I want to 'express myself,' I can go out in the back field and scream. It takes a lot less time."
All this to say that her myriad characters, narrators, personae do make it seem sometimes as though I am reading Atwood, yes, but that she is some kind of multiple-personalitied imagination that has a whole cosmos from which to choose.
Still...hmmmmm...a favorite?
Arrrgggh. Too difficult!
I have to abstain!
Always nice to stop by and read the Puddle.
Excellent comments by Anon.
I would also have to add that Atwood's non-fiction book about writing "Negotiating with the Dead' is without a doubt the best book I have ever read on the subject. Intelligent, insightful and of course over-flowing in her cutting, dry wit.
Oh, and Alias Grace is my second choice for best work of fiction by Atwood.
That Peggy is one hell of a gal...
Patricia, I agree with you on two counts.
Firstly, this "anonymous" person makes me feel like I have been born mentally retarded [no offense to any actually mentally retarded person that may be reading this] and I have just not been notified of my condition, yet.
And secondly, I agree with you, I have read "Negotiating" and it was an.... experience.
BRUTALLY good.
I agree with you.
Wanna know what it means to be a writer? Read this book.
Would you believe I've been thinking about this all weekend? And my answer is: The Blind Assassin. Although, Cat's Eye (and going to a reading of it) was the one that made me sit up and pay attention, I mean really pay attention, after having had a horrible Surfacing experience in high school.
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