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Bodily Harm
Rennie Wilford is a freelance journalist who takes an assignment in the Caribbean in the hopes of recuperating from her recently shattered life. On the tiny island of St. Antoine, she tumbles into a corrupt world where no one is what they seem, where her rules for survival no longer apply. This is a thoroughly gripping novel of intrigue and betrayal, which explores human defensiveness, the lust for power both sexual and political, and the need for a compassion that goes beyond what we ordinarily mean by love. The enigma unfolds as it would for any innocent bystander swept up by events, bringing along the scruples, and the fears, of the past.
302 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published October 3, 1981
634 people are currently reading
7958 people want to read
About the author
Margaret Atwood
663 books89.3k followersMargaret 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, children’s literature, fiction, and non-fiction and is perhaps best known for her novels, which include The Edible Woman (1970), The Handmaid's Tale (1983), The Robber Bride (1994), Alias Grace (1996), and The Blind Assassin, which won the prestigious Booker Prize in 2000. Atwood's dystopic novel, Oryx and Crake, was published in 2003. The Tent (mini-fictions) and Moral Disorder (short stories) both appeared in 2006. Her most recent volume of poetry, The Door, was published in 2007. Her non-fiction book, Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth in the Massey series, appeared in 2008, and her most recent novel, The Year of the Flood, in the autumn of 2009. Ms. Atwood's work has been published in more than forty languages, including Farsi, Japanese, Turkish, Finnish, Korean, Icelandic and Estonian. In 2004 she co-invented the Long Pen TM.
Margaret Atwood currently lives in Toronto with writer Graeme Gibson.
Associations: Margaret Atwood was President of the Writers' Union of Canada from May 1981 to May 1982, and was President of International P.E.N., Canadian Centre (English Speaking) from 1984-1986. She and Graeme Gibson are the Joint Honourary Presidents of the Rare Bird Society within BirdLife International. Ms. Atwood is also a current Vice-President of PEN International.
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, children’s literature, fiction, and non-fiction and is perhaps best known for her novels, which include The Edible Woman (1970), The Handmaid's Tale (1983), The Robber Bride (1994), Alias Grace (1996), and The Blind Assassin, which won the prestigious Booker Prize in 2000. Atwood's dystopic novel, Oryx and Crake, was published in 2003. The Tent (mini-fictions) and Moral Disorder (short stories) both appeared in 2006. Her most recent volume of poetry, The Door, was published in 2007. Her non-fiction book, Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth in the Massey series, appeared in 2008, and her most recent novel, The Year of the Flood, in the autumn of 2009. Ms. Atwood's work has been published in more than forty languages, including Farsi, Japanese, Turkish, Finnish, Korean, Icelandic and Estonian. In 2004 she co-invented the Long Pen TM.
Margaret Atwood currently lives in Toronto with writer Graeme Gibson.
Associations: Margaret Atwood was President of the Writers' Union of Canada from May 1981 to May 1982, and was President of International P.E.N., Canadian Centre (English Speaking) from 1984-1986. She and Graeme Gibson are the Joint Honourary Presidents of the Rare Bird Society within BirdLife International. Ms. Atwood is also a current Vice-President of PEN International.
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 706 reviews
December 26, 2019
I love Margaret Atwood's Cat's Eye, The Handmaid's Tale, The Robber Bride, Alias Grace, Oryx and Crake, The Year of the Flood and Maddaddam. I have read others by her of which I am not as fond. This is one of those. Bodily Harm starts with a bang. A woman whose boyfriend has just broken up with her (because she has cancer and had a breast removed, what a schmuck!), had a break in to her apartment foiled by an observant neighbor. The creep wasn't a robber, he left a rope behind on the bed. Understandably unnerved by this she wants to get away. Her boss gives her an assignment on a tropical island in the Caribbean as a tourist piece.
She goes, everything is hideous, including her hotel room, the food and the people. The island is undergoing a coup. Rival factions and the CIA are everywhere. Rennie is the most naive journalist in fiction. She picks up a package for someone she just met. What???? She does other dumb things. This can not end well. This is a torture test of endurance for someone already under extreme stress. Why didn't she leave? Rennie seems to be a glutton for punishment as my mom used to say. Perhaps that is the meaning of the book, Rennie's ex-boyfriend was pretty much a user and abuser. Maybe, she punishes herself, because she thinks she deserves it.
She goes, everything is hideous, including her hotel room, the food and the people. The island is undergoing a coup. Rival factions and the CIA are everywhere. Rennie is the most naive journalist in fiction. She picks up a package for someone she just met. What???? She does other dumb things. This can not end well. This is a torture test of endurance for someone already under extreme stress. Why didn't she leave? Rennie seems to be a glutton for punishment as my mom used to say. Perhaps that is the meaning of the book, Rennie's ex-boyfriend was pretty much a user and abuser. Maybe, she punishes herself, because she thinks she deserves it.
August 20, 2012
I spent several weeks in France during the summer of 2003. I arrived at the start of a massive European heat wave that would continue weeks after I left in August, killing nearly 15,000 in France alone.
One Friday afternoon in late July I trained from Gaillac to Carcassonne, in the heart of the Languedoc. I’d reserved an inexpensive hotel recommended by my Lonely Planet Guide.
The hotel was a disaster. Dim, dreary, sweltering, grimy. I had to pay cash for my night’s stay before seeing the room. Despairing, homesick, I dumped my small pack on the bed and went for a walk, clinging to the shadows, hating everything about dim, dreary, sweltering, grimy Carcassonne.
Along the way, I passed a three-star hotel near Pont Vieux – the bridge that spans the Aude River and leads to the medieval fortress, which overlooks Carcassonne. I had a brief chat with myself as I walked across the bridge: “Julie, don’t be an idiot. You are an adult. You have a good job. You can give yourself permission to stay in a decent place!”
I turned around and walked back to the fleabag hotel, grabbed my backpack and left. Bugger the money I’d already paid. It wasn’t worth the torture. I checked in at the Hotel Les Trois Couronnes and had myself a civilized, air-conditioned, insect-free night in a sparkling room with a view of the Citadel.
Had I been a character in a Margaret Atwood novel, not only would I have resigned myself to staying at the dive, I would have found cockroaches lurking in the bathroom sink, the shower wouldn’t have worked, I’d have shared the mattress with bedbugs and been kept up all night by the exuberant lovemaking of my next door neighbors and the drunken fighting in the streets outside.
Did I mention I would have just lost a breast to cancer? And recently split from my self-absorbed cheat of a boyfriend? And spinning my wheels in a career I no longer cared about? Oh, and my apartment would have been recently broken into, a lariat of thin rope left curled on my bed.
Welcome to the world of Rennie Wilford, small-town Canadian making an unsatisfying living as a free-lance writer in Toronto. Rennie once had hopes of a career in journalism, exposing political outrages and human rights' violations. She now writes lifestyle pieces, at times inventing fashion trends to create an assignment that will pay the rent.
Rennie’s life is a series of betrayals. Her editors, her boyfriend, her body – all out to use and abuse her. When menaced by a stranger who leaves his murder weapon as a calling card, Rennie decides it’s time to leave town for a while. She accepts an assignment – a fluff travel piece- in a flyspeck island in the Caribbean, St. Antoine. Which is experiencing a bloody revolution.
If there’s anything else that can go wrong in Rennie’s life, Atwood is certain to ferret it out and make it happen.
As a reader, you are forced to suspend empathy with Rennie. Atwood treats her cruelly, putting her in impossible situations or making her behave in ridiculous ways. It is hard not to cringe, not to wave your hands and shout “Don’t do it!” You must read passively, watching this depressed and depressing young woman crash and burn.
Crikey! I’m not painting a very pretty picture, am I? Why even read this? Because, although this story is painful, the writing is incredible. Because Atwood smashes writing conventions left and right, tossing in flashbacks that bring present-day action to a shuddering halt, by crafting a protagonist you want to shake silly, by tossing in sub-plots that illustrate the emotional crap we all haul around. Because few writers can wrap a story in - can warp a story with - satire and tragedy, and still speak so well to the truth of the human condition as Margaret Atwood.
We’re each on our own insignificant island in the middle of nowhere, fighting our bloody revolutions, aren’t we?
Bodily Harm was published in 1981. It could have been written yesterday. Rennie, version 2012, would have her laptop stolen, Wifi service on St. Antoine would be non-existent. There would still be a revolution, still be people desperate or amoral enough to use a vulnerable, hapless woman. Rennie would be faced with the same lousy circumstances and make the same lousy decisions.
Still, I'd've stayed at the better hotel
One Friday afternoon in late July I trained from Gaillac to Carcassonne, in the heart of the Languedoc. I’d reserved an inexpensive hotel recommended by my Lonely Planet Guide.
The hotel was a disaster. Dim, dreary, sweltering, grimy. I had to pay cash for my night’s stay before seeing the room. Despairing, homesick, I dumped my small pack on the bed and went for a walk, clinging to the shadows, hating everything about dim, dreary, sweltering, grimy Carcassonne.
Along the way, I passed a three-star hotel near Pont Vieux – the bridge that spans the Aude River and leads to the medieval fortress, which overlooks Carcassonne. I had a brief chat with myself as I walked across the bridge: “Julie, don’t be an idiot. You are an adult. You have a good job. You can give yourself permission to stay in a decent place!”
I turned around and walked back to the fleabag hotel, grabbed my backpack and left. Bugger the money I’d already paid. It wasn’t worth the torture. I checked in at the Hotel Les Trois Couronnes and had myself a civilized, air-conditioned, insect-free night in a sparkling room with a view of the Citadel.
Had I been a character in a Margaret Atwood novel, not only would I have resigned myself to staying at the dive, I would have found cockroaches lurking in the bathroom sink, the shower wouldn’t have worked, I’d have shared the mattress with bedbugs and been kept up all night by the exuberant lovemaking of my next door neighbors and the drunken fighting in the streets outside.
Did I mention I would have just lost a breast to cancer? And recently split from my self-absorbed cheat of a boyfriend? And spinning my wheels in a career I no longer cared about? Oh, and my apartment would have been recently broken into, a lariat of thin rope left curled on my bed.
Welcome to the world of Rennie Wilford, small-town Canadian making an unsatisfying living as a free-lance writer in Toronto. Rennie once had hopes of a career in journalism, exposing political outrages and human rights' violations. She now writes lifestyle pieces, at times inventing fashion trends to create an assignment that will pay the rent.
Rennie’s life is a series of betrayals. Her editors, her boyfriend, her body – all out to use and abuse her. When menaced by a stranger who leaves his murder weapon as a calling card, Rennie decides it’s time to leave town for a while. She accepts an assignment – a fluff travel piece- in a flyspeck island in the Caribbean, St. Antoine. Which is experiencing a bloody revolution.
If there’s anything else that can go wrong in Rennie’s life, Atwood is certain to ferret it out and make it happen.
As a reader, you are forced to suspend empathy with Rennie. Atwood treats her cruelly, putting her in impossible situations or making her behave in ridiculous ways. It is hard not to cringe, not to wave your hands and shout “Don’t do it!” You must read passively, watching this depressed and depressing young woman crash and burn.
Crikey! I’m not painting a very pretty picture, am I? Why even read this? Because, although this story is painful, the writing is incredible. Because Atwood smashes writing conventions left and right, tossing in flashbacks that bring present-day action to a shuddering halt, by crafting a protagonist you want to shake silly, by tossing in sub-plots that illustrate the emotional crap we all haul around. Because few writers can wrap a story in - can warp a story with - satire and tragedy, and still speak so well to the truth of the human condition as Margaret Atwood.
We’re each on our own insignificant island in the middle of nowhere, fighting our bloody revolutions, aren’t we?
Bodily Harm was published in 1981. It could have been written yesterday. Rennie, version 2012, would have her laptop stolen, Wifi service on St. Antoine would be non-existent. There would still be a revolution, still be people desperate or amoral enough to use a vulnerable, hapless woman. Rennie would be faced with the same lousy circumstances and make the same lousy decisions.
Still, I'd've stayed at the better hotel
May 17, 2021
3.5 stars, rounded down.
I discovered this 1982 Margaret Atwood novel that I had not read. Imagine. Back in the 80s, I read them as fast as she released them. What I delved into was one of the most disturbing narratives and characters I have ever encountered. Renee is a third rate journalist; she writes travelogues. She has just had a mastectomy, thinks she might still be dying, has parted ways with her strange and self-centered boyfriend, and takes an assignment to write a piece on St. Antoine in the Caribbean. She is emotionally and physically compromised.
I thought Atwood had set the tale up to be about this woman’s travails dealing with her imagined loss of sexuality. That is an element, but oh my goodness, there is much more than that going on. When she arrives at this tumultuous island, there is political upheaval in the wind, as the people strive to thwart a Papa Doc kind of despotic ruler. Renee, unfortunately, arrives with the misnomer of “journalist” hanging over her and immediately is drawn into expectations and suspicions from the native population. I spent the second half of this novel wanting to scream at her “Are you crazy? What are you thinking? Don’t do it!”
Atwood has always been able to draw me in and hold me. Her style here is comic and tragic all in the same breath. She exposes the cruelty in man, the tools he uses against himself, his thirst for power, and his lack of compassion. Her women are under assault, they are being used, and they are foolishly complicit in their downfall. As Renee discovers, no one is excepted; all are vulnerable.
I discovered this 1982 Margaret Atwood novel that I had not read. Imagine. Back in the 80s, I read them as fast as she released them. What I delved into was one of the most disturbing narratives and characters I have ever encountered. Renee is a third rate journalist; she writes travelogues. She has just had a mastectomy, thinks she might still be dying, has parted ways with her strange and self-centered boyfriend, and takes an assignment to write a piece on St. Antoine in the Caribbean. She is emotionally and physically compromised.
I thought Atwood had set the tale up to be about this woman’s travails dealing with her imagined loss of sexuality. That is an element, but oh my goodness, there is much more than that going on. When she arrives at this tumultuous island, there is political upheaval in the wind, as the people strive to thwart a Papa Doc kind of despotic ruler. Renee, unfortunately, arrives with the misnomer of “journalist” hanging over her and immediately is drawn into expectations and suspicions from the native population. I spent the second half of this novel wanting to scream at her “Are you crazy? What are you thinking? Don’t do it!”
Atwood has always been able to draw me in and hold me. Her style here is comic and tragic all in the same breath. She exposes the cruelty in man, the tools he uses against himself, his thirst for power, and his lack of compassion. Her women are under assault, they are being used, and they are foolishly complicit in their downfall. As Renee discovers, no one is excepted; all are vulnerable.
December 30, 2007
Anther stinker, I’m afraid. This book is about a Canadian freelance writer who goes to the Caribbean to do a ‘fluff’ travel piece after dealing with a partial mastectomy and a break up with her boyfriend. She gets mixed up with local politics and things go from bad to worse as the country slips into chaos after a coup. Although the premise sounds interesting, the book is dreadful – not a good read!
October 19, 2009
The first Margaret Atwood book I've ever read and really not liked. She has definitely grown as an author - her imagination, the scope of her stories, and her character development have grown exponentially in her more recent books. If you're new to Atwood, I'd pass on this one and go straight to the Handmaid's Tale, Oryx and Crake, the Year of the Flood, and the Penolopiad (in that Order)!
October 21, 2009
Margaret Atwood has been my most favorite writer since I was sixteen. There's maybe ten authors in second place, many of whom (especially Cortázar) regularly rear their heads in my imagination to try to supplant Atwood's place for first, but every time I go back to Margaret, I seriously fall in love again. More than anything, I love the way that her language shifts my actual thought patterns, or at least my constantly streaming internal monologue, until it sounds like she's the one inside my head, narrating me. Is that crazy? Maybe I'm crazy. But reading even a page of Atwood's prose makes my thoughts more elegant, more intense, more literary for days at a time.
Anyway, Bodily Harm is great, of course. It covers most of her preferred themes: proto- and post-feminism, strong and complex female (and male) characters, lush settings, everything described with an accompanying (and often multi-layered) smell, sexy sex (anticipated and actual), complicated plot involving the intersection of the personal with the political – or is it the immersion of one into the other? Or the amplification by same? Whatever. This book actually got a lot more violent and dark at the end than I remembered (this is at least my fifth read, probably more), but it's Atwood Atwood Atwood, and I love her more than anyone else.
Anyway, Bodily Harm is great, of course. It covers most of her preferred themes: proto- and post-feminism, strong and complex female (and male) characters, lush settings, everything described with an accompanying (and often multi-layered) smell, sexy sex (anticipated and actual), complicated plot involving the intersection of the personal with the political – or is it the immersion of one into the other? Or the amplification by same? Whatever. This book actually got a lot more violent and dark at the end than I remembered (this is at least my fifth read, probably more), but it's Atwood Atwood Atwood, and I love her more than anyone else.
abbandonato
February 1, 2022Grande stima per Margaret Atwood ma questa lettura ha per me tutto il peso di una perdita di tempo.
Me ne dispiace ma Rennie, la protagonista, sembra costruita s'una figurina prestampata,
Abbandonata dal compagno, reduce da un tumore al seno, avvinghiata ai ricordi di un passato provinciale, fugge su un'isola caraibica. Ufficialmente deve scrivere un articolo di costume per la rivista con cui collabora, in realtà dovrebbe riscrivere la sua vita.
Lascio il libro oltre la metà e posso confermare che entrambe le cose non le riescono.
Una pioggia di stereotipi sull'ambientazione (politica corrotta, ingerenza dei paesi occidentali, povertà di base più la tragedia delle calamità naturali, traffici di vario genere..) e refusi imbarazzanti (Rennie si alza alle otto del mattino e guarda il tramonto!) mi convincono ad abbandonare senza sensi di colpa:-(
Me ne dispiace ma Rennie, la protagonista, sembra costruita s'una figurina prestampata,
Abbandonata dal compagno, reduce da un tumore al seno, avvinghiata ai ricordi di un passato provinciale, fugge su un'isola caraibica. Ufficialmente deve scrivere un articolo di costume per la rivista con cui collabora, in realtà dovrebbe riscrivere la sua vita.
Lascio il libro oltre la metà e posso confermare che entrambe le cose non le riescono.
Una pioggia di stereotipi sull'ambientazione (politica corrotta, ingerenza dei paesi occidentali, povertà di base più la tragedia delle calamità naturali, traffici di vario genere..) e refusi imbarazzanti (Rennie si alza alle otto del mattino e guarda il tramonto!) mi convincono ad abbandonare senza sensi di colpa:-(
August 26, 2016
Stupid unlikable woman who has the personality of a crotchety old woman but the naïveté of an eight year old. Maybe is around 30??? Flees the city to a tropical island and is too polite to be direct or ever say no to anyone.
Random man: let me take you on a day long tour of sights you expressed no interest in seeing!
Main character: well I hate to be rude, better go!
Random woman: pick up a box for me at customs that is definitely medicine and not a gun at all!
Main character: well I have no instinct for self preservation and I love to pity myself so ok, woe is me I have to do this.
Random drug smuggler: literally nothing
Main character: well I better sleep with him and expect him to love me even though I'm a hip lady who is above all that! Why doesn't he love me????
Random drug smuggler: get out of here. Really.
It just goes on like that and eventually it ends.
Random man: let me take you on a day long tour of sights you expressed no interest in seeing!
Main character: well I hate to be rude, better go!
Random woman: pick up a box for me at customs that is definitely medicine and not a gun at all!
Main character: well I have no instinct for self preservation and I love to pity myself so ok, woe is me I have to do this.
Random drug smuggler: literally nothing
Main character: well I better sleep with him and expect him to love me even though I'm a hip lady who is above all that! Why doesn't he love me????
Random drug smuggler: get out of here. Really.
It just goes on like that and eventually it ends.
October 25, 2019
Perhaps the most notable element in this book for me, though it may be strange to admit, is the use of different tenses. It's written mostly in the present tense and then switches to the past tense when the main character, Rennie, thinks back, and then to the past-perfect tense when there's a flashback within the 'past' sections. Perhaps I merely liked it because I felt justified over the times I've written that way and editors have told me it was confusing. Not that I consider myself a writer anywhere near Atwood's ability, so I also like that I can learn from her. But the reason I like it the most is because when the future tense is employed for the first time, nine pages from the end, it's a stylistic choice that serves the story well.
While reading, I was first reminded of Valerie Martin's Italian Fever and then, as one of the blurbs on the back says, Graham Greene -- there is certainly humor, through irony and satire, in all these authors' works, not to mention their stories of an 'innocent' in a foreign country, with their themes of both cultural and sexual politics. Then near the end I was reminded of Northanger Abbey. Though Rennie is not nearly as innocent as Catherine Morland, this is said of her as she's reading murder mysteries to distract herself: "She doesn't have much patience for the intricacies of clues and deductions." Like Catherine, and the rest of us, what Rennie sees is colored by her past experiences (or lack thereof). When the comparison popped into my head, I wondered if it was a correct one; but now that I see I referenced Northanger Abbey in my review of Italian Fever too, I'm more confident of that conclusion.
It wasn't till I was finished reading that I realized how angry Atwood is in this book. It's definitely a controlled anger, but after the black humor and satire of the beginning and middle, it comes through at the end, and there is no doubt as to what she is angry about.
While reading, I was first reminded of Valerie Martin's Italian Fever and then, as one of the blurbs on the back says, Graham Greene -- there is certainly humor, through irony and satire, in all these authors' works, not to mention their stories of an 'innocent' in a foreign country, with their themes of both cultural and sexual politics. Then near the end I was reminded of Northanger Abbey. Though Rennie is not nearly as innocent as Catherine Morland, this is said of her as she's reading murder mysteries to distract herself: "She doesn't have much patience for the intricacies of clues and deductions." Like Catherine, and the rest of us, what Rennie sees is colored by her past experiences (or lack thereof). When the comparison popped into my head, I wondered if it was a correct one; but now that I see I referenced Northanger Abbey in my review of Italian Fever too, I'm more confident of that conclusion.
It wasn't till I was finished reading that I realized how angry Atwood is in this book. It's definitely a controlled anger, but after the black humor and satire of the beginning and middle, it comes through at the end, and there is no doubt as to what she is angry about.
November 11, 2018
“…almost nobody here is who they say they are at first. They aren’t even who somebody else thinks they are. In this place you get at least three versions of everything, and if you’re lucky one of them is true. That’s if you’re lucky.”Bodily Harm tells the story of Rennie Wilford, a young journalist specializing in fashion and lifestyle pieces who accepts a ‘fun in the sun’ type assignment on the Caribbean island of St Antoine. Having struggled in recent months to cope through a difficult spell, including a life-shattering experience that is still at the forefront of her mind, she hopes a working holiday will allow her to make a break from her past and recuperate in a peaceful and stress-free environment.
It unfortunately takes little time for the naive Rennie to find herself embroiled in a deadly world of corruption, treachery and brutality where nobody is who they claim to be. From the fishy politician Dr Minnow who tells her “blood is news”, to the over-friendly Laura, and the “burnt-out Yankee” Paul, whom she suspects of smuggling dope, everyone she meets appears to be implicated in something unsavoury, and they all have an opinion about her ‘real’ reasons for being there. St Antoine, it seems, is more abode of the damned than tropical paradise.
As we have come to expect, Atwood writes with wit, irony and intelligence. Rennie’s story is delivered in fragments, some of which advance the plot while others are flashbacks to her past. Although, in my opinion, Bodily Harm isn’t one of her great novels, it is nevertheless a well-crafted, highly readable exploration of lust for sexual and political power; and the ending, despite a certain ambiguity, is far from dissatisfying.
You can read more of my reviews and other literary features at Book Jotter.
August 23, 2020
"Rennie decided that there were some things it was better not to know any more about than you had to. Surfaces, in many cases, were preferable to depths."
This, in a nutshell, is what this difficult, anxiety causing, frustrating main character named Rennie, is all about. She is a journalist, but not an investigative journalist. A fluffy journalist doing the surface pieces such as trends, lifestyles, and travel. She returns to her childhood memories throughout the novel, (growing up in a stifling, strict household with her mother and grandparents, where anything she does is punishable by being locked in the dark, creepy cellar). She can't be loud, she can't speak up -- she can only be an observer and not a participant. Therefore, Rennie becomes the lifelong observer, without depth, without a voice, but also one who doesn't really want to see. (I can't even go there about her terrible choices in men!)
After a cancer scare and a partial mastectomy, Rennie's life spirals out of her control. The shallow observer now has to deal with significant, vitally important concerns. Without divulging too much of the story, instead of confronting her health (both physical and mental) she wrangles her way into doing a travel piece and runs away to a Caribbean island. Unbeknownst to Rennie, because she doesn't do research, a revolution is about to take place. And, yup, her wrong choices continue.
I found this book difficult to rate because, of course, the writing is superb. But, the main character was so difficult to believe (astounding even.) Because of her lack of depth, I could not empathize with her -- even when the tragedy I saw coming becomes even more brutal than I imagined. How can someone like her even navigate her neighbourhood, let alone the world? Then there is that ambiguous ending! I tried to feel hopeful but I was ultimately left with a feeling of despair.
This, in a nutshell, is what this difficult, anxiety causing, frustrating main character named Rennie, is all about. She is a journalist, but not an investigative journalist. A fluffy journalist doing the surface pieces such as trends, lifestyles, and travel. She returns to her childhood memories throughout the novel, (growing up in a stifling, strict household with her mother and grandparents, where anything she does is punishable by being locked in the dark, creepy cellar). She can't be loud, she can't speak up -- she can only be an observer and not a participant. Therefore, Rennie becomes the lifelong observer, without depth, without a voice, but also one who doesn't really want to see. (I can't even go there about her terrible choices in men!)
After a cancer scare and a partial mastectomy, Rennie's life spirals out of her control. The shallow observer now has to deal with significant, vitally important concerns. Without divulging too much of the story, instead of confronting her health (both physical and mental) she wrangles her way into doing a travel piece and runs away to a Caribbean island. Unbeknownst to Rennie, because she doesn't do research, a revolution is about to take place. And, yup, her wrong choices continue.
I found this book difficult to rate because, of course, the writing is superb. But, the main character was so difficult to believe (astounding even.) Because of her lack of depth, I could not empathize with her -- even when the tragedy I saw coming becomes even more brutal than I imagined. How can someone like her even navigate her neighbourhood, let alone the world? Then there is that ambiguous ending! I tried to feel hopeful but I was ultimately left with a feeling of despair.
January 29, 2021
Hm no this wasn't for me. Didn't see the point in this book or enjoyed it
March 15, 2019
Likes: Like all of Margaret Atwood’s books, this one is brilliantly written. One of the things I admire about Atwood is that she seems to have a deep understanding of unlikeable people. Her characters aren’t heroes. The main character in Bodily Harm, Rennie, is infuriating. I wanted to step through the pages and say “Girl, no. Just stop.” She makes a series of bad choices that end with her being locked in a foreign prison.
Rennie is a slow-motion train wreck. Sometimes it’s hard to look away. Rennie recently survived cancer, a burglary, and a cheating boyfriend. To get away from it all, she visits a Caribbean island to write a fluffy travel story for a magazine. As she befriends the locals, the island paradise spirals out of control. Rennie isn’t very smart. She’s oblivious to the fact that the locals are drawing her into their violent political revolution. The reader can’t do anything but sit back and watch Rennie sink deeper into political quicksand. You know this won’t end well for her.
Dislikes: This isn’t my favorite Atwood book. She has grown a lot as a writer since Bodily Harm was published. This is one of her early novels, and it shows.
Rennie isn’t always compelling to read about. She’s very passive and has no sense of self-preservation. She allows bad things to happen to her. I found my attention wandering while I was reading because she wasn’t doing anything. Things just happen to her, and she goes along with them.
My edition of this novel was printed in 1984. I need to time-machine myself back there and kick the ass of whoever was in charge of quality control at the printer. This book was so hard to read! There are missing words, missing punctuation, weird spaces. Some of the print is so faint that it’s nearly impossible to see. It was hard to get invested in the story because each page revealed a new printing horror. How did this even happen?!
The Bottom Line: Not Atwood’s best work. If you’re a hardcore Atwood fan, then reading her early work might be interesting. If you’re not a hardcore fan, then skip this one and read her dystopias.
Do you like opinions, giveaways, and bookish nonsense?
I have a blog for that.
Rennie is a slow-motion train wreck. Sometimes it’s hard to look away. Rennie recently survived cancer, a burglary, and a cheating boyfriend. To get away from it all, she visits a Caribbean island to write a fluffy travel story for a magazine. As she befriends the locals, the island paradise spirals out of control. Rennie isn’t very smart. She’s oblivious to the fact that the locals are drawing her into their violent political revolution. The reader can’t do anything but sit back and watch Rennie sink deeper into political quicksand. You know this won’t end well for her.
“. . . the beige should not wear beige.” – Bodily Harm
Dislikes: This isn’t my favorite Atwood book. She has grown a lot as a writer since Bodily Harm was published. This is one of her early novels, and it shows.
Rennie isn’t always compelling to read about. She’s very passive and has no sense of self-preservation. She allows bad things to happen to her. I found my attention wandering while I was reading because she wasn’t doing anything. Things just happen to her, and she goes along with them.
My edition of this novel was printed in 1984. I need to time-machine myself back there and kick the ass of whoever was in charge of quality control at the printer. This book was so hard to read! There are missing words, missing punctuation, weird spaces. Some of the print is so faint that it’s nearly impossible to see. It was hard to get invested in the story because each page revealed a new printing horror. How did this even happen?!
The Bottom Line: Not Atwood’s best work. If you’re a hardcore Atwood fan, then reading her early work might be interesting. If you’re not a hardcore fan, then skip this one and read her dystopias.
Do you like opinions, giveaways, and bookish nonsense?
I have a blog for that.
June 25, 2024
'Bodily Harm' (1981) is a novel by Margaret Atwood from relatively early on in here literary career - coming as it does prior to her astonishing run of brilliant novels, Handmaid's Tale, Cat's Eye, Robber Bride, Alias Grace, The Blind Assassin and Oryx & Crake.
The premise is not ostensibly a good one - a freelance lifestyle journalist, post medical operation, post 'man trouble', is on an assignment to the (fictionalised) troubled Caribbean islands of St. Antoine and Ste. Agathe, where she finds herself with the possibility of a relationship with an attractive older man, who may or may not be a smuggler or a CIA agent.
Whilst this kind of narrative does ostensibly seem potentially very hackneyed, well trodden and could easily have resulted in a low end airport paperback, a potboiler of the worst kind, even a latter day bodice ripper... however in the adept hands of Margaret Atwood, even a younger Margaret Atwood, still yet to reach her literary prime - 'Bodily Harm' still holds together well and delivers.
Clearly this is a novel which doesn't measure up to Atwood's classics - all of which this preceded, but there's still much to enjoy here, although it does feel as if 'Bodily Harm' had been written later in her career, it would have been more fully developed, finely tuned and had more of a literary impact.
Nevertheless, 'Bodily Harm' is a very good novel, despite suffering as it inevitably does, by comparison with Atwood's best.
Well worth taking the time to read.
The premise is not ostensibly a good one - a freelance lifestyle journalist, post medical operation, post 'man trouble', is on an assignment to the (fictionalised) troubled Caribbean islands of St. Antoine and Ste. Agathe, where she finds herself with the possibility of a relationship with an attractive older man, who may or may not be a smuggler or a CIA agent.
Whilst this kind of narrative does ostensibly seem potentially very hackneyed, well trodden and could easily have resulted in a low end airport paperback, a potboiler of the worst kind, even a latter day bodice ripper... however in the adept hands of Margaret Atwood, even a younger Margaret Atwood, still yet to reach her literary prime - 'Bodily Harm' still holds together well and delivers.
Clearly this is a novel which doesn't measure up to Atwood's classics - all of which this preceded, but there's still much to enjoy here, although it does feel as if 'Bodily Harm' had been written later in her career, it would have been more fully developed, finely tuned and had more of a literary impact.
Nevertheless, 'Bodily Harm' is a very good novel, despite suffering as it inevitably does, by comparison with Atwood's best.
Well worth taking the time to read.
July 12, 2015
This one is visceral and disturbing, for me. I laughed out loud more than almost any other Atwood that I've read. But there's a dark current beneath. It's a brilliant book; an engaging and frightening read. Well balanced. Well paced. Impeccable characterizations. Lovely use of tense and mesmerizing fluctuations between past, present and future. It's abstract and straight forward. BODILY HARM combines the best experimentation and playful manipulation of form of SURFACING and BLIND ASSASSIN and the whit, insight and pitch perfect dialog of THE ROBBER BRIDE with the suspense and complexity of HANDMAID'S TALE and ORYX AND CRAKE. Great book!
December 2, 2023
I had literally never heard of this fifth Atwood novel before I spotted it on the library catalogue and decided to have a go. The fact that nobody talks about it is evidence, I think, of an overbaked plot and more successful treatment of her trademark themes in other books. Nonetheless, it was perfectly readable and had its highlights. Renata Wilford, “Rennie,” is a journalist for hire from Ontario who has recently had her life turned upside down by breast cancer and the departure of her boyfriend, Jake. She flies to the Caribbean island nation of St. Antoine to write a travel piece, coinciding with the first elections since the British left. It’s a febrile postcolonial setting of shantytowns and shortages. Rennie tries to focus on boat trips, cocktails and beach lounging, but Dr. Minnow, who she met on the plane, is determined to show her the reality of his country – cold truths that include assassination and imprisonment.
Alongside the thriller plot are the more expected literary flashbacks to Rennie’s childhood, her life with Jake, and the cancer surgery and her crush on her surgeon. Her old friend Jocasta is an amusingly punky feminist and a counterpoint to Lora, the fellow Canadian and bad girl Rennie meets in St. Antoine. There are no speech marks in the sections set in the past, and there are some passages of direct monologue from Lora recounting her abusive upbringing. I felt Atwood was stretching to make points about cultural imperialism and violence, whereas the title is more applicable to the physical threats women face from illness and misogyny:
Originally published on my blog, Bookish Beck.
Alongside the thriller plot are the more expected literary flashbacks to Rennie’s childhood, her life with Jake, and the cancer surgery and her crush on her surgeon. Her old friend Jocasta is an amusingly punky feminist and a counterpoint to Lora, the fellow Canadian and bad girl Rennie meets in St. Antoine. There are no speech marks in the sections set in the past, and there are some passages of direct monologue from Lora recounting her abusive upbringing. I felt Atwood was stretching to make points about cultural imperialism and violence, whereas the title is more applicable to the physical threats women face from illness and misogyny:
“The body, sinister twin, taking its revenge for whatever crimes the mind was supposed to have committed on it. Nothing had prepared her for her own outrage, the feeling that she’d been betrayed by a close friend. She’d given her body swimming twice a week, forbidden it junk food and cigarette smoke, allowed it a normal amount of sexual release. She’d trusted it. Why then had it turned against her?”
Originally published on my blog, Bookish Beck.
November 9, 2009
OK, this is definitely not the type of book I would normally pick up even at a library where it's free. So how did I come to read this book, you ask? Well, we'd been digging around our place and found a hidden cache of books in the basement--gasp! Books I hadn't looked at in years or even remembered I had. Don't even remember how I obtained some of them, and I assume I had this because I had read "The Handmaid's Tale" and thought I'd read something else by Atwood. I've been cranky about figuring out what "mood" I am in--I couldn't figure out what to read next, so I said, "Fine! I'll read *this* then!"
So: the main character has just had surgery/lumpectomy for breast cancer and having troubles with her boyfriend, so she goes off to some obscure Caribbean island with the intention of writing a travel piece for a magazine. She ends up enmeshed with the local politics and it's mostly not good. But apparently through it all she ends up healed somehow--possibly a shot in the arm at reality?
I ended up reading it very quickly and had a hard time putting it down, which is always a good sign. It was satisfying and had some cool symbolism with the hands that I liked.
I know my reviews are stinky, but I'm not getting paid for them, now am I?
So: the main character has just had surgery/lumpectomy for breast cancer and having troubles with her boyfriend, so she goes off to some obscure Caribbean island with the intention of writing a travel piece for a magazine. She ends up enmeshed with the local politics and it's mostly not good. But apparently through it all she ends up healed somehow--possibly a shot in the arm at reality?
I ended up reading it very quickly and had a hard time putting it down, which is always a good sign. It was satisfying and had some cool symbolism with the hands that I liked.
I know my reviews are stinky, but I'm not getting paid for them, now am I?
October 8, 2022
Rennie Wilford została okaleczona, ale dzięki temu żyje. Diagnoza: nowotwór złośliwy piersi, leczenie: amputacja. Jak trudne może to być dla kobiety, wiedzą tylko te, które to przeżyły. Próbując jakoś poradzić sobie z tą sytuacją, dziennikarka wyjeżdża na karaibską wyspę, gdzie ma zbierać materiały do swojego kolejnego artykułu. Luźna wycieczka przerodzi się jednak w coś zupełnie innego.
Spodziewałam się „po prostu” psychologicznej książki o radzeniu sobie z pooperacyjną traumą, na co Margaret Atwood – nope, zrobimy tu sobie sensacyjno-polityczną jatkę! Kolejny raz jestem totalnie zaskoczona i po przeczytaniu ostatniej strony pomyślałam – co to w ogóle było? A może to właśnie stanowi zaletę tego typu literatury? Tym razem jednak nie jestem do końca przekonana.
5/10
Spodziewałam się „po prostu” psychologicznej książki o radzeniu sobie z pooperacyjną traumą, na co Margaret Atwood – nope, zrobimy tu sobie sensacyjno-polityczną jatkę! Kolejny raz jestem totalnie zaskoczona i po przeczytaniu ostatniej strony pomyślałam – co to w ogóle było? A może to właśnie stanowi zaletę tego typu literatury? Tym razem jednak nie jestem do końca przekonana.
5/10
June 5, 2011
Though I've really liked other Atwood books in the past (Alias Grace, The Handmaid's Tale) I wasn't a fan of this book at all. As I read, I felt like I was trapped inside a cheesy romance novel while a much better novel was going on all around it.
In the book, the protagonist, Remmie Wilford, retreats to a Caribbean Island. She's there to write a light travel piece and to emotionally regroup after undergoing a partial mastectomy and also losing her lover. But, as it turns out, all the "good islands" have been taken, so she gets sent off-the-beaten-path to a less than picturesque island which has crappy hotels, crappy restaurants, crappy beaches and no real interest in attracting tourists-- and which also happens to be in the midst of a political upheaval.
All sounds interesting enough, does it not? And it would have been if we hadn't been forced to experience it all through the lens of a self-absorbed, unpleasant woman who seems to have no interests whatsoever other than finding a man to love her. I kept wondering throughout if I was meant to hate her as much as I did, or if I was supposed to actually find her witty and sympathetic. I didn't.
I'll admit, the book does offer some pay-off in the end (in the last 50 pages or so,) but to get to it you have to wade through page after page of tedious whining about "men, men, men and why they don't love me." If you like reading about women whining constantly about men, this may be the book for you. Otherwise, I'd skip it.
In the book, the protagonist, Remmie Wilford, retreats to a Caribbean Island. She's there to write a light travel piece and to emotionally regroup after undergoing a partial mastectomy and also losing her lover. But, as it turns out, all the "good islands" have been taken, so she gets sent off-the-beaten-path to a less than picturesque island which has crappy hotels, crappy restaurants, crappy beaches and no real interest in attracting tourists-- and which also happens to be in the midst of a political upheaval.
All sounds interesting enough, does it not? And it would have been if we hadn't been forced to experience it all through the lens of a self-absorbed, unpleasant woman who seems to have no interests whatsoever other than finding a man to love her. I kept wondering throughout if I was meant to hate her as much as I did, or if I was supposed to actually find her witty and sympathetic. I didn't.
I'll admit, the book does offer some pay-off in the end (in the last 50 pages or so,) but to get to it you have to wade through page after page of tedious whining about "men, men, men and why they don't love me." If you like reading about women whining constantly about men, this may be the book for you. Otherwise, I'd skip it.
July 8, 2024
An intense, dark tale from Margaret Atwood of an unreliable, self-destructive narrator. I understand why so many people found it disappointing as it really doesn't resolve itself but I think that is what I like about it. We start in the middle of the story and get the story in pieces then we leave it before the conclusion. This is, however, what I like about it. The story is daring and intriguing. I dreamed about it after finishing and am still thinking about what the meaning of the story is. Isn't that the best kind of story?
July 1, 2019
Trochu osobnej drámy, trochu lásky, trochu tragédie, trochu trilleru, trochu akčnosti, ale pokope to nedrží, netuším, čo je vlastne ústredný motív. Že mala byť šťastná, že prežila rakovinu? Že si vyberala zvláštnych mužov? Zaujímavé, že je tu motív ostrova, spomínania aj určitého znovuzrodenia ako vo Surfacing, ale spracovanie je oveľa slabšie.
March 10, 2019
Not a light read. Well written (of course) but damn, Margaret.
March 27, 2021
When I started this project to read all of Margaret Atwood’s 17 novels, I was expecting a slow start then a gradual build up. Since I thought her third novel, Lady Oracle to be fantastic, I mistakenly believed that each succeeding novel would top that. I guess I was wrong as I didn’t like Life Before Man and Bodily Harm, her 5th novel, did not impress me much. I do admire her for trying out different things though.
Bodily Harm is a feminist political thriller. There are boat chases, guns, drug smuggling, moments of romance, prisons, corrupt politicians; it’s all there. In one way you could call it a high octane adventure novel but Atwood does go deeper,
The main protagonist is journalist, Rennie: she is a cancer survivor and has had two major relationships. One is with the sado-masochistic, sexist Jake, who treats her as an object. The other is with her doctor Daniel, who loves her but is committed to his role as an upstanding family man. Finally she knows that she has to escape when she finds out that her house has been broken into and the person leaves a rope on her bed. Luckily, she has been sent to write an article praising a Caribbean island. Little does she know that life over there will be equally complex.
Bodily Harm is about masculine dominance. All the males in the book have some sort of power over Rennie: for Jake it’s sexual, Daniel is medical, Paul, a man Rennie strikes a relationship with in the Caribbean coerces her to join him on adventures. Then there’s the three male politicians who feed off on power from the country. Throughout the book Rennie is called sweet and naive, even by the 2 strongest female protagonists in the book. However, the events change her outlook on life and she does become stronger.
Did I like the book? despite multilayered plot, I found the prose to be a bit flat. I struggled a lot to be interested in the characters and situations but I did get bored in places. Personally I thought the parts taking place in Toronto and Rennie’s change to be the more interesting sections. Even the writing was okish, bordering on the functional at times. Definitely not a dud but I do know that there are better Atwood novels. In fact, the next one will e the one that made her an author of worldwide renown.
Bodily Harm is a feminist political thriller. There are boat chases, guns, drug smuggling, moments of romance, prisons, corrupt politicians; it’s all there. In one way you could call it a high octane adventure novel but Atwood does go deeper,
The main protagonist is journalist, Rennie: she is a cancer survivor and has had two major relationships. One is with the sado-masochistic, sexist Jake, who treats her as an object. The other is with her doctor Daniel, who loves her but is committed to his role as an upstanding family man. Finally she knows that she has to escape when she finds out that her house has been broken into and the person leaves a rope on her bed. Luckily, she has been sent to write an article praising a Caribbean island. Little does she know that life over there will be equally complex.
Bodily Harm is about masculine dominance. All the males in the book have some sort of power over Rennie: for Jake it’s sexual, Daniel is medical, Paul, a man Rennie strikes a relationship with in the Caribbean coerces her to join him on adventures. Then there’s the three male politicians who feed off on power from the country. Throughout the book Rennie is called sweet and naive, even by the 2 strongest female protagonists in the book. However, the events change her outlook on life and she does become stronger.
Did I like the book? despite multilayered plot, I found the prose to be a bit flat. I struggled a lot to be interested in the characters and situations but I did get bored in places. Personally I thought the parts taking place in Toronto and Rennie’s change to be the more interesting sections. Even the writing was okish, bordering on the functional at times. Definitely not a dud but I do know that there are better Atwood novels. In fact, the next one will e the one that made her an author of worldwide renown.
September 8, 2016
Pretty underwhelming. This was my last Atwood novel, and it was written in the middle of some of my favorites (Lady Oracle, Life Before Man, Handmaid's, and Cats Eye)- but the protagonist was so disappointing. I guess she was supposed to be depressed, but literally ALL Atwood's protagonists are, and there's usually much more grace to them. She was just...boring.
Also, she's a fucking journalist and gets stuck in the middle of an insurrection and doesn't even think once "I could write about this"? Maybe it's supposed to be implied, but it really doesn't come through in her attitude.
Also, let's not even get into the paternalism here. The island Rennie goes to isn't named, it's some vague American island that has the same general problems as all the other ones, and there's a lot of white girl complaining here, which I actually think is a recurring problem in Atwood's writing.
All this said, it's still Margaret Atwood and she's still really great. I enjoyed the sentences, not the paragraphs, if you want to put it that way. I would not recommend this book. Read Cat's Eye or Blind Assassin. This is my third-least favorite. The only ones worse are Surfacing and The Heart Goes Last.
Also, she's a fucking journalist and gets stuck in the middle of an insurrection and doesn't even think once "I could write about this"? Maybe it's supposed to be implied, but it really doesn't come through in her attitude.
Also, let's not even get into the paternalism here. The island Rennie goes to isn't named, it's some vague American island that has the same general problems as all the other ones, and there's a lot of white girl complaining here, which I actually think is a recurring problem in Atwood's writing.
All this said, it's still Margaret Atwood and she's still really great. I enjoyed the sentences, not the paragraphs, if you want to put it that way. I would not recommend this book. Read Cat's Eye or Blind Assassin. This is my third-least favorite. The only ones worse are Surfacing and The Heart Goes Last.
November 29, 2022
An interesting story...although I prefer Atwood's sci-fi novels, Oryx and Crake and The Handmaid's tale, to her character studies it is still a good read. I enjoyed it very much.
Some memorable quotes:
"Life is just another sexually transmitted social disease."
"How many people from Griswold does it take to change a light bulb? The whole town. One to change it, ten to snoop, and the rest of them to discuss how sinful you are for wanting more light.
Or: How many people from Griswold does it take to change a light bulb? None. If the light goes out it's the will of God, and who are you to complain?"
Some memorable quotes:
"Life is just another sexually transmitted social disease."
"How many people from Griswold does it take to change a light bulb? The whole town. One to change it, ten to snoop, and the rest of them to discuss how sinful you are for wanting more light.
Or: How many people from Griswold does it take to change a light bulb? None. If the light goes out it's the will of God, and who are you to complain?"
October 30, 2022
Rennie è una giornalista canadese, che si tiene ben distante dallo scrivere di politica e sociale e si occupa di ciò che definisce "lifestyle": viaggi, tendenze, moda.
Si trova improvvisamente a sentirsi vuota dopo la diagnosi di un tumore, che rimette in discussione le sue relazioni ed attiva il terrore di vivere una "non vita", limitata nel carattere e nel tempo.
E' l'elaborazione di un itinerario di viaggio per il giornale per cui lavora a portarla in una piccola isola dei Caraibi, dove entra in contatto con una realtà affatto paradisiaca. Contesa tra diverse verità, tutte che la vogliono coinvolgere in una realtà politica che svela continue manovre di convenienza dei governi occidentali, compreso il Canada da cui proviene, Rennie passa invece il suo tempo ad indagarsi, nella dimensione degli affetti di un uomo, fino a che non viene catapultata a forza nella violenza del potere.
Non tra i migliori libri di Atwood. Ben riesce a rendere la saturazione del dolore individualista e lo strato di indifferenza verso la dimensione di urgenza collettiva. Funziona però forse peggio oggi di quando è stato scritto, complice la proliferazione, in particolare nelle serie tv, di protagonisti anti-eroe, di difficile empatizzazione, ma affascinanti.
Rennie manca di questa caratteristica, suona spesso piana confrontata ai personaggi di cui si circonda, sicchè diventa difficile, a tratti, leggere il libro dal suo punto di vista.
Si trova improvvisamente a sentirsi vuota dopo la diagnosi di un tumore, che rimette in discussione le sue relazioni ed attiva il terrore di vivere una "non vita", limitata nel carattere e nel tempo.
E' l'elaborazione di un itinerario di viaggio per il giornale per cui lavora a portarla in una piccola isola dei Caraibi, dove entra in contatto con una realtà affatto paradisiaca. Contesa tra diverse verità, tutte che la vogliono coinvolgere in una realtà politica che svela continue manovre di convenienza dei governi occidentali, compreso il Canada da cui proviene, Rennie passa invece il suo tempo ad indagarsi, nella dimensione degli affetti di un uomo, fino a che non viene catapultata a forza nella violenza del potere.
Non tra i migliori libri di Atwood. Ben riesce a rendere la saturazione del dolore individualista e lo strato di indifferenza verso la dimensione di urgenza collettiva. Funziona però forse peggio oggi di quando è stato scritto, complice la proliferazione, in particolare nelle serie tv, di protagonisti anti-eroe, di difficile empatizzazione, ma affascinanti.
Rennie manca di questa caratteristica, suona spesso piana confrontata ai personaggi di cui si circonda, sicchè diventa difficile, a tratti, leggere il libro dal suo punto di vista.
June 29, 2013
I mean, Atwood is Atwood, right? Then again, some of her early books are rough going, for various reasons. Edible Woman is too long; Lady Oracle, ditto; even Surfacing (which is, I think, the turning point in her novel career) feels a bit like a partly successful experiment.
Bodily Harm is likewise bizarre for her - sort of as if Atwood had written Didion's "A Book of Common Prayer" - weird cipher woman character trying to escape her history ventures into a fictionalized and v dangerous Caribbean island, where political intrigue and sexual tension ensue. Seriously, the resemblances between the novels can't be accidental, right? Anyway, it's a geographic anomaly for Atwood, but the stock of her oeuvre remains: the tight, biting style; the female protagonist at a moment of paralysis in her life; the sense of claustrophobia; so forth. It's a good book, but by no means her best work, and for some reason, I galloped through the first 200 pages, and took 2 months to finish the other 100, so I'm bringing it down to 3 stars overall. But v interesting to see her explore a different kind of colonialism and political tow - just seems to be slightly out of grasp.
Bodily Harm is likewise bizarre for her - sort of as if Atwood had written Didion's "A Book of Common Prayer" - weird cipher woman character trying to escape her history ventures into a fictionalized and v dangerous Caribbean island, where political intrigue and sexual tension ensue. Seriously, the resemblances between the novels can't be accidental, right? Anyway, it's a geographic anomaly for Atwood, but the stock of her oeuvre remains: the tight, biting style; the female protagonist at a moment of paralysis in her life; the sense of claustrophobia; so forth. It's a good book, but by no means her best work, and for some reason, I galloped through the first 200 pages, and took 2 months to finish the other 100, so I'm bringing it down to 3 stars overall. But v interesting to see her explore a different kind of colonialism and political tow - just seems to be slightly out of grasp.
March 26, 2024
beautifully written but lacked focused. u can tell that this was one of her earlier works. never really got super into it. i feel like it had so much potential but just didn’t go anywhere interesting. will forever love atwood tho 🩷
December 20, 2022
definito “comico, satirico, implacabile e terrificante”, per me questo libro è semplicemente ridicolo e imbarazzante.
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