The Edible Woman | 
pickok - so I want to tell you about Atwood's first novel, how the second wave of feminism plays in it, but also, mainly, the humor. This is a really fun, and funny, look at a serious problem - for Marian and for the world, relevant today.
I tried here: https://www.librarything.com/work/32423/reviews/301213285
It‘s terrific and I loved it.
so-soIn 1960s Toronto, a young woman develops an eating disorder when she decides to marry the young man she has been having a somewhat desultory relationship with.
There were some laugh out loud moments but most of the time I didn't feel much connection with the main character. But then she didn't seem to feel much connection with herself, so I suppose that was kind of the point.
I‘m supposed to spend my time revising the questionnaires, turning the convoluted and overly-subtle prose of the psychologists who write them into simple questions which can be understood by the people who ask them as well as the people who answer them. A question like ‘In what percentile would you place the visual impact value?‘ is not useful.
pickWhat a read. I really related to the narrator in the beginning. When she lost the plot I almost did too. My life in the late 60s and early 70s was one of trying hard to conform when I really didn‘t want to. Oh if only I had been like Marian and stepped away from things like she did. Life is so much easier now. Think I‘ll make that cake and eat it!
pickWow 😳. Devoured the second half of this on a cold and wet public holiday today. It is Atwood‘s first novel, written in 1965, which blows my mind, because she was in her 20‘s and it feels so out there and ahead of its time.
I saw Atwood speak on 1 March 2020 with @Rissreads just before the world went to shit. She spoke about this book and I made a note to read it then. It‘s been chosen for my bookclub this month. So glad to have gotten to it. 🙏
pickI often name Atwood as one of my favorite writers, and she is, but there‘s so much of her work I‘ve not yet read! Like this one (received from @Drebae29 many swaps ago). I really loved it. The characters are memorable, and together they say so much about being a young adult trying to make sense of it all. And a big part of that is what it means to consume and be consumed as a woman. Best language, and funny, too.
pickPublished in 1969, I read this in college in about 1985. They re-read shows it is still relevant, even if some cultural references are a little outdated. Social norms for woman around marriage, loss of self, self-abnegation...things haven‘t changed that much. A classic.
so-soI was confused and not quite understand the story at times. Well written but not a good read for me. Surprised it‘s Atwood‘s first novel, written in 1969! The plots here are way ahead of time! She definitely can see the future!
Wow... didn‘t realise Edible Woman was 50 years old this year...Her books always feel so relevant.
https://chireviewofbooks.com/2019/08/28/re-reading-all-of-margaret-atwoods-novel...
so-soI'm almost halfway through this audiobook, not sure I'm liking it, waiting for it to get better...
Have you read this book?
Do i continue or bail???
pick⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
“trailing herself, like a many-plumed fish-lure with glass beads and three spinners and seventeen hooks, through the likely looking places, good restaurants and cocktail bars with their lush weed-beds of philodendrons, where the right kind of men might be expected to be lurking, ravenous as pike, though more maritally inclined “
Atwood‘s debut novel is as superb as you would expect and now being adapted for TV 😁
So my name isn‘t Christy, but when you find a signed book by Margaret Atwood, you buy it. #iloveusedbookstores #rarebookfind #bookhaul #signedcopy
pickThis took me a long time to read but I loved it so much! Funny how I didn‘t love the handmaids tale as much as everyone else did, but I never fail to love Atwood‘s other books. This felt very Plath and very up my street as I suspected it would be. I love books that examine women, food and mental illness and this was complicated, fascinating and had a really amazing protagonist. Love it!
Having a lovely lazy Saturday morning indulging in visiting one of my favourite spots for breakfast and allowing myself some leisure reading for the first time in too long #margaretatwood #ediblewoman #coffee #breakfast
Listening to this on audio and so far it is pretty amazing. How did I not know about this book? 🤘🏼
1. Margaret Atwood - she‘s smart and would make for good conversation
2. Paris Combo
3. Red wine
#tricialthursday @GarthRanzz
pickWell I didn‘t make a full 24 but I‘m pretty happy about how I did. This book was really good by the way. Typical of Atwood it is full of subtext and will really make you think.
My Margaret Atwood #tbr! I've been reading through her novels for the past couple years. I'm past the halfway point, which makes me kind of happy and kind of sad. I'm thinking about Cat's Eye or The Robber Bride next! Any suggestions?!
And now this gorgeous collection of straight-from-my-TBR books. ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ Wow. Each one of them made me happier than the next (and to be honest I got a little choked up because outside of a swap I would never receive a ? gift like this…my family does respect my love of books and reading, but they don‘t quite “get it”...what a joy to be connected with people who do!!). Andrá, I am SO grateful for your generosity and can‘t thank you enough. ❤️
Today, the #eighteenth #18 of November, is Margaret Atwood‘s birthday! #🎂
Edit: I should have stated this upfront earlier. This gorgeous collection is not mine, sadly.
#novemberbythenumbers @Tiffy_Reads @JoeStalksBeck
#emojinov #nov📚📷 @RealLifeReading
I LOVED The Handmaid‘s Tale, so I‘m excited to read Atwood‘s debut novel. #novemberbythenumbers The_Edible_Woman is sixteen characters for day #sixteen.
"She smiled at him in conciliation. She sensed her face as vastly spreading and papery and slightly dilapidated: a huge billboard smile, peeling away in flaps and patches, the metal surface beneath showing through[...]"
I love how Atwood captures the depth of wonder that often comes with dissociation. How familiar sights and objects become wondrous visions and alien landscapes.
The copy I'm reading is covered in marginal notes that say things like "MOLD = ALIVE". ?
I'd forgotten how much freudian bullshit tends to be in white-authored seventies novels. 😝 I wish the characters would all shut up about complexes and drives and ids and superegos, for even just half a page.
"I gave him a tender, chrome-plated smile; that is, I meant the smile to express tenderness, but my mouth felt stiff and bright and somehow expensive."
Two pretentious, misogynistic douchebros (one of them the protag's fiance) are holding forth about how to take the perfect selfie. Ah, the seventies.
Interestingly, gentrification is a recurring motif in the story. I wonder what direction Atwood will take it.
I‘m pumped to see Margaret Atwood in person at Notre Dame tonight! It‘s been two years since I picked up my first Atwood novel (The Edible Woman). Tonight she‘s discussing The Handmaid‘s Tale - another of my favorites.
"A cicada was singing in a tree nearby, its monotonous vibration like a hot needle of sunlight between the ears."
"I suspected the lady down below had taken note of all the bottle-shaped objects we had carried upstairs, though I tried my best to disguise them as groceries. It was true she had never specifically forbidden us to do anything--that would be too crude a violation of her law of nuance--but this only makes me feel I am actually forbidden to do everything."
#riotgrams day 17 weird covers. I....don‘t know what this is. An exploding treehouse? Maybe if I read it I will find out
pickI loved every minute of this poignant and sassy story. A young woman during the 60's is engaged to (what she deems) a very ordinary man and becomes unravelled and frantic. Atwood cleverly flips back and forth between the narrative of Marian in the third person and first person, while exploring women's roles during that era. By the end I found myself both liberated and discouraged by how far (and how little) we've progressed. A terrific read.
Just. Wow.
Joe on women and education: “Maybe women shouldn‘t be allowed to go to university at all; then they wouldn‘t always be feeling later on that they‘ve missed out on the life of the mind.”
Excerpt From: Atwood, Margaret. “Edible Woman.” Seal Books, 1976-01-02T00:00:00+00:00. iBooks.
This material may be protected by copyright.
My #currentread. When I start a new author I truly believe their first book is usually their best and most true to their heart. I'm almost done and loving Marian, the main character. She's sassy (in her head) and conflicted. I must say, for a story written in the 1960's, it is shocking how far we have come on such issues as gender equality and sexual orientation - but at the same time disheartening that some things have not changed at all.
