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Dec 16, 2009

Meaghan rated it:

Written just before the founding of NOW, The Edible Woman is as relevant today as it was in 1965. The novel’s protagonist, Marian, has recently graduated from college and is working for a public opinion company. She is dating a man, Peter, who everyone thinks is perfect. Once engaged Marian begins to have trouble eating. As she is consumed by her relationship, she stops being able to consume food.
In the first sex scene in The Edible Woman, which is rich in messages and metap More...

2 comments like (10 people liked it)

Jul 06, 2011

oriana rated it:

before Ohhh this book is like my favorite hoodie—threadbare and falling apart but so so soft and comfy, with all those little stains and patches as sweet reminders of long ago. Love love love love this book...

after Well yes, I do love this book as much as ever, but I was actually kind of surprised at how different it was from the last time I read it, oh, five or six years ago. Here are some reflections (in list form, because I'm feeling lazy):

1. I am still terribly More...

3 comments like (13 people liked it)

Jul 29, 2011

Peachy rated it:

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0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Sep 12, 2008

Diana rated it:

This is Atwood's first book, published in 1969. It's full of feminist ideas but it's so dated it was hard to get my head around it. A woman who is so normal that everyone thinks she's the most normal person they know, is about to get married. She feels that she's losing her identity and finds that she can't eat certain types of food. Meanwhile her roommate tricks a guy into getting her pregnant because she wants a baby but not a husband. I notice there are several study guides to this book, but More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jul 07, 2008

Mrs. Miska rated it:

Some books are easily and quickly devoured, as by a greedy child, and enjoyed all the more for the speed of consumption. Others, however, may be eaten with similar speed, but only to arrive more hastily at the end of the meal. The Edible Woman was one of the latter for me. I started on it during our trip up north over the holiday weekend, and gulped down the last half of it in the car Sunday. By the end, I just wanted to see how it finished to end the tediousness. It was like gnawing on a t More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Jan 08, 2008

Katherine rated it:

I discovered Margaret Atwood in high school when I first read The Handmaid's Tale, but I didn't read any of her other books until college, when I realised she's actually an amazing feminist writer with an incredibly versatile imagination. The Edible Woman was her first novel -- I think it was written in the late 60s or early 70s -- and was the first book of hers that I really fell in love with.

Marian graduated from college and drifted into a job, a boyfriend, and a holding pattern, More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Feb 06, 2012

Sarah rated it:

I read this book for two reasons: Cassie reads it to Chris on Skins while he's in a coma, and because every time I've visited my mother or she's visited me in the last three years, she's asked if I've read it yet. I'm a picky eater, and according to my mom, every month I add two or three things to the list of things I don't eat. I'm not really that bad, but I read the book anyway. It's a very dated book, but I think the idea of a woman being consumed by outside forces is as true today as it was More...

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Oct 20, 2011

Elsje rated it:

Deze roman van Margaret Atwood dateert uit 1969 (mijn geboortejaar) en is opnieuw uitgegeven in 1980. Het enige dat voor mijn gevoel gemoderniseerd was, was dat er in het begin een keer het woord computer gebruikt wordt.

Het verhaal
Marian woont samen met een vriendin, Ainsley, op de bovenste verdieping van een herenhuis ergens in Canada. Bij een echte hospita: zo eentje die na 10 uur 's avonds geen herenbezoek meer wenst en die afluistert, door de gordijnen gluurt etc. Alles uit na More...

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Sep 11, 2011

SwensonBooks rated it:

Margaret Atwood Is A First Lady of Letter
by Jill Swenson

Margaret Atwood is among the most-honored authors of fiction in recent history. Known for her work as a novelist, Atwood is also a poet, critic, essayist and environmental activist. One of the rare writers who has made her living from her craft, Atwood published her first novel in 1969. The Edible Woman (First Anchor Books Edition 1998) came out when I was 11 years old. I am reading it now as each member of my Brooktondale Fi More...

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Jun 14, 2011

Margaret rated it:

This is an older book and was written before "feminism" had been completely understood and recognized as a rising ideology. I think that's what makes this book so interesting; that Atwood wrote this before the shift of women in the workplace and awareness of all the issues that came with that brought feminism to the forefront. It is set in early 1960s Canada. The main character is an educated woman who becomes overwhelmed with the feeling of being simply a commodity in society (a consu More...

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Mar 19, 2011

Sandra rated it:

It's probably just me, but I thought the link between her inability to eat more and more types of food and her impending marriage should be clearer. I don't quite understand how her being 'trapped' and suffocating caused her not to be able to eat food that seemed alive or once alive to her.

The ending felt rather abrupt too, but it was fine with me, because well I suppose it's hard ending these kinds of books so the ending seemed more acceptable to me. I would have liked to learn more More...

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Dec 07, 2010

Badly Drawn Girl rated it:

I adore Margaret Atwood and at times while reading this book I remembered why. Some of the imagery and prose are so beautiful that I found myself grinning in pleasure. But the book as a whole was a bit tedious at times. It is definitely dated in parts but I think it's still perfectly relevant. People, especially women, still lose their sense of self in relationships. Marriage can feeling binding in the wrong way. A wife can look back and see that she has given up all that mattered to More...

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Sep 24, 2010

Shanice rated it:

I'm not gonna lie, I saw Cassie read this on Skins and I had already read Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale and loved it, so I thought I'd give this a try. Atwood is a writer that can take a vast difference of culture (Oryx and Crake or The Handmaids Tale) or a very big idea and bring it home for her readers. TEW is an odd little book about a woman who finds herself unable to eat food as she becomes more disillusioned and disconnected with herself, the world around her, and the people in it. As a wom More...

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Jul 28, 2010

Amanda rated it:

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May 24, 2010

Bree rated it:

The Edible Woman is one of my favorite books. I think it is beautifully written, some of atwood's words really just took my breath away. Although it was sometimes difficult to follow, I felt that was the point of the book. Marian is confused, so are we. The ending was striking and brilliant, it really got to me. I preferred the edible woman to the bell jar (which i read right after), they are comparable books, both document a woman's slip into insanity propelled by the feeling of being trap More...

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Mar 31, 2010

Ted rated it:

I've always been reluctant to read Atwood -- probably owing to a strange and uncontrollable urge to resist any book relentlessly flogged by the Canadian high school curriculum that I had somehow managed to avoid during those most awkward years my life -- but I was drawn in as soon as I started this, her first novel. I'm sure there's no limit to the possible analysis of feminist themes and symbols present throughout this novel but whether or not you choose to delve into the depths of rhetoric, t More...

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Jul 30, 2009

Felicity rated it:

This was a peculiar book and not a scintillating read (wow, what an endorsement). Originally published in 1969, it has never been out of print in North America. I suspect that's because it continues to be assigned for many college lit classes, particularly in Canada. I'm a big fan of Margaret Atwood and simply decided to dip into this book--her first publication. And it shows that it was her first novel. The book isn't that well-written (some of the prose is quite clunky) and it seems to be More...

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Jan 24, 2010

Alice rated it:

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1 comment like

Aug 18, 2011

caty rated it:

I expected to enjoy this book more than Cat’s Eye. Actually, at our last book club meeting I voted for this book instead. But in the end, it wasn’t as good. Here is another woman who is useless and has no goals and no backbone. Her boyfriend, he is good on paper but again she doesn’t seem to really feel any attachment, proposes and she starts feeling like she can’t eat anything. Basically she goes a bit stir crazy. She tries to sleep with some random guy she’s become friends with but finds unatt More...

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Jun 10, 2010

Cortney rated it:

This was another book where my roommate was like, "Hey, did you get to the part where he rests the ashtray on her back yet? You know they eat a woman at the end, right?" Inaccurate spoilers aside, I enjoyed this book like I enjoy reading Glimmer Train. The story was good in that I was entertained, and it felt like an earnest (though sometimes over-eager) narrative with a lot a heart.

What really distracted from my enjoyment of this very early Atwood (and it felt VERY early More...

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Mar 31, 2011

Kerri rated it:

I find it interesting that this was written in 1969 because my impression upon reading the blurb is that it was written recently, post 2000.

This is definitely a thinker. I think all the characters are "types" rather than real people. Atwood is definitely commenting on society and women's roles. I think I missed a lot of what she intended, however.

Her roommate, Ainsley, is a total sellout. She starts out as the "feminist." I was eager to see where A More...

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Dec 24, 2011

Stela rated it:

Well, I liked it better than The Handmaid Tale, and that was quite a book!
The story is about Marian, an ordinary young woman working for the advertise section of an enterprise, who leads an equally ordinary life, apparently, until two things happen: her boyfriend, Peter, asks her to marry him and she discovers she is no longer able to eat - first meat, than even vegetables. The book was interpreted as a metaphor of consumerism which governs our society, but it's more than that: it's about More...

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Aug 17, 2011

Jennifer rated it:

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Jul 05, 2011

Ioana rated it:

Aceasta este prima carte scrisă de celebra romancieră canadiană Margaret Atwood, şi totodată prima carte pe care o cumpăr şi o citesc eu de la ea.

Întâmplarea a făcut ca publicarea acestei cărţi să coincidă cu mişcarea feministă din America, astfel că a fost încadrată în literatura feministă, însă Margaret Atwood precizează, în prefaţă, că n-a fost deloc intenţia ei să lanseze mişcarea feministă în literatură. E ciudat cum apar coincidenţele în istorie, dar poate că această carte a fost More...

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Mar 31, 2011

Dania rated it:

I thought this was a good book, although I didn't like it more than The Handmaid's Tale. This is a book about male--female relationships.

This book can be read as a feminist work--how marriage (or engagement) can make a woman feel trapped or consumed, and why women agree to enter into marriage. Do they do it because they want to, feel like they have to, or do they do it in order to legitimize illegitamate children? Do they do it for financial security? Do they do it because they thin More...

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Aug 04, 2009

Jeff rated it:

I have to give Atwood a little leeway on this novel because it was her first, but it was a bit difficult to get through. Atwood does a great job imagining place; her description and idealization of Toronto is very appealing to her reader, but she has yet to master character. The dynamic and perhaps overly analyzed modern characters (Offred, Grace Marks)in her later novels provide the thrust that her stories depend on. Unfortunately, this early in her writing career, she had not mastered such More...

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Nov 14, 2009

Needleroozer rated it:

I read this book while staying at the Unicorn House.

I didn't have anything to read, so Laura said I could borrow any of her books. This was the third (and last) book I borrowed from her shelves.

I've read a couple of other books by Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale and Cat's Eye. Her books tend to depress me, not her writing so much as the the topics she writes about. The oppression of women does not make for light reading. Important reading, yes. Happy reading, no.
More...

3 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 13, 2009

Barbara rated it:

While I appreciate Atwood's writing, I had a hard time getting into this book, and through it. I shouldn't have read the reviews prior to picking it up, because it put me in a psychological angle. I'm not really interesting in dissecting books to figure out the author's supposed symbolism and intent. All that frankly bores me, and feels so textbook. And yes, one has to take into account the year this was written, and the feminist movement at that time. It all feels rather sad to me now actu More...

2 comments like

May 11, 2010

zespri rated it:

And now for some Margaret Atwood - having never read any of her books before I thought i would start at the very beginning, with her first published novel.

When we first meet Marian, she seems a fairly normal, average woman who becomes engaged to a fairly normal, average man! But as the story unfolds, things start to go rather haywire, Marian develops an eating disorder and a rather unlikely friendship with Duncan - a student she meets whilst doing her job as a door to door surveyor. More...

4 comments like

Oct 17, 2008

Ellen rated it:

This book would've been great if I were living in 1950. Story is about a woman struggling against society's thoughts of the role of women and marriage (i.e., it was assumed she would quit her job upon getting engaged, etc). Happily, I was unable to relate to her problems.

1 comment like (1 person liked it)