The Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood

So, as promised, I finished reading The Robber Bride a few days ago, and here is the reveiw.

First off, let me just say that I have only read two of Margaret Atwood's books, the aforementioned Handmaid's Tale, and now The Robber Bride. Atwood's style is very fluid, but not overly done. There is a lot of description, but not to the point where I get lost in it (most of the time). Ms. Atwood has this weird thing with words, though. For example, in Handmaid's Tale, the main character is constantly deconstructing words until they no longer have meaning. And in this book, one of the main characters, Tony (Antonia Fremont) is ambidexterous, so she reads words backwards. She calls herself Tmonerf Ynot. A little strange. But it's interesting. And this Atwood woman has a creepy ability to accuratly pin point the future. For example, near the beginning of the book, one of the characters, Roz, asks Tony if what she thinks about the war in Iraq (the setting is Canada in early 1990s--she's referring the Gulf War, not this war...whatever this one is about). Tony's response is that that long term consquences will in all eventuality lead to the downfall of the nation. Although I won't go so far as to say that our country is currently seeing a downfall, there is quite the economic strain...anyway, back the book.

So there are four main characters the book focuses around, all women. There is Tony, who is a Professor of History, specializing in battles and war. The description of Tony in the book reminds me of that lady on The Incredibles--you know, the one who makes the outfits? Or even that lady who with the really bad haircut who used to play one of the judges on The Practice. I'll see if I can find a picture. Found one. This is how I pictured Tony.
Anyway, that's Tony. Then, there is Charis (pronounced care-is), formerly knows as Karen. In the heighth of the hippy movement, Karen became Charis. She is a very Pheobe/Darma hippy-dippy person. Her story is the most...dark. Then there is Roz, a very large woman who is very loud, and very rich. Finally, there is Zenia. the one woman that brings all these other women together. It is because of Zenia that all of these women are friends, and it is Zenia whom all of these women hate.

The book begins with the women in a very strange bar for lunch, The Toxique. It is there that Tony, Charis, and Roz meet approximately once a month to discuss...whatever. More recently how glad they all are that Zenia is dead. And then, right in the midst of celebrating this woman's death (she's been dead about 5 years), Zenia walks in the door of The Toxique. It floors them. They leave. And then they all go home. And then the book begins.

The first story we hear about is Tony's, how she met and fell in love with her husband, how she was the first to be sucked into Zenia's spell, and Zenia hurt her. Then we move to Charis's story: her childhood, her mother, her grandmother, what happened to make her the way she is, her life with her live-in boyfriend, and her friendship with Zenia. And how Zenia ruined her life. And then we move on to Roz, her marriage, her youth, her college days, and her friendship with Zenia. And how Zenia ruined Roz's husband. And then the end.

The ending is about how each of these women cope with this force, this woman who exists only in kinky spy movies, this woman who seems to know everyone's vulnerability, a woman who uses and discards without a thought. A woman who is both abhorred and irresistable to men and women alike for reasons which are unknown. Zenia is an enigma.

I was totally engaged in this book. Even though I got lost in a lot of Tony's war babble, I found myself being sucked in, and almost sympathetic to Zenia, but I was even more committed to Tony, Charis (even though she was very strange) and Roz. Three women who were of the baby boom, came to adulthood in the sixties, and have lived through Zenia to tell the tale. I would say that this book is one of the really good, intellectual books that I have read so far, but it was still entertaining. My brain has kind of shut off right now, so I bet there was a lot of symbolism, extra meaning, and sense to be made out of this book that I have missed, but even with out all of that literary nonsense, the book was just good entertainment. I recommend it. But, like I said last time. A few F words here and there, medium sexual content, and adult themes. Probably a PG-13. But very, very good.