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The Edible Woman

by Margaret Atwood (Goodreads Author)

3.62 of 5 stars 3.62 · rating details · 12,416 ratings · 633 reviews

Ever since her engagement, the strangest thing has been happening to Marian McAlpin: she can't eat. First meat. Then eggs, vegetables, cake, pumpkin seeds--everything! Worse yet, she has the crazy feeling that she's being eaten. Marian ought to feel consumed with passion, but she really just feels...consumed. A brilliant and powerful work rich in irony and metaphor, The Ed...more

Paperback, 310 pages

Published June 1998 by Anchor (first published 1969)

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Jun 26, 2007 Meaghan rated it 5 of 5 stars

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 metaphors, Peter decides...more 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 metaphors, Peter decides he wants to have sex in the bathtub. Marian agrees, but isn’t thrilled. She thinks Peter is attempting to act out things he read about. Sex in the bathtub, she decides, is a scene from a murder mystery he read. She notes: “but wouldn’t that [the scene Peter read about] rather be someone drowned in the bathtub? A woman.”
In the end, Marian breaks her engagement and tries to feed Peter a cake she made to look like herself, claiming that he wants to devour her. There is a clear feminist voice throughout the story and the message is not as simple as marriage consumes women. Marian decides that her independence is more important than a marriage to someone who does not let her be an individual.
The intersection between Marian’s sexuality and eating habits are salient in today’s popular culture. While The Edible Woman was written before eating disorders were discussed, they are now a big part of our culture. The relationship between food and sexuality is even fodder for situation comedy—Last night I watched a rerun of Friends in which Monica and Rachel show Chandler how to deal with being dumped “the women way.” They hand him soy-milk ice-cream and tell him that you have to eat healthy ice-cream when heartache happens frequently. When he gets really depressed they break out the full-fat Ben and Jerry’s.
The message is clear—when women are upset, it affects the way they eat. Unlike Monica and Rachel, who binge eat when they are upset, Marian responses to problems in her relationship by starving herself. Why did she stop eating? Does she want to starve the dependent person she had become? While in 1965 Atwood used the idea of food and Marian’s self imposed starvation as a metaphor, today the idea of a women starving herself as a relationship deteriorates is sadly a cliché.
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Jul 06, 2011 oriana rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: perennialfavorites, read-2009

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 and utterly in love with Dunca...more 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 and utterly in love with Duncan, who was I believe my very first literary crush, when I was like fifteen. But some of the magic is gone this time. He's gotten a little clichéd with over-reading, I guess? (I've easily read this ten times.)

2. I was really surprised how steeped in fifties mentality and early feminist theory it was. Marian has to quit her job when they find out she's getting married, for example, and this is accepted placidly as normal. Huh?

3. While the story is totally awesome and the characters are incredibly great, the most important element (for me) of any Margaret Atwood book is always the stunning stunning language, which was not so much on display here. This was (I'm pretty sure) her first published novel, but she was a poet before that, and so it's not like she didn't already know how to turn like the most beautiful phrases ever.

4. The whole "not eating" thing... Gosh, I'd remembered it being like the whole book, this agonizing descent, food item by food item, into essential starvation, but actually she doesn't even stop eating meat until like a third of the way through the book.

5. Also, I remembered being totally on Marian's side when she goes sort of crazy, but this time she really did seem a bit more hysterical, a bit less a victim of oppressive and destabilizing circumstances.

6. Also WTF, I was so bummed that (minor spoiler, I guess, if you care) Ainslie wound up deciding to get married after all—even trying to get Len to marry her! Blaugh. (Again, though, this was written in, what, the mid-fifties or early sixties? So what do I know.)

7. It made me really upset to realize, about halfway through, that I am older than these characters. If not all of them, at least most. I don't really feel like going into why this was so disconcerting, but it was, staggeringly.(less)

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Feb 23, 2013 Stela rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: reviews, postmodernism

Well, I liked this novella more than The Handmaid Tale, and that was quite a book!
The story is about Marian, an ordinary young woman who works for the advertising section of an enterprise, and leads an equally ordinary life, until two things, apparently disconnected, 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 t...more

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Nov 11, 2012 Danine rated it 3 of 5 stars

The story in The Edible Woman takes place in the 1960s. With that in mind, I attempted to ease my modern depictions, expectations, and conclusion about the 1960s. I found the book to be a slow read and, like many others, I enjoyed the metaphors that were heavily sprinkled throughout the story that paralleled the lives of Marian and Ainsley.

I comprehend the feminist aspect of the story. For me, though, this book was more about the human aspects of life that collided with the lives of these women...more

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Lisa Vegan Danine, I love that Anais Nin quote. I think I have it in my quotes here.
Nov 19, 2012 01:40pm

Tobyreiner It seems that many female readers think of Duncan as a great character. Another commenter referred to him as her first literary crush. I don't know wh...more
Apr 25, 2013 04:27am

Mar 10, 2009 Peachy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: canadian, consumerism, humour, inspirational, misogyny, feminism

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. In the first part of The Edible Woman we meet Marian, a self-reliant, educated, modern woman (for the 60s/70s), who spends her days as a manipulator of words and the consumer, in her position at a market research firm. Despite these things, Marian is also an amiable and even yellow-bellied narrator who stretches herself to the limits in order to please the likes of her boss, her friends, her roommate, her landlady, and her boyfriend, a promising young lawyer with a suffocating fear of marriage a...more In the first part of The Edible Woman we meet Marian, a self-reliant, educated, modern woman (for the 60s/70s), who spends her days as a manipulator of words and the consumer, in her position at a market research firm. Despite these things, Marian is also an amiable and even yellow-bellied narrator who stretches herself to the limits in order to please the likes of her boss, her friends, her roommate, her landlady, and her boyfriend, a promising young lawyer with a suffocating fear of marriage and commitment. Seemingly, right from the start, she is a woman in battle with herself and, silently, with those ravenous others around her, to find her true self.

By Part II, the narrative of the novel shifts and the story is no longer told from Marian’s perspective, but instead from the third-person. Affectively, Atwood has us understand on a deeper level that our heroin is losing her identity, being devoured by those around her, and unraveling right before our very eyes. While we are observing the breakdown of Marian’s psyche, her autonomy, and her ability to eat, first meat, then eggs, then vegetables, she is preparing to marry her previously frightened but now enlightened, predatory fiancé, Peter. At this time Marian finds she’s drawn to Duncan, a young graduate student who appears to be the polar opposite of Peter. Although not as emotionally draining and demanding as Peter, like most men in this novel he still has a predominant neediness to him. The difference with Duncan being that Marian at times also needs him, and is not afraid to ask when she does.

The Edible Woman is a stylistic tour-de-force, and although this is Atwood’s first novel, her metaphorical talents are found on every page. The characters behave strangely, almost whacky at times, but the messages are clear and important. Gender roles were at a shift when she wrote this novel, so I can imagine that it must have had a profound impact on the thoughts and feelings of women trying to find their place in the new and improved world. In this regard, all though women have been vacillating between their roles as caregiver and individual less in recent years, there is a timeless struggle-for-self apparent on these pages, that even today’s woman can’t help but relate to.

In the end, I’m amazed by a heroine that can have me revolted and ready to scream at her spinelessness at one moment, and then vigorously dazzled, while I rally behind her strength of character, at the next.

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Sep 12, 2008 Diana rated it 3 of 5 stars

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

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Jul 07, 2008 Mrs. Miska rated it 4 of 5 stars

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 tough...more 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 tough pork chop and swallowing the pieces half-chewed just so I can have dessert.

None of this so far sounds like a rave review, but don't let me mislead you; I did enjoy the novel. The transformation of the main character, Marian, is a necessarily slow and deliberate process. This isn't Kafka's Metamorphosis; if she suddenly woke up one morning, engaged to Peter, unable to eat, and unrecognizable to to herself, the effect would be spoiled. The problem is that it took 130 pages to establish Marian's initial sense of self and to begin the unraveling process, another hundred pages to complete the shift from an independent woman to consumed woman, and yet another fifty pages of passive sniveling before we are finally brought back to Marian, first-person and in charge. The middle of the novel was a drag to read, but this was completely appropriate because it truly demonstrates Marian's gradual lack of control and descent into submissiveness. A woman's loss of identity isn't a switch flipped in the night, but a long and painful effect caused by traditional roles. Women are perfectly capable of nurturing their own unique personalities, unless there is a consuming force. Within Marian's central story, there are many minor characters that also serve to illuminate the same concepts regarding gender roles and stereotypes. At times these felt chaotic, but I think that's how they're meant to feel for Marian, as she doesn't know who to follow or even if she should follow. They were a form of misdirection as well, possibly to keep the reader from concentrating too hard on Marian's own transformation which developed into a nice, subtle shift.

The last fifteen pages of resolution are fantastic, although I'm still puzzling through some of the imagery (both this story and Surfacing discuss/show the head being severed or separate from the body, and I haven't quite figured through all of the implications). It's definitely the kind of book I want to sit down and discuss... any takers? (less)

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Jan 08, 2008 Katherine Granich rated it 5 of 5 stars

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, then got eng...more

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May 04, 2013 Ruth Mancini rated it 5 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this story about a young woman's descent into anorexia. I didn't actually know what the story was about before I read it and found it dealt with the subject in a very unique and unemotional way which demonstrated well how slippery the slope can be from being careful about what you eat to eating virtually nothing at all.

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Apr 06, 2013 Gina Rheault rated it 5 of 5 stars

Margaret Atwoods' first novel, set in Toronto, part Muriel Spark boarding house book, part Stephen King's "Thinner", with the sixties sensibilities of tv's “Madmen”, it is full of newly marrieds and single folks in their late 20’s, post college, anxiously coupling up ahead of their 30’s. I loved the clever misdirects: One chapter opens with Marian “walking down the aisle….” Given her recent engagemet you think she might be already at her own church wedding, but as the reader arrives at the churc...more

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Mar 24, 2013 Harini Padmanabhan rated it 4 of 5 stars

I guess I'm in a sort of Atwood phase right now. Her third book I've finished in a week. This one was a scary read in a way for though it was written so long ago, lots of it is still relevant to modern India. The woman struggling for her identity, settling down to a comfortable choice, confused about the changes around her and losing part of her personality in an attempt to come to grips with it. The first and third part being in the first person and the second part in third person narration was...more I guess I'm in a sort of Atwood phase right now. Her third book I've finished in a week. This one was a scary read in a way for though it was written so long ago, lots of it is still relevant to modern India. The woman struggling for her identity, settling down to a comfortable choice, confused about the changes around her and losing part of her personality in an attempt to come to grips with it. The first and third part being in the first person and the second part in third person narration was so relevant that the changes I noticed conveyed something far more powerful than anything the author could have written.

Marian, is just your normal woman working in a survey company. Her relationship with Peter is relatively new but one thing leads to another and they end up getting engaged. She has a room mate intent on having a baby but sure about not wanting a husband. Throw an eternally pregnant friend, a Victorian land lady and a bunch of virgin colleagues with an eccentric english student and you have the stage set for a crazy roller coaster ride.

I was bugged with Marian after a few pages. What an idiot. Where the hell was her sense of self? How could she let herself be swept away by the tides of life so easily? What was this silly pretend feminity of hers? Then again a lot of people are happy with the set roles they ought to play in life and I did not want to get into the whole, "this is what is wrong with the world" song of mine. I am finally able to accept it as part of life. Duncan, the nutty man is probably the only real character. He is whiny, self centered and possibly self destructive. But at least he seemed real to me.

I could not buy into a lot of parts in the story, the submissiveness of the women, their lack of independence or financial stability and the so called men who have no guts. Marian's not eating was scary to say the least. I end up eating when I am stressed and so I found it silly. But the sad part was not being able to swallow a spoon of rice for a bit after reading her description of it. My love for food won over as did my zeal for living and I am not hung over the book. A definite read. (less)

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Mar 03, 2013 Nazmin rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book is definitely worth a read especially if you are in a crossroads in terms of your relationship with a significant other.

Marian is a woman who reaches a crossroad in her life and is engaged to a man who she thinks she 'should' marry rather than who she 'wants' to marry. Marian soon is able to identify with the food she is eating (meat, eggs and vegetables) in a way that seems strange to begin with. The food I thought was a metaphor of herself as she feels her individuality and independe...more

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Mar 01, 2013 Julie Wilding rated it 4 of 5 stars

Fun read. Poor Marian, although, I did get to a point where I just wished she'd go to a bit of therapy. Probably because of how close to home her behavior and situation were. Too much exposition. The cake really was terrifying in the most perfect way, as was Duncan and all the non-friends. Clara and Joe were my favorite, followed closely by Leonard receding into the recesses of their house, playing with Arthur's toys, and fighting over them with him. It was a treat to see so many stereotypes I'v...more

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Dec 19, 2012 Yvann S rated it 1 of 5 stars

"I had returned from lunch and was licking and stamping envelopes for the coast-to-coast instant pudding-sauce study, behind schedule because someone in mimeo had run one of the question sheets backwards, when Mrs. Bogue came out of her cubicle."

From the blurb: What happens to someone who has been a willing member of consumer society when she suddenly finds herself identifying with the things consumed? ... The witty and diverting story of a young woman whose sane, structured, consumer-oriented w...more

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Nov 01, 2012 Penney rated it 3 of 5 stars

Because your worth isn’t determined by anyone but yourself.

While pouring out my heart to a dear friend, herself divorced and pursuing a rewarding new relationship, she recommended this book. Already a fan of Atwood’s from The Handmaid’s Tale and Year of the Flood, I was open. Atwood is largely known for the female protagonists who represent “every woman” struggling with victimization and marginalization by gender and politics. Or, as a friend recently phrased it, “Atwood’s a pretty hard-core fem...more

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Jul 13, 2012 Pierce rated it 3 of 5 stars

Such a first novel.

On some counts I really enjoyed this, and on others I really didn't. The writing was not amazing, and contained a mix of standard fare and awkward flourishes. And after reading a bunch of Atwood's later stuff recently, this seemed quite immature, quality-of-writing-wise. Like listening to Pablo Honey after Kid A.

But I can't blame Atwood for improving.

It seemed impossibly modern to be 196something. I think Atwood was striving her character to live in a clean, modern world, and...more

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Jun 24, 2012 Lucille rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: canlit

Marian works at a surveying company. She refines consumer questionnaires to improve products and their marketing. Her job isn't exactly fulfilling, but as she and her roommate Ainsley say, what else can you do with an arts degree? Marian is in a relationship with Peter, a man clinging on to his unmarried status with a desperate fervor as his close friends all tie the knot. Peter is a handsome, well dressed lawyer on his way to success.
Ainsley is an interesting character. From her studies of ant...more Marian works at a surveying company. She refines consumer questionnaires to improve products and their marketing. Her job isn't exactly fulfilling, but as she and her roommate Ainsley say, what else can you do with an arts degree? Marian is in a relationship with Peter, a man clinging on to his unmarried status with a desperate fervor as his close friends all tie the knot. Peter is a handsome, well dressed lawyer on his way to success.
Ainsley is an interesting character. From her studies of anthropology, she has determined that her life as a female will not be complete unless she has a child. SHe says that she is not interested in a husband or male partner any further than his role in conceiving the child. She is on the lookout for a suitable candidate- someone with good genetics to pass onto her child. Enter Len, one of Marian's old friends, a bit of a scoundrel who likes going after younger women. Ainsley begins a plot to seduce him, while making him think that he is seducing an innocent young girl.
There were a lot of interactions and things that were a bit of a time shock to me I suppose. Everyone was so casual about men ordering for women and women being expected to sit pretty and silently while the men converse. I had to keep reminding myself that this book was written in the 60s and that Marian and Ainsley were fairly progressive for their time period.
While Marian and Peter's relationship becomes more serious, Marian meets Duncan, a graduate student who lives in a bit of an eccentric house with other English grad students, and who is a bit of a compulsive liar. Its hard to tell a lot of the time what is and isn't real with Duncan. Duncan and Marian are both sort of using each other in their own ways, but the strange sort of honesty to their relationship was in stark contrast with Peter.
Peter begins to monopolize more of Marian's time, and then it happens- he proposes. Almost overnight he changes from trying to hold onto his former life to throwing himself into this new role of finance and husband. But the more that Peter takes over her time and her life, the more that Marian finds herself unable to eat. It starts with meat, then animal byproducts and finally vegetables, until Marian finds herself in a desperate position of her body rejecting everything she tries to put into it. This is a novel about Marian finding herself and standing up for her individuality where in every situation, from dealing with the women in her office to the landlady downstairs has her trying to please other people's expectations of her. (less)

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Jun 02, 2012 Anita rated it 5 of 5 stars

My first foray into the world of Margaret Atwood was exceptionally successfully. The Edible Woman is the story of a woman who whilst living a sane, normal if slightly lacklustre life suddenly finds herself relating to food in a human way, imbuing it with human qualities and finding herself unable to consume it with her previous enjoyment. First meat then dairy and eventually vegetables and even noodles become inedible to her. This inability to consume comes at a time when she is entering into an...more

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May 08, 2012 Kate rated it 5 of 5 stars

Firstly, I would like to commend Atwood on her linguistic artistry throughout the novel. She is an excellent wordsmith. Her total mastery of the language enables us, the readers, to form elaborate images of the novel’s scenes in our minds, as she paints her pictures so vividly. For example, Marian has just stepped into the bath tub: “She occupied herself with the soap. The water was lulling, relaxing. She had lots of time; she could indulge her desire to lie back with her enamelled hair placed f...more Firstly, I would like to commend Atwood on her linguistic artistry throughout the novel. She is an excellent wordsmith. Her total mastery of the language enables us, the readers, to form elaborate images of the novel’s scenes in our minds, as she paints her pictures so vividly. For example, Marian has just stepped into the bath tub: “She occupied herself with the soap. The water was lulling, relaxing. She had lots of time; she could indulge her desire to lie back with her enamelled hair placed for security against the slope of the tub, to float with the water washing gently over her nearly submerged body. From their elevated position her eyes had a long vista of white concave enclosing walls and semi-transparent water, her body islanded, extending in a series of curves and hollows down towards the terminal peninsula of legs and the reefs of toes...” (255) Secondly, I was particularly intrigued by the use of quirky interior monologue. Marian has consistently interesting outlooks and unique perspectives on situations. “They sat in silence. Marian was thinking about what he had said. She supposed that the impersonality of his request was quite insulting. Why didn’t she feel insulted then? Instead she felt she ought to do something helpful and clinical, like taking his pulse.” (223) After reading this novel, I must admit that I’ve been more focussed on my own thoughts- all the absurdities in my thinking processes, my reactions, etcetera. Finally, I truly enjoyed the comical aspects of this novel. Even though the main themes are serious in nature, the writing is very funny. The descriptions are both detailed and humorous. Atwood is extremely witty. For instance, Marian is at a friend’s place for dinner and there are two young children in the house. The overly laid-back mother remarks as she sees her son peeing behind the door: “ “It was no accident,” Clara remarked, opening her eyes. “He just loves peeing behind doors. I wonder what it is. He’s going to be secretive when he grows up, an undercover agent or a diplomat or something. The furtive little bastard.” ” (36)
Overall, I found reading The Edible Woman to be a very enjoyable and worthwhile experience. I highly recommend this novel, five stars!
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Mar 02, 2012 Vinyessa rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Feb 06, 2012 Sarah Kathleen rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012, crazies, diseased, fiction, feminist

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 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-2003

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 naam van fatsoen....more

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Sep 11, 2011 SwensonBooks rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: jill

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 Fiction Book Club...more 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 Fiction Book Club selected one of Atwood’s novels for discussion. She’s written more than 35 books, so there was something for everyone to read.

Margaret Atwood recently spoke at Cornell University and she is Canada’s first lady of letters. Known for her ‘speculative fiction,’ Atwood avoids the term “science fiction,” prefering “social science fiction” instead. The ranks of writers like Aldous Huxley, J.R.R. Tolkien and Edward Bellamy are Margaret Atwood’s literary peers. In 1987, Atwood received the first Arthur C. Clarke Award, named for author of 2001: A Space Odyssey and member of sci fi’s “Big Three:”Asimov, Clarke and Heinlein.

But The Edible Woman was her first published book and it fits the more conventional notions of a contemporary novel. The truly speculative stuff based in alternative worlds comes later in her publishing career. This first book is seminal in her career.

Marian McAlpin is a young woman who dates a man with a marriage phobia, which she doesn’t mind so much until he proposes. Marian works for a market research company conducting surveys door to door. Her roommate, who has the radical notion of getting pregnant and raising a child on her own, has set her eyes on Marian’s friend, Len. Her fiancée, Peter, and Len have become fast friends. She overhears their conversation about gutting a rabbit while hunting, and suddenly Marian cannot eat meat. In fact, she can’t eat and soon realizes she is being consumed by Peter. Heady stuff for readers at the beginning of the Women’s Movement. Today it is still a good read about relationships in American culture. The ways in which a woman allows herself, her identity, to be swallowed up by a man are as relevant as ever.

While Margaret Atwood claims her fiction is not autobiographical, there is in hindsight some parallels with her own lifestory. She married Jim Polk in 1968 and divorced in 1973. Soon after she began a relationship with Graeme Gibson, and in 1976 they had a daughter, Eleanor. Until 1980 they lived on a farm in rural Ontario; Atwood now considers Toronto home.

Just recently she gave a TED talk that I found particularly interesting regarding the future of authors and publishing. She’s a wonderful speaker as well as a writer. In the Wake of the Flood by Canadian director Ron Mann was released in late 2010, following Atwood on her book tour for her novel, The Year of the Flood. Her voice is one I enjoy reading; an American classic.

click on this link to watch Margaret Atwood’s TED talk:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6iMBf...(less)

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Jun 14, 2011 Margaret rated it 5 of 5 stars

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 consumer-obsess...more

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Mar 19, 2011 Sandra rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 about Maria...more

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Dec 07, 2010 Badly Drawn Girl rated it 3 of 5 stars

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 her in orde...more

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Sep 24, 2010 Shanice rated it 5 of 5 stars

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 3 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. The main character of this novel goes from boring but likable to batshit crazytown. Which is... the point of it, really. She gets engaged, starts losing herself in deception of her fiance, her friends, and herself, finds a shallow dude who today would be an indie/hipster fellow, and starts having trouble balancing who she is with what she wants and what her life is, letting her fiance make all the decisions, and finding herself unable to eat-- from steak which reminds herself of human muscle, al...more

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Mar 31, 2010 Ted rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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, th...more

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Jul 30, 2009 Felicity rated it 2 of 5 stars

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 a vi...more

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About Margaret Atwood

Margaret Atwood was born in 1939 in Ottawa and grew up in northern Ontario, Quebec, and Toronto. She received her undergraduate degree from Victoria College at the University of Toronto and her master's degree from Radcliffe College.

Throughout her writing career, Margaret Atwood has received numerous awards and honourary degrees. She is the author of more than thirty-five volumes of poetry, childr...more

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The Year of the Flood (MaddAddam Trilogy, #2)

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Quotes from The Edible Woman

“I always thought eating was a ridiculous activity anyway. I'd get out of it myself if I could, though you've got to do it to stay alive, they tell me.” — 10 people liked it

“This afternoon held that special quality of mournful emptiness I've connected with late Sunday afternoons ever since childhood: the feeling of having nothing to do.” — 9 people liked it

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