Where To Start With Margaret Atwood?

[Michael Colton]

Margaret Atwood is one of those authors that I have heard the name over and over again, but have never actually read any of her work. I was wondering if people had suggestions on where to start with her novels. My first instinct is always to scan a bibliography for Hugo Awards or Arthur C. Clarke Awards which would lead me to The Handmaid's Tale, or I look for a series or companion novels which would lead me to Oryx and Crake.

Suggestions/thoughts?

 

[Brian G Turner]

The Handmaid's Tale is widely regarded as a classic that stands alongside 1984 and Brave New World.

 

[Michael Colton]

The Handmaid's Tale is widely regarded as a classic that stands alongside 1984 and Brave New World.

Alright, I shall put it on my to-read list. Any thoughts on her more recent work?

 

[The Judge]

I'd also strongly recommend The Handmaid's Tale, though have a look at the reactions here, to see if it's likely to appeal to you.

I've not read Oryx and Crake, so I can't comment on that, but I have read it's kind-of sequel, The Year of the Flood (published 2009) and I think you're better off reading O&C first to get the most out of them.

The others of hers I've read are The Robber Bride, which admittedly can't be construed as recent work since it was first published in 1993, and The Blind Assassin which is a bit more recent at 2000. I thoroughly enjoyed TBR which follows the lives of three women -- here are my thoughts from my book non-blog:

A very clever novel, full of symbolism and layers, with flashbacks upon flashbacks, and dreams and mirrors and reinvented selves, and a good deal of ambiguity, not least in the ending – someone dies, but we don't know if it was murder, suicide or accident, and if murder who actually did it. The biggest mystery of all, though, is Zenia the man-eating femme fatale herself, who reminded me of Rebecca, the dead malign menace of the eponymous du Maurier novel, who is similarly unknown and unknowable, but who takes control of her life on her own terms (and whose death is, I think, a clue to what happens here). Zenia's motives, her background, her history, her very name, are all kept from us and from the women whose lives she tries to destroy. This makes her less a real woman than a myth, perhaps, but the strong grounding of the three victims with the flashbacks to their disturbing, and in one case horrific, childhoods, makes this very real, despite the (minor) magic elements. An excellent read.

TBA I wasn't so keen on, perhaps because (apropos your other thread) I found the characters unsympathetic, but also because of the way it's constructed. My initial reaction:

It's well written, of course, but it's not compelling me to read on as The Robber Bride did. This may in part be due to the fact that it's rather fragmentary, with the present-day narrative interspersed with extracts from a novel written by one of the characters years before, which itself includes a SF story a character in that novel is relating, plus clippings of newspaper reports and the like (as to which I'm never convinced by these in novels, since they always break the cardinal rule of newspaper reporting which is to repeat the story three times in succession in ever-increasing detail).

but then

I finished The Blind Assassin more quickly than I expected after a somewhat slow beginning for me, since the further I got into it, the more engrossing I found it, though to the end I largely skimmed the newspaper reports. A clever novel, where an elderly women looks back on her life, writing an effective memoir where she switches from the present day, often dealing with the indignities and annoyances of old age, to scenes in her past, and with the story-within-the-story telling us of events of that past which she can't bring herself to speak about until the very end. The SF tale embedded within that inner story, a lurid piece in the style of 1930s pulp magazines, also casts a light over everything, not least social injustice, mute women who are sacrificed, and the Blind Assassin himself – and as Atwood reminds us, both Eros and Justice are often portrayed with blindfolds, and both carry weapons.

 

[Hex]

I found her earlier stuff more immediately accessible (although that might be because I was more determined in those days and had fewer children/ jobs/ internet addictions).

However. I read The Handmaid's Tale first, and it is a wonderful book. Very dark, very clever.

I also loved Cat's Cradle and The Edible Woman. More recently I read Alias Grace, and enjoyed it very much.

To answer the question: I'd start with The Handmaid's Tale or Cat's Cradle.

(but I haven't read Oryx and Crake yet -- I hear it's wonderful)

 

[Abernovo]

My first Atwood was The Handmaid's Tale. Personally, I found it brilliant and insightful. Went on to The Edible Woman after that, and wasn't let down. Be warned though, she's not always an easy read, and can be divisive or controversial. But I like an author who challenges me.

Started reading Oryx and Crake, but had to put it down when I moved. Looking forward to picking it up again in the future. Best wishes with the reading.

 

[Michael Colton]

Thank you for the feedback, folks.

 

[cyprus7]

I am in the middle of MaddAddam, having read parts 1 and 2 of this trilogy. Scary stuff indeed.

Climate change, bioengineering, statism run amok etc.
Oh, and the 'Church of PetrOleum' - Ms. Atwood adds a slick new meaning to modern civilization's worship of oil.

 

[Mangara]

I too can recommend the modern trilogy beginning with Oryx and Crake. The topics are very pertinent to the modern world, and are equal parts frightening as enlightening.

Madaddam is sat on the shelf next to be read, but if it carries on where the previous books left off then it's sure to be a great read.

 

[Milena Childgarden]

Agree with the suggestion to start with Oryx and Crake, but just wanted to add Madaddam, as well as being a truly satisfying rounding off of the story, is also pretty amusing. Not often you get a laugh in current SF, but there is some wry humour alongside the end of the world as we know it ...

 

[Michael Colton]

Thanks for the suggestions.

 

[Mangara]

Agree with the suggestion to start with Oryx and Crake, but just wanted to add Madaddam, as well as being a truly satisfying rounding off of the story, is also pretty amusing. Not often you get a laugh in current SF, but there is some wry humour alongside the end of the world as we know it ...

I can second this, I'm currently a 3rd of the way through and it's great.

It's kind of the story of the story, lots of lore and backstory interspersed with the odd event in the future. Can't see the quality dropping off in any way.

 

[StormFeather]

I studied Handmaids Tale for A-Level English - studying it in such a way gives a different perspective I think. I was forced to think about books in a very different way than when I just read them at home. I learned a lot, and found that book both very well written but very scary in how easy the new world order became the norm. Even many years later, I can vividly picture the scenes, and can remember pretty much the entire book, nearly verbatim. However, all that study never inspired me to read more of her work - whether such in-depth analysis was the enough to put me off, I'm not quite sure. But, for itself, The Handmaids Tale is well worth a read.

Hope that helps?!