The Robber Bride - Margaret Atwood

In this very complex story, you meet three very different women from Toronto, Canada: Tony, Charis, and Roz. You learn about their pasts and what makes them tick. What they have in common, what binds them, is being manipulated and betrayed by the evil witch of the story, Zenia, The Robber Bride.

The story's title is a reference to the fairy tale, The Robber Bridegroom. The characters themselves are meant to mirror fairy tale characters. Tony is Rapunzel, Charis is Sleeping Beauty, and Roz is Cinderella. Zenia is the wandering orphan, the dangerous rootless wanderer, the prince-less one. The references make perfect sense as you get to know the characters.

Zenia is an enigma. Her past is explained many times, by Zenia herself to the other women. But what parts of her self proclaimed history are fact and which are fiction? Zenia invents herself again and again in different ways for the other characters of the story, but you never know for sure who or what she really is except a disturbed and intriguing personality. At some point in their lives, Zenia has burned each of the main characters; seducing husbands/significant others, lying, betraying, causing general chaos against the other women for her own mysterious reasons. Also at some point, each character dreams of Zenia. Or in Charis's case, has a vision of her. "..Charis's astral body falls to its knees, raising imploring hands to the astral body of Zenia, which burns red, a red crown of flames like spiky leaves or old fashioned pen nibs flaring around her head, with emptiness at the centre of each flame", page 221. Tony, Charis, and Roz end up both admiring, fearing, and despising Zenia at different times, seeing themselves in her in spite of it.

I'm not so sure what a male reader might get out of this story. I loved it myself and identified with different bits of each character. But I have a feeling this kind of feminism might only be able to be understood by women.

"The story of Zenia is insubstantial, ownerless, a rumour only, drifting from mouth to mouth and changing as it goes. As with any magician, you saw what she wanted you to see; or else you saw what you yourself wanted to see. She did it with mirrors. The mirror was whoever was watching, but there was nothing behind the two-dimensional image but a thin layer of mercury", page 509.

The Year of the Flood, Anne of Green Gables

GOOD GRIEF! It’s been a while! What a crazy few months it’s been. Before we left Ohio, in between packing and saying goodbye to friends and family, I did manage to purchase and read The Year of the Flood cover to cover and I've been meaning to share it for ages. I’m so in awe of Margaret Atwood. It was worth the wait.

This novel takes place in the world of Oryx and Crake, giving you the story from the point of view of the God’s Gardeners, a quasi-religious, vegetarian eco cult who have been banned and are being persecuted and murdered. But the few survivors are still celebrating their ideas, their Saints’ Days to Dian Fossey, Farley Mowat, Mahatma Gandhi. As in Oryx and Crake, none of the characters can truly love. There is some link that is missing in all of them, that is not supplied by the culture running their lives. Jimmy, Lucerne; their emotions and understanding of reality are completely warped and stunted. Pollution is so thick, you need a mask to walk around the inner cities. Corporations own and run all of civilization's systems, there is no justice; prostitution companies recruit at schools; natural healthy food is practically unattainable. At one point in the story, when two of the characters are reunited, one warns the other after they hug that they must be more careful, that they look suspicious (pg. 299). Natural emotional attachments and reactions are dangerous to express. Every decent aspect of nature and humanity is being exterminated. Gene splicing is condoned on a huge scale, with religious fanatics creating half lion, half lamb creatures for no better reason than because they can. The only animals left are genetically altered human creations, like rakunks and pigoons with human brain cells. Lumiroses are still blooming and glowing in the dark on the lawns of people long dead from a human created bio-virus. It's a horrific, man-made world of survivors surviving the death of civilization. Coincidentally, Shaun and I watched The Road earlier tonight and it definitely stirred up the same emotions; the idea of "keeping the fire burning" despite all the horrible things happening around you. (I was furious with the Mother figure for bailing on her family like she did!) Alas, I have not read the Cormac McCarthy novel yet. Bad, I know! But it is officially on my reading list to be finished sometime this summer hopefully!

Since the move, I've also reread the Anne of Green Gables trilogy. Passing by my living room shelves a couple of weeks ago, I was feeling restless and the green photo cover appealed to me. There is no green here! Lots of blues and grays though, but I'm missing my cool, green woods of northeast Ohio. Somehow, reading about Anne's Lover's Lane, Lake of Shining Waters, and White Way of Delight cheered up my homesickness. Thanks Anne!

The Penelopiad-Margaret Atwood

I love Margaret Atwood. I read The Handmaid's Tale as a teenager and was hooked on her instantly. The Blind Assassin, The Robber Bride, Alias Grace, Surfacing, Wilderness Tips, Oryx and Crake, I have read and reread and loved them all. I was running late this morning and grabbed the first random book off the shelf on my way out the door to make sure I'd have reading material at work. Lo and behold, it was The Penelopiad. I managed to finish it before I left work. This reread made me want to eat my words in my last post; the reworking of certain stories certainly can work and work well. And, I admit, I love the chance to hear a woman character's side of the story when she's been left out. Sorry for being a doubting Thomas, Mr. Maguire, I loved your Elphaba too. Penelope's voice is loud and clear in Atwood's novella. And it's just so damn satisfying to hear her address the double standard present in The Odyssey. There's Odysseus, off fighting, adventuring, and philandering with goddesses, sirens, and who knows who else. And there's patient, clever Penelope, fending off aggressive suitors, raising a rebellious Telemachus, maintaining the homeplace in Ithaca, and expected to stay chaste and faithful to her whore of a husband, even when she has no certainty that he is actually going to return to her. I definitely don't have that kind of patience myself; after almost 2 years, I'm still trying not to be annoyed by my boyfriend's lifetime subscription to Playboy in our bathroom. As you can see, we like very different...um...reading material. But I'll take that over him running off to rescue Helen of Troy anytime. And speaking of clever, Ms. Atwood brilliantly uses the Greek dramatic technique of the chorus to help Penelope's Maids tell their story. I can't WAIT to get my butt over to Borders to use my gift card and get me a copy of The Year of the Flood!