Bodily Harm

Sure it does. It is very much not a good idea for a reader to attempt to psychoanalyze an author through their own works, because not only will you probably come to the wrong conclusions, but the ones you do come up with will probably creep you out just a little bit. To whit: Margaret Atwood probably is a delightfully cheery woman who quite enjoys life and all she encounters . . . however that sure doesn't come across in her novels. In her best novels the misery her characters suffer often eventually dovetails into a gloriously insightful epiphany of sorts. And in other cases you often feel like just guilty reading the book, after a while you get the impression by continuing to read you're furthering the character's Job-like troubles. Life Before Man was a bit of a downer but at least it was spread over four people . . . here poor Rennie has to take it all on the chin herself. Young woman journalist Rennie is sent to a Caribbean island to write a vacation type story . . . what happens is quite simply the vacation from hell. There's really no other way to put it. Nobody is what they seem, Rennie is totally out of place and things start getting very serious before anyone knows what's going on. However if that's all there was to the book then it would simply be a matter of plodding on to see what Ms Atwood is going to do next to poor Rennie. To save the story, Atwood details Rennie's crumbling relationship with her boyfriend, as well as her relationships with both her family and others . . . these quasi-flashbacks (some are given as monologues, though I'm not sure who she's talking to) are interspersed throughout the novel and are where the story truly shines. When she wants to Atwood can get right to the heart of a person and choose the exact right words to get the emotions right. The ending alone is one of the best examples of a stark prose style I've ever seen. So ignore the quasi-political intrigue plot and instead focus on a masterful character study by one of the few authors who know how to get such things right. The feelings she reveals may be painful but you can't argue that she's all that far off.

From reading the other reviews, it doesn't seem that folks are seeing this for what it is: a metaphor for Cancer. Atwood creates a perfect world to represent the main character's trip to hell as her Cancer takes over. The symbolism is incredible and I found her willingness to end the book the way she did really quite brave. I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys a richly layered text.

Atwood quite enjoys probing the intracasies of the female psyche. In this novel she truly captures the essence of a woman at her most vunerable. Atwood again holds to her favorite relationships between sex, politics and desperation. As the main character attempts to regain her footing in reality she slowly gets thrown into a deeper state of confusion from her new surroundings which she scarcely understands. Atwood is a intense writter who requires a mature audience, she doesn't waste a word and it is easy to get lost in her stories.

At first I did not like this book and almost put it down after the first few chapters, too much jumping around from past to present. Then it started to entice me as it got more and more personal with the character. The character reveals her secrets and feelings and it almost leaves you feeling guilty of voyeurism. I at first thought the jumping around back and forth with background on the character to be confusing, then I started noticing that the past and the present action all tied in with relevance. This book is a hard read, but well worth it.

Atwood's masterful use of language does not disappoint in this reminder of life's bigger problems. Rennie's trip to the luxurious Carribbean lands her in the middle of a neo-colonial revolution, and she is forced to re-evaluate her perspective on life as she becomes caught up in intrigues she cannot understand. An exploration of irony and its limits, and of a woman who finds the courage to confront her fears and discover herself, the novel pursues its readers, chasing us to the triumphantly ambiguous ending