Cat's Eye
3 journalers for this copy...
Margaret Atwood charts the psychological process of memory as compulsion and memory as a healing act through the character of Elaine Risley, an artist who returns to her home town of Toronto for a retrospective of her work. Elaine's visit triggers thoughts of her childhood with all the urgency of a bad rash. Dominating her reflections are her childhood "friends", three girls who wreak havoc on Elaine's self-esteem. Having spent her early childhood on the road with an entomologist father, a less than traditional mother and a brother more concerned with snot and snakes than the intricate behaviour codes of girls, the young Elaine is vulnerable to the indirect aggression of Cordelia, the ringleader of the group who seeks to improve her. Through Elaine's experiences, Margaret Atwood turns a keen and ironic eye on the training of females in North American culture: "All I have to do is sit on the floor and cut frying pans out of the Eaton's Catalogue with embroidery scissors, and say I've done it badly." The self-effacement of these girl-children barely masks a need for power that erupts all too often in cruel forms of play. This is a story in which the lines between victims and oppressors blur, in which forgiveness becomes an act of gaining power. Through humour, pain and insight, she makes us see, with surprise and recognition, details from childhood we may well have forgotten.
Journal Entry 2 by Loubylou187 at Monthly BookCrossing Meet Up in York in York, North Yorkshire United Kingdom on Monday, June 25, 2012
Released 11 yrs ago (6/26/2012 UTC) at Monthly BookCrossing Meet Up in York in York, North Yorkshire United Kingdom
WILD RELEASE NOTES:
Released at June 2012 York meet up.
Journal Entry 3 by Mink-Butterfly at York, North Yorkshire United Kingdom on Thursday, August 16, 2012
I caught this book on Wednesday night. I am a fan of Margaret Atwood's work, but I have not read this one, so I look forward to reading it.
I enjoyed this book, I found it to be an interesting exploration of childhood, and how our experiences as children colour our relationships and the rest of our lives. I think Atwood really captured the cruelty of children, in particular the psychological cruelty that little girls inflict on other girls.
There were a lot of wishes for this book, so I am going to send it to someone as a RABCK.
Thanks so much for sharing! Can't wait to read it.
Just finished this. I really liked it and found it hard to put down.
Added to Gen Lit VBB