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Negotiating with the Dead

by Margaret Atwood (Goodreads Author)

3.92 of 5 stars 3.92 · rating details · 1,115 ratings · 106 reviews

After having been through the "wash-and-spin cycle" a few times, Margaret Atwood realized that her "own experience in the suds may be relevant to others." Thus was born Negotiating with the Dead, six essays about what it means to be a writer, particularly a female writer. Each essay explores one aspect of writerly contemplation: art vs. commerce; the ideal reader; the sepa...more

Published (first published 2002)

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Community Reviews

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Mar 22, 2009 Madeline rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: all-time-favorites

Atwood writing about how she became a writer, what it means to be a writer, and why writers do what they do.
If, in my struggles to be a writer, I manage to become even half as talented as Margaret Atwood, that will be enough. That's really all I can think of to say, so I'll just share some of my favorite parts of the book (warning - I had a lot of favorite parts):

"Around the age of seven I wrote a play. The protagonist was a giant; the theme was crime and punishment; the crime was lying, as befi...more Atwood writing about how she became a writer, what it means to be a writer, and why writers do what they do.
If, in my struggles to be a writer, I manage to become even half as talented as Margaret Atwood, that will be enough. That's really all I can think of to say, so I'll just share some of my favorite parts of the book (warning - I had a lot of favorite parts):

"Around the age of seven I wrote a play. The protagonist was a giant; the theme was crime and punishment; the crime was lying, as befits a future novelist; the punishment was being squashed to death by the moon.
...This play was not a raging success. As I recall, my brother and his pals came in and laughed at it, thus giving me an early experience of literary criticism."

"All writers are double, for the simple reason that you can never actually meet the author of the book you have just read. Too much time has elapsed between composition and publication, and the person who wrote the book is now a different person. Or so goes the alibi. On the one hand, this is a convenient way for a writer to wriggle out of responsibility, and you should pay no attention to it. Yet on the other hand, it is quite true."

"...Alice [of Wonderland:] is not the writer of the story about her. Nevertheless, here is my best guess, about writers and their elusive doubles, and the question of who does what as far as the actual writing goes. The act of writing takes place at the moment when Alice passes through the mirror. At this one instant, the glass barrier between the doubles dissolves, and Alice is neither here nor there, neither art nor life, neither the one thing nor the other, though at the same time she is all of these at once. At that moment time itself stops, and also stretches out, and both writer and reader have all the time not in the world."

[talking about growing up in the 50s:] "You could not advertise sanitary products for women and call them what they were, which gave rise to a degree of surrealism unmatched in advertising since. I remember in particular a woman in a white Grecian-style evening gown standing on a marble staircase and gazing out over the sea, with a caption under her that said, 'Modess...Because.' Because what? I wondered as a child. This is a question that still recurs in dreams."

"The title of this chapter is 'Negotiating with the Dead,' and its hypothesis is that not just some, but all writing of the narrative kind, and perhaps all writing, is motivated, deep down, by a fear of and a fascination with mortality - by a desire to make the risky trip to the Underworld, and to bring something or someone back from the dead.
You may find the subject a little peculiar. It is a little peculiar. Writing itself is a little peculiar."

(less)

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May 20, 2008 Ollie rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: writers

What makes someone a writer? What's the role of the writer in the world today? Should she write just for Art's sake or does she have a social responsibility? Is there a third way? And is there an underlying (and universal) psychological reason behind every writer's desire to put words to paper? Margaret Atwood answers all these questions, and more, in six essays which were originally lectures given at Cambridge University.

The great thing about Atwood is that she doesn't place herself, or anyone...more

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May 11, 2011 Britta rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

Into the Labyrinth: A Writer on Writing.

Why Write?

To record the world as it is. To set down the past before it is all forgotten. To excavate the past because it has been forgotten. To satisfy my desire for revenge. Because I knew I had to keep writing or else I would die. Because to write is to take risks, and it is only by taking risks that we know we are alive. To produce order out of chaos. To delight and instruct (not often found after the early twentieth century, or not in that form). To pl...more Into the Labyrinth: A Writer on Writing.

Why Write?

To record the world as it is. To set down the past before it is all forgotten. To excavate the past because it has been forgotten. To satisfy my desire for revenge. Because I knew I had to keep writing or else I would die. Because to write is to take risks, and it is only by taking risks that we know we are alive. To produce order out of chaos. To delight and instruct (not often found after the early twentieth century, or not in that form). To please myself. To express myself. To express myself beautifully. To create a perfect work of art. To reward the virtuous and punish the guilty. To hold up a mirror to Nature. To hold a mirror up to the reader. To paint a portrait of society and its ills. To express the unexpressed life of the masses. To name the hitherto unnamed. To defend the human spirit, and human integrity and honor. To thumb my nose at Death. To make money so my children could have shoes. To make money so I could sneer at those who formerly sneered at me. To show the bastards. Because to create is human. Because to create is Godlike. Because I hated the idea of having a job. To say a new word. To make a new thing. To create a national consciousness, or a national conscience. To justify my failures in school. To justify my own view of myself and my life, because I couldn't be "a writer" unless I actually did some writing. To make myself appear more interesting than I actually was. To attract the love of a beautiful woman. To attract the love of a beautiful man. To rectify the imperfections of my miserable childhood. To thwart my parents. To spin a fascinating tale. To amuse and please the reader. To amuse and please myself. To pass the time, even though it would have passed anyway. Graphomania. Compulsive logorrhea. Because I was driven to it by some force outside my control. Because I was possessed. Because I fell into the embrace of the Muse. Because I got pregnant by the Muse and needed to give birth. Because I had books instead of children (several twentieth-century women). To serve Art. To serve the Collective Unconscious. To serve History. To act out antisocial behavior for which I have been punished in real life. To master a craft. To subvert the establishment. To deomonstrate that whatever is, is right. Because the story took hold of me and wouldn't let go. To search for understanding of the reader and myself. To cope with my depression. For my children. To make a name that would deserve to surivie death. To defend a minority group or oppressed class. To speak for those who cannot speak for themselves. To expose the applaing wrongs and attrocities. To record the times through which I have lived. To speak for the Dead. To clebrate Life. To praise the Universe. To allow for the possibility of hope and redemption. To give back someting of what has been given to me.

(Margaret Atwood. Negotiating with the Dead, xx-xxii).(less)

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May 02, 2012 Linda rated it 5 of 5 stars

Margaret Atwood claims she is just a regular person, but this book leaves no doubt about that claim. She isn't. Written in response to a request to be the Empson lecturer at the University of Cambridge, a series of five lectures, here worked into chapters, explains how it "is" to be a writer. One "how" that resonated with me was the writer as a creator and the writer as a person who does the laundry; the dishes and puts gas in the car. She writes beautifully about the duality of this relationshi...more

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Feb 21, 2011 Ethan rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction

"Wanting to meet an author because you like their work is like wanting to meet a duck because you like pate."

This book is a well-established writer's take on writing, intended for writers. This was a bit of a strange book. At times, Atwood tends to dissolve into overly philosophical navel-gazing, but every so often she says something quite interesting and clever. I would describe this book as Mostly Okay with moments of Awesome.

This book is based on a series of lectures she gave at Cambridge. At...more

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May 31, 2010 Amber Tucker rated it 5 of 5 stars

Someone's looking out for me up there. Last spring I happened upon Northrop Frye's Educated Imagination, and devoured it (and have since done so a few more times). More recently, I bought Margaret Atwood's Negotiating with the Dead, only because I'd enjoyed some of her poetry and this was in a blow-out sale at Coles. Like Frye's Massey Lectures, it's one of those books that has changed the way I think about literature and writing. What's astonishing to me is how well one follows upon the other....more

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Apr 09, 2010 Kate rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, writing-books

Notes from NEGOTIATING WITH THE DEAD: A WRITER ON WRITING by Margaret Atwood

2002 Hardcover edition published by Cambridge University (ISBN 0-521-66260-5)

Page 5 - "No writer emerges from childhood into a pristine environment, free from other people's biases about writers. All of us bump against a number of preconceptions about what we are or ought to be like, what constitutes good writing, and what social functions writing fulfills, or ought to fulfill. All of us develop our own ideas about what...more Notes from NEGOTIATING WITH THE DEAD: A WRITER ON WRITING by Margaret Atwood

2002 Hardcover edition published by Cambridge University (ISBN 0-521-66260-5)

Page 5 - "No writer emerges from childhood into a pristine environment, free from other people's biases about writers. All of us bump against a number of preconceptions about what we are or ought to be like, what constitutes good writing, and what social functions writing fulfills, or ought to fulfill. All of us develop our own ideas about what we are writing in relation to these preconceptions. Whether we attempt to live up to them, rebel against them, or find others using them to judge us, they affect our lives as writers."

Page 26 - "Or, to put it in a more sinister way: everyone can dig a hole in a cemetery, but not everyone is a grave-digger. The latter takes a good deal more stamina and persistence. It is also, because of the nature of your activity, a deeply symbolic role. As a grave-digger, you are not just a person who excavates. You carry upon your shoulders the weight of other people's projections, of their fears and fantasies and anxieties and superstitions. You represent morality whether you like it or not. And so it is with and public role, including that of the Writer, capital W; but also as with any public role, the significance of that role--its emotional and symbolic content--varies over time."

Page 31 - "A superhero was nobody unless he had an alter ego who really WAS nobody. Superman was really the bespectacled Clark Kent, Captain Marvel was the crippled newsboy Billy Batson, Batman was really a Scarlet Pimpernel sort of fellow who acted a playboy twit in "real life"--or was it the other way around? I understood these people at the emotional level--every child did. The superhero, large and powerful and good, was what we wished to be; the "real" alias, the one who lived /dans le vrai/ and was small and weak and fallible and at the mercy of being more powerful than us, was what we actually were."

Page 59 - Quote from Théophile Gautier, MADEMOISELLE DE MAUPIN - "Nothing is truly beautiful unless it cannot be used for anything; everything that is useful is ugly because it is the expression of some need, and those of man are ignoble and disgusting, like his poor and infirm nature."

Page 81 - "The fasting-artist is an artist, dedicated complete to his art. This art is grotesque: the artist stays in a cage and starves himself--much like a self-mortifying Christian ascetic of old--and at first he is very popular: crowds flock to marvel at him. Then fashions change--the art-for-art's sake fashion was by Kafka's time calling out of widespread favor--and the fasting-artist ends up in a neglected corner of a circus menagerie, and people forget he's in the cage."

Page 96 - 97 - "An art of any kind is a discipline; not only a craft--that too--but a discipline in the religious sense, in which the vigil of waiting, the creation of a receptive spiritual emptiness, and the denial of self all play their part."

Page 110 - "I asked a recent house-guest--a novelist--for her opinion. Was it possible, I said, to write a story with no moral implications at all? "No," she said. "You can't help the moral implication, because a story has to come out one way or the other, and the reader will have opinions about the rightness or wrongness of the outcome, whether you like it or not."

Page 158 - "Other art forms can last and last--painting, sculpture, music--but they do not survive as VOICE. And as I've said, writing is writing down, and what is written down is a score for voice, and what the voice does--even in the majority of short lyric poems--is tell, if not a story, at least a mini-story. Something unfurls, something reveals itself. The crooked is made straight, or, the age being what it is, possibly more crooked; at any rate there's a path. There's a beginning, there's an end, not necessarily in that order; but however, you tell it, there's a plot. The voice moves through time, from one event to another, or from one perception to another, and things change, whether in the mind alone of in the outside world. Events take place, in relation to other events. That's what time is. It's one dan thing after another, and the important word in that sentence is AFTER."(less)

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Jan 21, 2009 Cynthia rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: writers

Shelves: myfavorites

This is possibly my favorite Atwood ever. It is intensely personal, from a series of lectures she gave. The final chapter especially, is incredible.

(p.10) "When I was eight we moved again, to another postwar bungalow, this time nearer the center of Toronto, at that time a stodgy provincial city of seven hundred thousand. I was now faced with real life, in the form of other little girls--their prudery and snobbery, their Byzantine social life based on whispering and vicious gossip, and an inabil...more This is possibly my favorite Atwood ever. It is intensely personal, from a series of lectures she gave. The final chapter especially, is incredible.

(p.10) "When I was eight we moved again, to another postwar bungalow, this time nearer the center of Toronto, at that time a stodgy provincial city of seven hundred thousand. I was now faced with real life, in the form of other little girls--their prudery and snobbery, their Byzantine social life based on whispering and vicious gossip, and an inability to pick up earthworms without wriggling all over and making mewing noises like a kitten. I was more familiar with the forthright mindset of boys: the rope burn on the wrist and the dead-finger trick were familiar to me--but little girls were almost an alien species. I was very curious about them, and remain so."

Above sounds like the inspiration for "Cat's Eye," doesn't it?

I finished reading this last night in my post-Obama-is-our-president rush. So many amazing quotes. I will add more.

(p. 100)"This psychic wound appears to be suffered largely by men. Women writers weren't included in the Romantic roll-call and never had a lot of Genius medals stuck onto them; in fact the word 'genius' and the word 'woman' just don't really fit together in our language, because the kind of eccentricity expected of male 'geniuses' would simply result in the label 'crazy' should it be practiced by a woman."

Also noted, page 150, lovely passage on meeting up with Brown Owl, her former Brownie leader who had kept the little books Atwood had written stories in 50 years earlier as a Brownie.

(P. 162) "We lived in an old house in rural Ontario during the 1970s, and this house was haunted--so the local people said, and so some visiting the house experienced while we were there--and we asked the lore-conscious woman from the farm across the road what to do. 'Leave food out overnight,' she said. 'Make them a meal. Then they'll know you accept them and you won't be bothered.' We felt kind of silly, but we did it and it worked. Or as the German poet Rilke puts it in a slightly different way in his 'Sonnets to Orpheus,' 'Don't leave bread or milk on the table/ at night: that attracts the dead.' "(less)

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Apr 05, 2012 Ben Dutton rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Margaret Atwood’s Negotiating with the Dead is her Empson lectures extended into book form. She’s been at the writing game a very long time and she has much to say – much of it will be familiar to other writers and to those interested in how to write – but she has enough original thought to make certain chapters really stand out – particularly the final two chapters, I felt. She occasional does bang a drum I no longer thought valid – the lack of authority given to female writers and poets – thin...more

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May 05, 2010 Charles Matthews rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Margaret Atwood is maybe the only famous writer with whom I have been personally acquainted. And that was a long time ago, when we were graduate students at Harvard. She wasn't famous then, except in Canada, where one of her books of poetry had won the Governor General's Award, but we were sure she would be. Based on a series of lectures she gave at Cambridge University, this book includes some amusing insights into how her personality, interests and career were shaped by growing up in Canada in...more

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Jan 13, 2012 August Williams rated it 5 of 5 stars

Margaret Atwood has been on my to-read list for a very long time, but I hadn't heard about this book until I stumbled upon it in the writing section at the library. The title intrigued me enough to pick it up, and I'm incredibly glad I did. Memoirs of writing are usually fun, in their own way, and some (like Bird by Bird, for example, or On Writing) are fantastic. This, though, tackled all those topics which are closest to the fear in a writer's life - things like writing Art for Art's Sake vs....more

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Oct 14, 2012 Desi rated it 3 of 5 stars

I tend not to read Atwood on purpose. I had to read entirely too much of her work in junior high school, and my teachers were able to make Atwood uninteresting and best avoided in the same way they rendered reading most poetry and all of Shakespeare a suitable punishment for murder. (I did grow out of that. Mostly.) Margaret Atwood loves words, she loves writing, she loves reading, she loves living the story and coming out alive. There are passages in this book that brought me close to tears, pa...more

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May 14, 2013 Samuel Williams rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Erudite, thought-provoking and very readable – but I like my Creative Writing theory books to go on the attack a bit more than this one does. Atwood doesn't so much build an argument as meander interestingly around the idea of one. Of the titular proposition, she says, 'I had not much thought about writing per se as being a reaction to the fear of death – but once you've got hold of an idea, the proofs of it tend to proliferate.' (157) This is how the entire book works: rather than proceeding fr...more

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Jun 01, 2011 Mary Anne rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Mary Anne by: Deanna

Shelves: margaret-atwood, non-fiction, writing

This book is a little more 3.5 stars, but such are the details. I happily give four stars to this book. I have only read a handful of Margaret Atwood's work (the Margaret Atwood of each book, that is). Each author is quite unique when writing about writing, and while I can't entirely identify with this book, I know that when Margaret Atwood was writing for the lecture series (and then, of course, for this book), that she felt these topics were relevant and necessary.

One thing I really enjoyed ab...more

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Nov 02, 2010 Michael Armijo rated it 5 of 5 stars

The pen is mightier than the sword...

This is my first book reading experience by Maraget Atwood. It is a personable memoir that opened my eyes to the value, importance and creativity of writing. If anyone writes--in any way---they'll learn from this book. I was especially astonished to read how most writers have a sort of "double identity". It makes perfect sense in that a writer has to take on many forms, personalities and feelings in order to emote a character. She also points out that 'an art...more

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Dec 27, 2009 Mag added it · review of another edition

Shelves: canadian, non-fiction

The book developed from a series of six lectures on being a writer Atwood delivered at the University of Cambridge in 2000. I read two books recently that attempted the same thing in a way: Elizabeth Costello, and The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana. Coetze fictionalized his lectures and actually added the character of a writer (Elizabeth Costello) to present them, and Eco’s book held great literary promise, but did not deliver in the end; it concentrated on the legacy of comic books. Atwood, on...more

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Sep 21, 2011 Paul Lowder rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Writers and readers alike.

Recommended to Paul by: Stover

There has never been a book about writing that I have enjoyed as thoroughly as Atwood's Negotiating with the Dead. Being an English Writing minor, I've come across a number of "writing" books. They are typically mundane and full of exercises. Exercises are great, but I don't need a book full of them–that's what the internet is for. Margaret Atwood, on the other hand, presents writing in a unique way. Instead of being full of techniques on how to write, Negotiating with the Dead discusses the une...more

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Apr 21, 2012 Manda rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2012

How to comment on this book? It was rather scary! Margaret is writing about writers. And she suggests that the stories that they get to write come from the world of the dead, a place writers visit to get the stories, which they bring back with them - after feeding the dead their blood. Of course, if you just read that, my words, wou will think that Margaret is a complete nutter, and not read the book, but that would be a shame. Margaret references lots of books, plays, poems, films etc which see...more

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Jan 14, 2013 Elizabeth rated it 4 of 5 stars

Overall, I really liked this book; however, I think I would have enjoyed it more if I had read it as part of a graduate seminar or among a writers' group, both of which would provide a venue for discussion. Atwood is brilliant and extremely intellectual, and her vast depth of literary knowledge/experience along with her dry wit made for a lot of density, with bits of humor interjected. I found myself skimming sections, but there were plenty of sections or lines I wanted to mark down as quotes/co...more

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Jan 09, 2010 Janey Bennett rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: writers and readers

Shelves: writing

Of the many "writing" books I have read, this one is my current favorite, along with Charles Baxter's SUBPLOT book. Both of them approach writing as the complex psychic incomprehensible journey of discovery it actually is, instead of proposing cookbook techniques to produce saleable books.

Ms. Atwood and I are of an age so when she discusses the cultural blocks she met as a young writer, she makes me laugh with recognition. Lovely to name things that have previously existed but not been "real"....more

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Mar 23, 2013 Eddy Allen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction-and-westerns

What is the role of the Writer? Prophet? High Priest of Art? Court Jester? Or witness to the real world? Looking back on her own childhood and writing career, Margaret Atwood examines the metaphors which writers of fiction and poetry have used to explain--or excuse!--their activities, looking at what costumes they have assumed, what roles they have chosen to play. In her final chapter she takes up the challenge of the title: if a writer is to be seen as "gifted," who is doing the giving and what...more

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Sep 13, 2011 Vicki rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Margaret Atwood made me get teary-eyed on the subway while reading this book.

"Negotiating With the Dead" is a reflection on the roles of writers and their readers, adapted and somewhat expanded from the Empson Lectures which Margaret Atwood delivered at Cambridge University in 2000. It is breathtakingly erudite and eclectic, but is also interwoven with very personal and down-to-earth recollections and episodes from Atwood's own journey as both a writer and a reader. It was a sweet reminiscence a...more

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Apr 03, 2011 Eirin rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011

A lovely set of essays regarding writing. Atwood makes the process tangible, and at the same time raises questions and creates interest. I loved her way of writing, it was colourful and funny. It showed a real love for the craft.

My copy is now littered with notes in the margins, and little hearts where her sentences or quotes struck me as particularily beautiful. It's also full of print outs of poems she quoted only parts of, but that I found so delightful I had to have the entire text. I also...more

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Oct 05, 2009 Lisa Louie rated it 3 of 5 stars

In this collection of essays, Atwood explores the psycho-social realities of writing and being a Writer (capital W), while drawing upon a wealth of literary references and examples to illustrate her points. For me, the most memorable of these essays was the one in which Atwood described the doppelganger self of the Writer; the person who writes is both ordinary human being and this writing self, and as such, often lives a divided life. As an ordinary human being, the person who writes is rather...more

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Dec 28, 2008 Jamie rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: writers, Atwood fans

Shelves: thesis

My first real foray into Atwood's non-fiction, and it was enlightening, to say the least. I'll confess that the book loses steam on many occasions, but for the chapter on duplicity alone, the whole text is worth it. Besides, it's under 200 pages, and a rather easy read, especially in comparison to much of her fiction. If I had to classify the book, I'd say it's Atwood's "A Room of One's Own"--she deals with the causes and effects of writing, with the monoliths of the canon, with the "woman quest...more My first real foray into Atwood's non-fiction, and it was enlightening, to say the least. I'll confess that the book loses steam on many occasions, but for the chapter on duplicity alone, the whole text is worth it. Besides, it's under 200 pages, and a rather easy read, especially in comparison to much of her fiction. If I had to classify the book, I'd say it's Atwood's "A Room of One's Own"--she deals with the causes and effects of writing, with the monoliths of the canon, with the "woman question" in relation to writing, and basically everything in between.

My main issue with the book was the exhausting borrowing of other author's works--you can't get through a page without a block quote and a grocery list of writers past and present that are applicable to Atwood's own contention. I didn't really understand this tactic, for Atwood certainly has the strength to stand on her own, and in many cases, I'd prefer to hear her witty, biting style over that of the writers she chose to pull from. This aside, however, she makes some quite brilliant connections between modern (well, and past) conceptions of the writer's role in society in relation to historical contexts. She deals a good bit with the transition between the notion of the incorruptible genius of the writer in the Romantic period to more current ideas of the writer today, who is both insignificant and assumed to be an active force of social change. As I said, her chapter on the duplicitous or split position of the writer is worth the cost of the book alone--she makes a good case for the necessarily dual-identity of any writer, and employs a lot of wonderful history and culture in the discussion to boot.

I don't need to outline the entirety of the book, though. The long and short of it is that if you like Atwood's style and you're intrigued either with the art of writing or with your own writerly aspirations, this one's for you. Erudite but accessible, humorous and powerful--it's a page-turner and an inspirational glance into mythologized notions of the writer and what it 'really means' to be one in our day and age.(less)

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Nov 18, 2009 Palmyrah rated it 2 of 5 stars

A sextet of essays about writing and writers, derived from lectures delivered at Cambridge University, each of which rambles eruditely but somewhat formlessly, leaving you wondering, at its end, what exactly Ms. Atwood was on about. The kind of writing that is a nightmare to summarize.

I liked the fifth essay, which is about the relationship between writer and reader, best. The other essays have less to recommend them, in my view, and the thesis of the last does indeed tend, as the author fears,...more

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Apr 29, 2012 Molly rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 4-stars, non-fiction, essays

Read a few selections of this for my thesis. Chapter Six, "Negotiating with the Dead" proved particularly helpful. According to Atwood, all writing of the narrative kind, and perhaps all writing in general, speaks to our fear of and fascination with our own mortality -- "by a desire to make the risky trip to the underworld and to bring someone or something back from the dead" (156). Since I'm writing about her poetry, it's nice to see that she and I are apparently on the same page!

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Aug 29, 2009 Adrian Stumpp rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: canadian, contemporary, non-fiction

This is Atwood's obligatory book about writing, although it really has nothing to with writing and more to do with being a writer. It's a quick read with lots of musings on the writer's life, the power of art, and things like that. Present is Atwood's characteristic storytelling style. The anecdotes are well rendered and insightful. Not recommended for those in search of a true "writing" book, but previously established fans of Atwood's work should find this book worth reading.

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Apr 02, 2009 Jeana rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction-memiors

This book was a bit of a disappointment, considering I really like Atwood's fiction. It read more like an academic paper (several actually) that were very dry in a lot of places. There were bits of things I liked in it--for example, I liked the section about how the writer and reader communicate--only through the page. And she also touched on for whom a writer is writing.

There were several sections that were really not interesting to me at all. But there were bits I liked. Here's one:

"Where is...more

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Apr 14, 2013 Keith Gerrard rated it 4 of 5 stars

Dope. As an amateur writer, I was kinda hoping Atwood would give some secrets of the trade. But instead she more just writes about the role of the Writer throughout history, and uses a bunch of literary and mythological references to make her points. Still and all, it was entertaining in a dry-humour Atwoody way. And, as a writer, afterwards I felt more inspired to "descend into the Other World," so to speak. I give it four Swags out of five.

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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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Books by Margaret Atwood

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

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Quotes from Negotiating with the Dead

“There's an epigram tacked to my office bulletin board, pinched from a magazine -- "Wanting to meet an author because you like his work is like wanting to meet a duck because you like pâté.” — 166 people liked it

“My own view of myself was that I was small and innocuous, a marshmallow compared to the others. I was a poor shot with a 22, for instance, and not very good with an ax. It took me a long time to figure out that the youngest in a family of dragons is still a dragon from the point of view of those who find dragons alarming.” — 6 people liked it

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Negotiating with the Dead

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