3.26.2011

Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood


I'm a big fan of Atwood. She had me at The Handmaid's Tale and has been captivating me ever since. In Cat's Eye, Atwood details the life of a reclusive painter Elaine Risley, with a focus on her disturbing childhood filled with bullying and manipulation at the hands of 9-year-old girls.  It's not wonder that as Elaine grows older she struggles with her femininity and the company of women.
I remember thinking when the girls were born, first one and then the other, that I should have had sons and not daughters. I didn't feel up to daughters, I didn't know how they worked. I must have been afraid of hating them. With sons I would have known what to do... As for girls, my girls at any rate, seem to have been born with a protective coating, some immunity I lacked.
This book is about growing up and going back home. Per usual, Atwood includes elements of social and feminist comment in her work, exploring the idea of adulthood and questioning whether one can ever truly grow up. She also implies a sense of disillusionment in adulthood - that it is filled with greed and selfish motives, an evil children share as well, but don't expect to be prominent in their adult lives. 
The world is being run by people my own age, men my age, with falling-out hair and health worries, and it frightens me. When the leaders were older than me I could believe in their wisdom, I could believe they had transcended rage and malice and the need to be loved. Now I know better, I look at the faces in newspapers, in magazines, and wonder: what greed, what furies drive them on?
She also highlights the relationship between the past and the present, and the overwhelming influence our history can have over our everyday life. She interweaves the past and present - both in the plot and in her structure to suggest time has a shape "like a series of liquid transparencies, one laid on top of the other."

Of the Atwood I have read, this one is especially heavy in feminist themes. Cat's Eye explores women's relationships with one another, specifically the repression we inflict on one another. The novel is preoccupied with the question of when a girl can call herself and woman and the implications of these distinctions. Cat's Eye is a side of Atwood I hadn't yet read and I enjoyed every minute of it. She is a master of language and relates the story of a dysfunctional life beautifully.

Publisher: Anchor Books, 1988

12 comments:

  1. I haven't read this Margaret Atwood book yet. I'm finding I'm a huge fan of hers, though, and I know I'll get to this one soon. I'd only read her more dystopian novels until The Blind Assassin, which was different but which I loved, so I bet I'll like The Cat's Eye too!

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  2. I read Handmaid and Blind Assassin and liked both. This one sounds entirely different and should probably be my third Atwood. Thanks.

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  3. There needs to be an Atwood Challenge because she is one of those authors that I really need to read more of. I love Oryz and Crake and the handmaids tail but I have never read any of her others.

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  4. Brenna, what a great review. I need to read this one, and have enjoyed The hanmaid's Tale and An Edible Woman. Love her style.

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  5. Great review, I'm yet to read any Atwood I'm ashamed to say, although I do have several of her books on my TBR shelf in the spare room. It sounds from your review that this is a book which explores women's lives without resorting to the kind of trite-ness in chick lit - what a relief! That makes me want to read her more and more.

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  6. I read this book last spring and really enjoyed it, as I almost always enjoy Atwood. Elaine was almost painfully relatable, feeling like an outsider in the world of girls and women. The sharp wounds children can inflict also rang true, and girls can do it with an efficient subtlety that boys seem to lack. The novel definitely captures the pains of growing up and how we never truly come of age. Your review is spot on! I'd recommend Alias Grace next, if you haven't picked that up yet.

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  7. Woah, great review Brenna. It seems indeed like being a very intimate novel and that Atwood implies Elaine Risley to be a see-through character. Great angle you've taken on the book. If I ever get into Atwood again, I might just start with this one.

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  8. I know you've written about her a number of times but I can't say I've really felt the desire to pick up another Atwood book until this review. I want to go pick this up immediately. Thanks for this.

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  9. I bought this book like 12 years ago (maybe 15) and yet still haven't read it (although I also haven't given it away.) I hope to get to it one day. If you're like feminist Atwoods, I suggest Surfacing, which is not one of her more popular books but it was the first one I read, in college. I also love Alias Grace. Happy Reading!

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  10. Ah, now I really want to read this. I've read quite a lot of Atwood, and I think I've been meaning to get a copy of this for ages but kept forgetting the title..!
    Glad you enjoyed it Brenna, and hope you're enjoying Slaughterhouse 5 at the minute - I love that book!

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  11. I started this one a while back and only got fifty or so pages in until I had to put it down for some reason. I should pick it up again!

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  12. The Blind Assassin is one of my favorites. I'll make a note to check out Cat's Eye next. Btw, as one English BA to another, I really like your blog. :)

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