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Life Before Man
Life Before Man explores the lives of three people imprisoned by walls of their own construction and in thrall to the tragicomedy we call love.
Elizabeth, with her controlled sensuality and suppressed rage, has just lost her latest lover to suicide. Nate, her gentle, indecisive husband, is planning to leave her for Lesje, a perennial innocent who prefers dinosaurs to men. Hanging over them all is the ghost of Elizabeth's dead lover, and the dizzying threat of three lives careening inevitably towards the same climax.
314 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 29, 1979
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8595 people want to read
About the author
Margaret Atwood
668 books90k 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 - 30 of 638 reviews
April 21, 2010
The point of this novel is lost on me. Am I not sophisticated enough to understand it? Or is it just pretentiously pointless? I don't know...
At the center of "Life Before Man" is a married couple. Elizabeth is an administrative worker at a historical museum, Nate is an ex-lawyer turned wood toy maker. The two have been together for over 10 years, they have 2 children, but their marriage is a sham. Elizabeth has been through a string of lovers and encourages her husband to do the same - find lovers on the side, but only the type of lovers that guarantees she ultimately has him for herself. The two go on like this for a while, until Elizabeth's latest lover commits suicide. She is depressed and consumed by her own regrets and misery and temporarily fails to see that Nate is in love again. His new flame is Elizabeth's co-worker - Lesja, a young, naive woman, who is more interested in her dinosaur fossils than real people. Lesja and Nate soon become lovers, but Lesja continues living with her boyfriend William. When Elizabeth wakes up from her depressed stupor and finds out that her husband's new lover is a threat to her marriage (Nate is taken by Lesja enough to be willing to move out), she decides to stir things up - not only does she make William her next lover, she also reveals to him that Lesja is cheating on him. A lot of of lukewarm drama follows...
While on the surface "Life Before Man" seems like a moderately interesting tale of an unhappy marriage and cheating, the book is not really as great as this short summary might imply. The characters, while meticulously established and analyzed by Atwood, are hard to relate to and extremely unlikable - Elizabeth, manipulative and greedy, Nate - an indecisive loser, Lesja - an insecure doormat. Their trials and tribulations are not compelling. Their pointless and unhappy lives are uninteresting. The book synopsis promises a dramatic climax, there is none. "Life Before Man" is pretty much a sad, depressing novel about unhappy, unlikable, selfish, and at times suicidal people who do nothing to make their lives better, choosing instead to carry on their miserable existence.
I learned nothing from this book, I felt nothing for the characters. What was the point of this novel?
At the center of "Life Before Man" is a married couple. Elizabeth is an administrative worker at a historical museum, Nate is an ex-lawyer turned wood toy maker. The two have been together for over 10 years, they have 2 children, but their marriage is a sham. Elizabeth has been through a string of lovers and encourages her husband to do the same - find lovers on the side, but only the type of lovers that guarantees she ultimately has him for herself. The two go on like this for a while, until Elizabeth's latest lover commits suicide. She is depressed and consumed by her own regrets and misery and temporarily fails to see that Nate is in love again. His new flame is Elizabeth's co-worker - Lesja, a young, naive woman, who is more interested in her dinosaur fossils than real people. Lesja and Nate soon become lovers, but Lesja continues living with her boyfriend William. When Elizabeth wakes up from her depressed stupor and finds out that her husband's new lover is a threat to her marriage (Nate is taken by Lesja enough to be willing to move out), she decides to stir things up - not only does she make William her next lover, she also reveals to him that Lesja is cheating on him. A lot of of lukewarm drama follows...
While on the surface "Life Before Man" seems like a moderately interesting tale of an unhappy marriage and cheating, the book is not really as great as this short summary might imply. The characters, while meticulously established and analyzed by Atwood, are hard to relate to and extremely unlikable - Elizabeth, manipulative and greedy, Nate - an indecisive loser, Lesja - an insecure doormat. Their trials and tribulations are not compelling. Their pointless and unhappy lives are uninteresting. The book synopsis promises a dramatic climax, there is none. "Life Before Man" is pretty much a sad, depressing novel about unhappy, unlikable, selfish, and at times suicidal people who do nothing to make their lives better, choosing instead to carry on their miserable existence.
I learned nothing from this book, I felt nothing for the characters. What was the point of this novel?
March 4, 2021
Another borrowed book, which I read because Atwood's novels are always interesting. This is one of her quieter books, an exploration of a triangular relationship between Elizabeth and Nate, a married couple with two children whose marriage is failing but held together fairly amicably for the sake of the children, and Lesje, a rather naive young paleontologist and specialist in dinosaur bones.
The chapters alternate between these three perspectives in a mostly chronological sequence over a period of a couple of years. Elizabeth works in a more senior role in the same museum as Lesje, and Nate is just about scraping a living making wooden toys after abandoning a career in law.
At the start Elizabeth is recovering from the suicide of her lover and work colleague Chris, and Nate is in the process of ending another relationship with Martha, while Lesje is living with her partner William.
What plot there is follows Nate's relationship with Lesje to the point where he has moved in with her and gone back to working in the law firm, but none of them are really happy or fulfilled. So it is quite a low-key and subtle novel, but there is plenty of room for acute observation and a degree of wry humour, and it never felt like a chore to read.
The chapters alternate between these three perspectives in a mostly chronological sequence over a period of a couple of years. Elizabeth works in a more senior role in the same museum as Lesje, and Nate is just about scraping a living making wooden toys after abandoning a career in law.
At the start Elizabeth is recovering from the suicide of her lover and work colleague Chris, and Nate is in the process of ending another relationship with Martha, while Lesje is living with her partner William.
What plot there is follows Nate's relationship with Lesje to the point where he has moved in with her and gone back to working in the law firm, but none of them are really happy or fulfilled. So it is quite a low-key and subtle novel, but there is plenty of room for acute observation and a degree of wry humour, and it never felt like a chore to read.
April 25, 2013
Life Before Man by Margaret Atwood is a thoroughly disturbing read. It is beautifully written and imaginatively constructed. The prose is a delight, as are insights into character and comments on contemporary life which, in Life Before Man, happens around mid-1970s Toronto. What is disturbing about this tale of the eternal triangle, the love triangle, of course, is that these people seem to be imprisoned by the inevitable. Theirs, by the way, is less of a triangle than a dodecagon. They all seem to be quite prolific in their pursuit of the attainable. They are also reminiscent of people trying to break out from their own limitations, but who remain doomed to repeat their accustomed mistakes. Intervention might possibly break the cycle, but this would appear to be an imagination beyond where anyone lives. And any interruption to the apparently inevitable would surely just recreate circumstances that would ensure reversion to type.
Lesje (pronounced Lashia) is in one relationship with William and another with fossils. Sometimes she becomes confused as to which is which. She and William are not married. This may or may not have significance, depending on the moral stance you take on contemporary ideas of the permissive. In fact Lesje is espoused to her work in the palaeontology section of the museum where she is employed, along with, if not exactly alongside, other members of the plot. Lesje is a slight figure, small breasted and thin, but she seems to punch above her weight intellectually and also physically, when she finds what she wants.
Elizabeth is married to Nate. They have two children and what was called at the time an “open” relationship, that in reality is about as open as a deceitful closed door. Being open for them, appears to require them not to lie openly about how much they are deceiving one another.
Superficially Elizabeth appears very confident. She seems to want to call the shots, but often finds that she has not only run out of ammunition, but also that she has become the target. When we reassemble her affairs – mostly finished – and her unhappy childhood shared with a demanding sister and a foster mother called Auntie Muriel, we can start to reconstruct the miasma inside her head, the mess that apparently tries to recreate itself in most aspects of her life.
Nate, Elizabeth’s nattily named husband, is sometimes a gangling fool, often clumsy and inept. At other times he knows precisely what to do with his tools and gets the job done, usually to the delight of all concerned. He certainly seems to string the ladies along. Lesje becomes the latest. The timing seems doubly crass and insensitive, especially because Elizabeth’s recently rejected, Chris, has just responded to change by blowing his brains out with a shotgun. A tale of everyday folk, this…
It seems that these lives become simultaneously a form of torture and masochism. For these participants, it also seems to work, depending on which side of the transaction anyone wants to be. The purpose of existence seems to be the seeking of pleasure in order to inflict pain, both on oneself and on others. Elizabeth and Nate’s children will grow up to reproduce the pattern, because it will be all they have known. And eventually, of course, they are destined to be passed around like so much chattel.
Lesje likes to have everything catalogued, neatly labelled and filed away in its box for future reference. It’s a tendency that is as unlike the lives of these people that it even becomes rather comic.
Life Before Man is a truly imaginative title. It may refer to Lesje’s dinosaur fossils. It may refer to the women, who indeed may have envisaged a life before encountering their men. It may also be simply human life, all of it, laid before us, all of us.
Whatever the slant, Life Before Man intrigues, excites and illuminates all at the same time. Margaret Atwood’s perceptions and ability to sum up the human condition at the flick of a phrase are uncanny. There is also a hint of derision, a suggestion that these people may not only be their own worst enemies, but everyone else’s as well. Perhaps Life Before Man was thus a relatively privileged state. We wouldn’t know, of course, because we are what we have become. All else is fossil.
Lesje (pronounced Lashia) is in one relationship with William and another with fossils. Sometimes she becomes confused as to which is which. She and William are not married. This may or may not have significance, depending on the moral stance you take on contemporary ideas of the permissive. In fact Lesje is espoused to her work in the palaeontology section of the museum where she is employed, along with, if not exactly alongside, other members of the plot. Lesje is a slight figure, small breasted and thin, but she seems to punch above her weight intellectually and also physically, when she finds what she wants.
Elizabeth is married to Nate. They have two children and what was called at the time an “open” relationship, that in reality is about as open as a deceitful closed door. Being open for them, appears to require them not to lie openly about how much they are deceiving one another.
Superficially Elizabeth appears very confident. She seems to want to call the shots, but often finds that she has not only run out of ammunition, but also that she has become the target. When we reassemble her affairs – mostly finished – and her unhappy childhood shared with a demanding sister and a foster mother called Auntie Muriel, we can start to reconstruct the miasma inside her head, the mess that apparently tries to recreate itself in most aspects of her life.
Nate, Elizabeth’s nattily named husband, is sometimes a gangling fool, often clumsy and inept. At other times he knows precisely what to do with his tools and gets the job done, usually to the delight of all concerned. He certainly seems to string the ladies along. Lesje becomes the latest. The timing seems doubly crass and insensitive, especially because Elizabeth’s recently rejected, Chris, has just responded to change by blowing his brains out with a shotgun. A tale of everyday folk, this…
It seems that these lives become simultaneously a form of torture and masochism. For these participants, it also seems to work, depending on which side of the transaction anyone wants to be. The purpose of existence seems to be the seeking of pleasure in order to inflict pain, both on oneself and on others. Elizabeth and Nate’s children will grow up to reproduce the pattern, because it will be all they have known. And eventually, of course, they are destined to be passed around like so much chattel.
Lesje likes to have everything catalogued, neatly labelled and filed away in its box for future reference. It’s a tendency that is as unlike the lives of these people that it even becomes rather comic.
Life Before Man is a truly imaginative title. It may refer to Lesje’s dinosaur fossils. It may refer to the women, who indeed may have envisaged a life before encountering their men. It may also be simply human life, all of it, laid before us, all of us.
Whatever the slant, Life Before Man intrigues, excites and illuminates all at the same time. Margaret Atwood’s perceptions and ability to sum up the human condition at the flick of a phrase are uncanny. There is also a hint of derision, a suggestion that these people may not only be their own worst enemies, but everyone else’s as well. Perhaps Life Before Man was thus a relatively privileged state. We wouldn’t know, of course, because we are what we have become. All else is fossil.
September 2, 2014
Re-read
I can see myself reading it at the first time. Confused and rather belligerent it was such a relief to read how other people (albeit imaginary) could make such a hash of their lifes. My rather manic older review made me want to pat my old self on the head and tell her everything will turn out fine.
Reading it in a much calm frame of mind and with more self confidence, I still love Atwood's writing. Only now I can see and think more of the horrible tangled mess and nuances of its destruction. And I've realized that I've reached an age where "realistic" story book character with life scars are actually of the same age with me or even younger (face palm).
I suppose sometime people just have a bound that can't be broken. It's not necessarily love or hate, it's just that some people (dare I say destined?) are stuck to you. Elizabeth and her aunt, Elizabeth and Nate, like Tess and Alec in Tess of the d'Urbervilles are stuck together. Bad news for people who got stuck between them; with foreseeable collateral damage in the future.
I've also had another thinking of Lesje's dinosaur world and the nature of illusion. How relationship between people often times hang only on an illusion of how we see someone or how someone sees us. Lesje hit the problem in the head when she realized that the reason of her relationship with Nate is because she's addicted on how Nate sees her. Lesje is addicted of being seen as this different, much beautiful and alluring creature on Nate's eyes. I wonder if disillusionment and the-opening-of-eye is not an overrated thing. Why not living in a world before man, surrounded by dinosaur and lush vegetation; it's only a small step away from living with our vision of other people.
I wished Atwood would write more of this stuff rather than her popular sci-fi.
------------------------
This book need to be read in a right timing. For those who aren't lucky enough to catch it at the right time of their life, they will be dissapointed by the lack of plot. This is no Oryx & Crake or Year of the Flood. It dwells so much on the small nuances of feeling you would scream for it to get on.
Fortunately, this one is exactly right for the current me. I was avoiding love-happy-ending-hero like a plague and stumbled on the title Life Before Man & decided that should be a good enough for me. After all, it's Atwood, and if someone can teach me about that life,it would be her.
I had my doubt. Reading a few pages I was afraid that it would be too painful, but I'm so glad I continued reading.
Yes, it is painful. But it's also beautiful in unbeautiful untidy messy way. It's LIFE. It's showing the complication of human bond and relationship. Husband and wife, mother daughter, mistress, friend, colleague and that shadow of the past lover at the corner. It's messy, everyone stumbles, fell down, hurt each other, trying to control one another. Sometimes I wished I could be Elizabeth, sometimes I just want to hit her on the head. I also wished I could walk alongside Lesje in her dinosaur-filled world.…
Then there's this underlaying sadness of being alone. We are all alone in this world, no matter what the illusion showed. I wished I could make it different. I wished I could tell that someone to beware of the illusion. I wished I could convince myself that I'll be fine being alone. So many wishes, here's another one. I wished I could take his hand and be alone together.
Going back to the book it ends with the three of them continuing their lonely life. I will also continue mine knowing millions others, humans, just a dot in the life history of the world, walk beside me.
I can see myself reading it at the first time. Confused and rather belligerent it was such a relief to read how other people (albeit imaginary) could make such a hash of their lifes. My rather manic older review made me want to pat my old self on the head and tell her everything will turn out fine.
Reading it in a much calm frame of mind and with more self confidence, I still love Atwood's writing. Only now I can see and think more of the horrible tangled mess and nuances of its destruction. And I've realized that I've reached an age where "realistic" story book character with life scars are actually of the same age with me or even younger (face palm).
I suppose sometime people just have a bound that can't be broken. It's not necessarily love or hate, it's just that some people (dare I say destined?) are stuck to you. Elizabeth and her aunt, Elizabeth and Nate, like Tess and Alec in Tess of the d'Urbervilles are stuck together. Bad news for people who got stuck between them; with foreseeable collateral damage in the future.
I've also had another thinking of Lesje's dinosaur world and the nature of illusion. How relationship between people often times hang only on an illusion of how we see someone or how someone sees us. Lesje hit the problem in the head when she realized that the reason of her relationship with Nate is because she's addicted on how Nate sees her. Lesje is addicted of being seen as this different, much beautiful and alluring creature on Nate's eyes. I wonder if disillusionment and the-opening-of-eye is not an overrated thing. Why not living in a world before man, surrounded by dinosaur and lush vegetation; it's only a small step away from living with our vision of other people.
I wished Atwood would write more of this stuff rather than her popular sci-fi.
------------------------
This book need to be read in a right timing. For those who aren't lucky enough to catch it at the right time of their life, they will be dissapointed by the lack of plot. This is no Oryx & Crake or Year of the Flood. It dwells so much on the small nuances of feeling you would scream for it to get on.
Fortunately, this one is exactly right for the current me. I was avoiding love-happy-ending-hero like a plague and stumbled on the title Life Before Man & decided that should be a good enough for me. After all, it's Atwood, and if someone can teach me about that life,it would be her.
I had my doubt. Reading a few pages I was afraid that it would be too painful, but I'm so glad I continued reading.
Yes, it is painful. But it's also beautiful in unbeautiful untidy messy way. It's LIFE. It's showing the complication of human bond and relationship. Husband and wife, mother daughter, mistress, friend, colleague and that shadow of the past lover at the corner. It's messy, everyone stumbles, fell down, hurt each other, trying to control one another. Sometimes I wished I could be Elizabeth, sometimes I just want to hit her on the head. I also wished I could walk alongside Lesje in her dinosaur-filled world.…
Then there's this underlaying sadness of being alone. We are all alone in this world, no matter what the illusion showed. I wished I could make it different. I wished I could tell that someone to beware of the illusion. I wished I could convince myself that I'll be fine being alone. So many wishes, here's another one. I wished I could take his hand and be alone together.
Going back to the book it ends with the three of them continuing their lonely life. I will also continue mine knowing millions others, humans, just a dot in the life history of the world, walk beside me.
February 7, 2019
So good in every eye you look.
December 17, 2018
This is the most indulgent, most subversive portrayal of swinging and infidelity there probably is. Brilliant writing, brilliant pacing and characterization. None of the characters are cardboard, they are each multilayered and greatly flawed. Making for incredible drama and crises of confidence. This is a marvel.
September 6, 2018
I really don't know how I feel about this book. On the one hand, there is Atwood's beautiful style and sentences, her wonderful human poetry, the novel is multi-perspective, which I always like. But I didn't actually care for any of the main characters, they seemed like vessels to me, vessels for human thought, but not really someone to connect to. Maybe that was the point, because human isolation and loneliness is a big theme of this book. But, regardless of the non-event plot and a weird, somewhat unfinished ending, it's still Atwood, and her books haunt you way after reading. I think this soft-burning one will as well.
October 25, 2024
'Life Before Man' is Margaret Atwood's fourth novel (published in 1979).
This time around, Atwood tells us the story of Elizabeth, Nate and Lesje and to a lesser extent Chris (although mainly in absentia).
It's a story of collapsing relationships, extra marital affairs, complex relationships and equally complex separations.
This is Atwood now really getting into her stride as a great writer, still not at her zenith, but decidedly on her way there. 'Life Before' is extremely well conceived and written - it's told by way of very short chapters, each from the point of view of one of the characters, each one dated and generally sequencially in date.
Every chapter, and this is testament to the standard of the writing, feels almost like a standalone short story in it's own right.
'Life Before Man' I suspect is often overlooked by readers of Margaret Atwood - which is something that it should most definitely not be.
Not classic Atwood - but well on it's way.
This time around, Atwood tells us the story of Elizabeth, Nate and Lesje and to a lesser extent Chris (although mainly in absentia).
It's a story of collapsing relationships, extra marital affairs, complex relationships and equally complex separations.
This is Atwood now really getting into her stride as a great writer, still not at her zenith, but decidedly on her way there. 'Life Before' is extremely well conceived and written - it's told by way of very short chapters, each from the point of view of one of the characters, each one dated and generally sequencially in date.
Every chapter, and this is testament to the standard of the writing, feels almost like a standalone short story in it's own right.
'Life Before Man' I suspect is often overlooked by readers of Margaret Atwood - which is something that it should most definitely not be.
Not classic Atwood - but well on it's way.
September 28, 2018
Exquisitely written, but less engaging than some of her other books.
Margaret Atwood is one of my favourite books. In fact, I think Oryx and Crake is my favourite novel of all time, and The Blind Assassin is definitely Top 5. So when I spotted this tome in a charity shop, I swooped upon it with great eagerness.
I'm presuming it's one of her earlier ones, because it has that sort of feel about it - it displays her incredible attention to detail and use of symbolism, but doesn't have the sophistication or refinement of some of her other works.
Basically, it focuses on Elizabeth, a languorous woman who doesn't do much apart from mope around the house and think about bowls and things like that, Nate, who is with Elizabeth but fancies Lesje, and Lesje herself, who is a dinosaur expert.
There were some moments of outstanding writing here. The rape scenes, though disturbing to read, challenge readers to reassess what sexual assault is - whether it's with a partner or a man you picked up in a restaurant. There were also some highly astute observations about the nature of relationships themselves. And Lesje's dinosaur fantasies were pure Atwood at her best - that weirdness, blended with familiarity, that she does so well.
Where it fell slightly flat for me was the actual storyline itself. I was compelled to read on because she's such an amazing author, but to be honest, I didn't care much about the characters. Elizabeth was clearly depressed, but didn't come across in any way sympathetic, and Nate was an annoying wet toad of a man. Lesje had a bit more to her, but then even she got a bit frustrating as the book went on.
However - I am judging the author by the very high standards she set in her other books. And she's still one of my all-time favourite writers by a mile.
Margaret Atwood is one of my favourite books. In fact, I think Oryx and Crake is my favourite novel of all time, and The Blind Assassin is definitely Top 5. So when I spotted this tome in a charity shop, I swooped upon it with great eagerness.
I'm presuming it's one of her earlier ones, because it has that sort of feel about it - it displays her incredible attention to detail and use of symbolism, but doesn't have the sophistication or refinement of some of her other works.
Basically, it focuses on Elizabeth, a languorous woman who doesn't do much apart from mope around the house and think about bowls and things like that, Nate, who is with Elizabeth but fancies Lesje, and Lesje herself, who is a dinosaur expert.
There were some moments of outstanding writing here. The rape scenes, though disturbing to read, challenge readers to reassess what sexual assault is - whether it's with a partner or a man you picked up in a restaurant. There were also some highly astute observations about the nature of relationships themselves. And Lesje's dinosaur fantasies were pure Atwood at her best - that weirdness, blended with familiarity, that she does so well.
Where it fell slightly flat for me was the actual storyline itself. I was compelled to read on because she's such an amazing author, but to be honest, I didn't care much about the characters. Elizabeth was clearly depressed, but didn't come across in any way sympathetic, and Nate was an annoying wet toad of a man. Lesje had a bit more to her, but then even she got a bit frustrating as the book went on.
However - I am judging the author by the very high standards she set in her other books. And she's still one of my all-time favourite writers by a mile.
July 24, 2012
There's a number of thing i Just couldn't get over, which is why I ultimately gave this book a two:
1. I'm puzzled by the need for Parts... 5 of them? There wasn't really any change in theme or anything.
2. So this was the thought of a "Modern Marriage" from the mid-late 1970's? Blug! Just an open relationship in which we (the reader) grow to (kinda) sympathize with the Home-Wrecker.
3. Speaking of the Home-Wrecker, non of the character were very likable. (I even grew to dislike Lesje... the least bitter character.) Or I just learned to hate or become board with the lot of them.
4. Character Chris (he off'ed himself BEFORE the start of the book,) is mentioned a lot, but at the same time is underdeveloped and comes off as less than a ghost.
5. A whole-lot of nothing occurs.
But you know, Atwood's writing IS good. It just wasn't enough to pull me through this novel any quicker. The ending was "meh," and I just struggled throughout to commit to the story. So I was bored and cared very little for this (what I guess you'd consider) love triangle.
1. I'm puzzled by the need for Parts... 5 of them? There wasn't really any change in theme or anything.
2. So this was the thought of a "Modern Marriage" from the mid-late 1970's? Blug! Just an open relationship in which we (the reader) grow to (kinda) sympathize with the Home-Wrecker.
3. Speaking of the Home-Wrecker, non of the character were very likable. (I even grew to dislike Lesje... the least bitter character.) Or I just learned to hate or become board with the lot of them.
4. Character Chris (he off'ed himself BEFORE the start of the book,) is mentioned a lot, but at the same time is underdeveloped and comes off as less than a ghost.
5. A whole-lot of nothing occurs.
But you know, Atwood's writing IS good. It just wasn't enough to pull me through this novel any quicker. The ending was "meh," and I just struggled throughout to commit to the story. So I was bored and cared very little for this (what I guess you'd consider) love triangle.
January 11, 2021
If you are new to Atwood, I wouldn't start with this book. Nothing much happens here and none of the characters are really constructed to be rooted for. However, for someone who is already familiar with Atwood's style and enjoys it greatly, as I do, this is a treat. Not the best of her books that I've read so far (to my own surprise, this is already the sixth of her books that I've read by now - and to think that until 2014 I haven't even heard of her!) but it still features Atwood's characteristic deep dive into human character, in all its unpleasantness.
This time we are exploring a period in life of three people, two of which are married to one another, if only barely, two of which are working at the same (paleontological?) museum, albeit in very different roles, and two of which are going to start an affair in the course of the novel, although the basis for their attraction remains a mystery to me. The one person who is not going to have an affair is trying to cope with the aftermath of the affair she's had before, which led to a suicide of her lover, although by then he was already her ex-lover, if only barely. In many ways it is an exploration of disintegrating relationships. Even the new relationship between the two lovers is not quite integrating properly, despite their best (or are they really their best?) efforts.
I like such quiet rumination and I think Atwood does it better than actual plot (The Testaments did not really convince me). And, as before, I am looking forward to yet another book of hers.
This time we are exploring a period in life of three people, two of which are married to one another, if only barely, two of which are working at the same (paleontological?) museum, albeit in very different roles, and two of which are going to start an affair in the course of the novel, although the basis for their attraction remains a mystery to me. The one person who is not going to have an affair is trying to cope with the aftermath of the affair she's had before, which led to a suicide of her lover, although by then he was already her ex-lover, if only barely. In many ways it is an exploration of disintegrating relationships. Even the new relationship between the two lovers is not quite integrating properly, despite their best (or are they really their best?) efforts.
I like such quiet rumination and I think Atwood does it better than actual plot (The Testaments did not really convince me). And, as before, I am looking forward to yet another book of hers.
November 19, 2021
While not Atwood's best, this is a really, really good novel in several interesting ways; narratively, it's great dialogic interplay between three major and another four or five minor characters, as well as serving now as an interesting period piece, given that it was written about sexual and romantic interplay amid the dissolution of a marriage and the decay of the nuclear family that could only have been written, I think, in the mid 1970s, as the sexual revolution peaked and just before the AIDS crisis and the puritan triumph of the Reagan era slammed back into place many of the social mores I think the early, revolutionary Boomers had thought they'd done away with.
Thus I recommend it for the vivid portrait of thirty-somethings unwittingly sabotaging their family, selves, and the lives of others without ever really understanding their own motivations, or being able to control how others will react or act in these romantic and familial situations, as thirty-somethings will so often do when the mid-life crisis strikes. The chapters, which use indirect discourse to move through the minds of three of the major players, are wonderfully balanced, as true and good with the male voice and experience as the two females. Overall Atwood was able to strike a terrific balance between these three voices, one never quite playing full hero/ine or villain, each flawed, lovable, pitiable, and annoying by turns. Even if my own experience of such things came 25 years later, I felt so much of this rang absolutely true. In the end, as Bogey says so pithily in Casablanca "The lives of three little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world." Thus, although exquisitely written, the novel falls a tad short of profundity, for me--still, a lot of hard truth and a great portrait of the desperate little lives of those married with children but no longer willing, or no longer able, to play the marriage game.
Thus I recommend it for the vivid portrait of thirty-somethings unwittingly sabotaging their family, selves, and the lives of others without ever really understanding their own motivations, or being able to control how others will react or act in these romantic and familial situations, as thirty-somethings will so often do when the mid-life crisis strikes. The chapters, which use indirect discourse to move through the minds of three of the major players, are wonderfully balanced, as true and good with the male voice and experience as the two females. Overall Atwood was able to strike a terrific balance between these three voices, one never quite playing full hero/ine or villain, each flawed, lovable, pitiable, and annoying by turns. Even if my own experience of such things came 25 years later, I felt so much of this rang absolutely true. In the end, as Bogey says so pithily in Casablanca "The lives of three little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world." Thus, although exquisitely written, the novel falls a tad short of profundity, for me--still, a lot of hard truth and a great portrait of the desperate little lives of those married with children but no longer willing, or no longer able, to play the marriage game.
March 17, 2016
‘Nada se acaba’ (Lumen, 2015) tiene el mérito de parecer sencilla sin serlo, de parecer una novela romántica sin serlo, de parecer centrarse en las relaciones íntimas y personales cuando el retrato social de la mujer es el eje alrededor del que todo se mueve. Un equilibrio entre apariencia y realidad estructural que permea la trama para, desde ella, lanzarnos un mensaje sobre lo negativo de una vida vivida desde esta apariencia que, en sí, no es otra cosa que Seguir leyendo
November 27, 2024
Atwood’s fourth novel is from three rotating third-person POVs: Toronto museum curator Elizabeth, her toy-making husband Nate, and Lesje (pronounced “Lashia,” according to a note at the front), Elizabeth’s paleontologist colleague. The dated chapters span nearly two years, October 1976 to August 1978; often we visit with two or three protagonists on the same day. Elizabeth and Nate, parents to two daughters, have each had a string of lovers. Elizabeth’s most recent, Chris, has died by suicide. Nate disposes of his latest mistress, Martha, and replaces her with Lesje, who is initially confused by his interest in her. She’s more attracted to rocks and dinosaurs than to people, in a way that could be interpreted as consistent with neurodivergence.
It was neat to follow along seasonally with Halloween and Remembrance Day and so on, and see the Quebec independence movement simmering away in the background. To start with, I was engrossed in the characters’ perspectives and taken with Atwood’s witty descriptions and dialogue: “[Nate]’s heard Unitarianism called a featherbed for falling Christians” and (Lesje:) “Elizabeth needs support like a nun needs tits.” My favourite passage encapsulates a previous relationship of Lesje’s perfectly, in just the sort of no-nonsense language she would use:
Elizabeth’s formidable Auntie Muriel is a terrific secondary presence. But this really is just a novel about (repeated) adultery and its aftermath. The first line has Elizabeth thinking “I don’t know how I should live,” and after some complications, all three characters are trapped in a similar stasis by the end. By the halfway point I’d mostly lost interest and started skimming. The grief motif and museum setting weren’t the draws I’d expected them to be. Lesje is a promising character but, disappointingly, gets snared in clichéd circumstances. No doubt that is part of the point; “life before man” would have been better for her.
Originally published on my blog, Bookish Beck.
It was neat to follow along seasonally with Halloween and Remembrance Day and so on, and see the Quebec independence movement simmering away in the background. To start with, I was engrossed in the characters’ perspectives and taken with Atwood’s witty descriptions and dialogue: “[Nate]’s heard Unitarianism called a featherbed for falling Christians” and (Lesje:) “Elizabeth needs support like a nun needs tits.” My favourite passage encapsulates a previous relationship of Lesje’s perfectly, in just the sort of no-nonsense language she would use:
The geologist had been fine; they could compromise on rock strata. They went on hikes with their little picks and kits, and chipped samples off cliffs; then they ate jelly sandwiches and copulated in a friendly way behind clumps of goldenrod and thistles. She found this pleasurable but not extremely so. She still has a collection of rock chips left over from this relationship; looking at it does not fill her with bitterness. He was a nice boy but she wasn’t in love with him.
Elizabeth’s formidable Auntie Muriel is a terrific secondary presence. But this really is just a novel about (repeated) adultery and its aftermath. The first line has Elizabeth thinking “I don’t know how I should live,” and after some complications, all three characters are trapped in a similar stasis by the end. By the halfway point I’d mostly lost interest and started skimming. The grief motif and museum setting weren’t the draws I’d expected them to be. Lesje is a promising character but, disappointingly, gets snared in clichéd circumstances. No doubt that is part of the point; “life before man” would have been better for her.
Originally published on my blog, Bookish Beck.
March 10, 2021
This is a story revolving cheating, a lot of it and not very likeble characters. Not my favorite Margaret Atwood. This was one of her earlier works and I do think she's gotten much better, but the writing is still solid. I just didn't like this because of the subject of cheating. The main character is married but both of them cheat on the side. Her resent lover commits sucide. And her husband have found a new love in her co-worker and suddenly that's a problem. Meh not my thing.
April 5, 2013
This novel, set in Toronto from late 1976 to the summer of 1978, is centered around 3 people: Elizabeth & Nate Schoenhof, a married couple with 2 young daughters; and Lesje, a paleontologist more at home with dinosaurs and fossils than with most people. The Schoenhofs have been married for 10 years and find that they are not well-matched.
Elizabeth, a rather self-assured woman and museum administrator who likes to feel she can control almost any situation and exert her influence on almost anyone, had had a relationship with Chris, a ruggedly-built man (think Grizzly Adams) who worked as a taxidermist at a downtown museum, where Lesje also works. Nate, a lawyer who left his job with a law firm to build and sell large scale wooden toys, tolerates his wife's infidelity, for he is aware that he is not enough for Elizabeth. Nor is she for him. On that point, both Nate and Elizabeth are in agreement. Eventually, Nate becomes involved with Lesje (after forsaking another woman with whom he had been having an affair), and this further complicates the lives of all those concerned.
To the casual reader, this story may seem banal, for it describes what is commonplace in most human relationships in an urban milieu. But Atwood is so skilled in exploring both the interior and exterior lives of people that the reader cannot help but become interested in wanting to know what form the resolution will take --- or if there will be any resolution at all.
Elizabeth, a rather self-assured woman and museum administrator who likes to feel she can control almost any situation and exert her influence on almost anyone, had had a relationship with Chris, a ruggedly-built man (think Grizzly Adams) who worked as a taxidermist at a downtown museum, where Lesje also works. Nate, a lawyer who left his job with a law firm to build and sell large scale wooden toys, tolerates his wife's infidelity, for he is aware that he is not enough for Elizabeth. Nor is she for him. On that point, both Nate and Elizabeth are in agreement. Eventually, Nate becomes involved with Lesje (after forsaking another woman with whom he had been having an affair), and this further complicates the lives of all those concerned.
To the casual reader, this story may seem banal, for it describes what is commonplace in most human relationships in an urban milieu. But Atwood is so skilled in exploring both the interior and exterior lives of people that the reader cannot help but become interested in wanting to know what form the resolution will take --- or if there will be any resolution at all.
November 11, 2014
Ergh. Early Atwood is such a struggle. It's too...domestic? Too "White people problems"? These characters are simply people you wouldn't want to know, let alone commit a significant chunk of time reading about. Obsessed with themselves, all they can do is navel gaze and blame everyone else for their problems. If you choose an awful (wo)man, then tolerate an awful relationship, then haven't you gotten exactly what you deserve? Or at the very least, haven't you expected to be and fulfilled a prophecy of being miserable? I know enough people like this in real life, fixating on negativity to feel alive, and as a result, much like THE EDIBLE WOMAN, I just can't get into this...
Even more pointedly, if the characters are going to be bitches, then they better be BITCHES. Mundane, basic bitches just don't cut it. In this way, this is sort of a precursor in territory to THE BLIND ASSASSIN, where "the bitch" is anything but mundane.
This is still Atwood, so it's perfectly crafted. But beyond that, it's just not what I'm interested in.
#byefelicia
Even more pointedly, if the characters are going to be bitches, then they better be BITCHES. Mundane, basic bitches just don't cut it. In this way, this is sort of a precursor in territory to THE BLIND ASSASSIN, where "the bitch" is anything but mundane.
This is still Atwood, so it's perfectly crafted. But beyond that, it's just not what I'm interested in.
#byefelicia
March 20, 2016
"She married him easily, like trying on a shoe."
This was one of the books I tried out during a book speed dating project, the first one of 2016. I liked it enough to pick it back up again. It's really too bad that the strength of the first 50 pages never picks up and goes anywhere. Margaret Atwood introduces the reader to a handful of characters that are all facing relationship crises - and then they tread water until the end of the book. Very disappointing. But perhaps that's her point? That spouses linger in our lives because we know them better than our new partners, that responsibilities can't just be cut off, that unless you pick up and move your old patterns have a lot of power. Well, even if it is the point, it wasn't particularly enjoyable to read and I had to kind of power through to the end. The book wasn't on my radar at all among the most spoken about Atwood works, and that makes sense since it was published in 1979 (and is set in 1977.) An early work!
This was one of the books I tried out during a book speed dating project, the first one of 2016. I liked it enough to pick it back up again. It's really too bad that the strength of the first 50 pages never picks up and goes anywhere. Margaret Atwood introduces the reader to a handful of characters that are all facing relationship crises - and then they tread water until the end of the book. Very disappointing. But perhaps that's her point? That spouses linger in our lives because we know them better than our new partners, that responsibilities can't just be cut off, that unless you pick up and move your old patterns have a lot of power. Well, even if it is the point, it wasn't particularly enjoyable to read and I had to kind of power through to the end. The book wasn't on my radar at all among the most spoken about Atwood works, and that makes sense since it was published in 1979 (and is set in 1977.) An early work!
February 21, 2020
Life Before Man centres around Elizabeth and her husband Nate. Elizabeth's lover Chris has just killed himself and Nate is in love with Lesje who works at the museum with Elizabeth. Their saga unfolds over a year of their lives as each person struggles to deal with love, relationships, despair and just living.
This is classic Atwood, in depth and beautifully nuanced characters navigating their way through every day life. She examines the impact our relationships with other people have on our sense of self - not just our lovers but our parents, children and friends too.
There is a strong undercurrent of the futility of life in the book and how really no one ever ends up with exactly what they want because as humans we change all the time. As usual with Atwood, Life Before Man leaves you with ideas unfolding in your mind from the seeds she has planted.
This is classic Atwood, in depth and beautifully nuanced characters navigating their way through every day life. She examines the impact our relationships with other people have on our sense of self - not just our lovers but our parents, children and friends too.
There is a strong undercurrent of the futility of life in the book and how really no one ever ends up with exactly what they want because as humans we change all the time. As usual with Atwood, Life Before Man leaves you with ideas unfolding in your mind from the seeds she has planted.
August 8, 2025
An engaging character based novel about Elizabeth, her husband Nate, and Lesje, who becomes Nate’s lover. The novel moves along with the perspectives of each of these individuals. The novel begins with the suicide of Chris, who had been Elizabeth’s lover. Elizabeth and Nate have been married over ten years and have two children. Elizabeth and Nate have been quite open in telling each other about the lovers they have had. Nate knew about Elizabeth’s affair with Chris. Elizabeth was aware of Nate’s affair with Martha. Nate has broken up with Martha and just started having an affair with Lesje. The novel is set over two years, between October 1976 to August 1978.
Elizabeth, a controlling individual, struggles with her past and the results of her actions, including her affair with Chris that had deep emotional consequences. Nate is a sensitive, passive man who grapples with who he is and the expectations placed upon him. Should he leave his marriage? The only reason Elizabeth and Nate are still married is because of the children. Lesje decides to leave her partner, William. She is trying to come to terms with what she desires, especially when Nate becomes her lover.
The novel explores the complications of modern relationships, including love, betrayal and personal crisis. The characters are very well developed, allowing the reader to empathize with their personal and relationship struggles.
Another very good Margaret Atwood novel that Atwood fans should find a satisfying reading experience.
This book was first published in 1980.
Elizabeth, a controlling individual, struggles with her past and the results of her actions, including her affair with Chris that had deep emotional consequences. Nate is a sensitive, passive man who grapples with who he is and the expectations placed upon him. Should he leave his marriage? The only reason Elizabeth and Nate are still married is because of the children. Lesje decides to leave her partner, William. She is trying to come to terms with what she desires, especially when Nate becomes her lover.
The novel explores the complications of modern relationships, including love, betrayal and personal crisis. The characters are very well developed, allowing the reader to empathize with their personal and relationship struggles.
Another very good Margaret Atwood novel that Atwood fans should find a satisfying reading experience.
This book was first published in 1980.
February 24, 2019
It’s taken me over a week to sit down and write this review, and I’m still not entirely sure I know what I want to say about it - it certainly was not my favourite Atwood, and unfortunately the story doesn’t quite match up to the fabulousness of my cover!
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It sort of reminded me of a 70s version of Conversations with Friends, except I didn’t love it as much. It features a married couple who both are/have been involved in extra-marital affairs, with the present day storyline starting from after the wife’s lover has committed suicide. What follows is an entanglement with various different players, going back and forth between past and present, exploring the nature of all these different relationships from the POV of the wife, the husband and the husband’s new lover Lesje... Really there isn’t much more to say about the plot than that!
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As usual, even when the plot isn’t as strong, I can’t fault Atwood’s style or her eye for the human nature. There were some truly great passages, particularly about the wife’s (I can’t even remember the husband and wife’s names, not a good sign!) Auntie Muriel, a formidable woman and an excellent ‘bad guy’ character. I found Lesje’s chapters to be the most compelling, though, as she struggles to find her own identity while embroiled in a pretty unhealthy and codependent relationship.
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Overall, middle ground for me and I probably wouldn’t recommend it if you’re looking to just start out with some Atwood - maybe one for those of you wanting to read all of her work!
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It sort of reminded me of a 70s version of Conversations with Friends, except I didn’t love it as much. It features a married couple who both are/have been involved in extra-marital affairs, with the present day storyline starting from after the wife’s lover has committed suicide. What follows is an entanglement with various different players, going back and forth between past and present, exploring the nature of all these different relationships from the POV of the wife, the husband and the husband’s new lover Lesje... Really there isn’t much more to say about the plot than that!
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As usual, even when the plot isn’t as strong, I can’t fault Atwood’s style or her eye for the human nature. There were some truly great passages, particularly about the wife’s (I can’t even remember the husband and wife’s names, not a good sign!) Auntie Muriel, a formidable woman and an excellent ‘bad guy’ character. I found Lesje’s chapters to be the most compelling, though, as she struggles to find her own identity while embroiled in a pretty unhealthy and codependent relationship.
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Overall, middle ground for me and I probably wouldn’t recommend it if you’re looking to just start out with some Atwood - maybe one for those of you wanting to read all of her work!
November 6, 2014
To be clear: the writing is beautiful, lush, lyrical and everything Margaret Atwood is famous for. Clearly the woman knows how to string a sentence together. However. The plot (if I can even call it that?) just fell flat on its face from the get-go. I just can not with these melodramatic characters. White suburban angst glorified through long, repetitive, tedious passages--each character a caricature, an absurd attempt at depth and human emotion. It was like watching a trashy soap opera. Nothing new. I've read this story about the suffering married couple a million times before--seen it a million times on various romance dramas. Always the same existential bullshit. It's been done. To death. Nothing new.
And I was bored out of my mind.
Most disappointing, the conclusion wasn't satisfying and I actually sighed with disgust after finishing it. I hoped there would be a reward at the end of the tunnel. After all that moronic angst I just figured SOMETHING worthwhile happens. But no. It ends the same way it starts: tediously and without any sense of urgency or logic.
Don't read this book if you're looking for an engaging read. I would rather have watched paint dry.
And I was bored out of my mind.
Most disappointing, the conclusion wasn't satisfying and I actually sighed with disgust after finishing it. I hoped there would be a reward at the end of the tunnel. After all that moronic angst I just figured SOMETHING worthwhile happens. But no. It ends the same way it starts: tediously and without any sense of urgency or logic.
Don't read this book if you're looking for an engaging read. I would rather have watched paint dry.
Read
August 9, 2018"Se está desmoronando sobre sí misma, se está fundiendo, como la bruja en El mago de Oz, y al verlo Elizabeth recuerda: Dorothy no se alegró cuando la bruja se convirtió en un charco de azúcar quemado. Se horrorizó".
Tres personajes y un fantasma. Las relaciones de pareja y sus infidelidades. Margaret Atwood disecciona el comportamiento humano, su espíritu de supervivencia. Y entre la gran trama van emergiendo traumas infantiles, política, violaciones dentro de la pareja, inseguridades.
Tras leer las cuatro novelas que escribió en los 70 me queda la sensación de haber concluido una tetralogía, sin que los personajes coincidan ni los argumentos, hay algo en el estilo y en los temas que encadena La mujer comestible (1969), Resurgir (1972), Doña Oráculo (1976) y Nada se acaba (Life before man, 1979).
No existe una novela menor en Atwood. Todas son relevantes, inteligentes y descienden hasta las profundidades más ocultas de los hombres y las mujeres.
"Nate no era consciente de estar siendo cruel. Creía ser atento. Mientras le acariciaba la espalda ella imaginó mirando el reloj para ver si lo había hecho el tiempo suficiente".
Tres personajes y un fantasma. Las relaciones de pareja y sus infidelidades. Margaret Atwood disecciona el comportamiento humano, su espíritu de supervivencia. Y entre la gran trama van emergiendo traumas infantiles, política, violaciones dentro de la pareja, inseguridades.
Tras leer las cuatro novelas que escribió en los 70 me queda la sensación de haber concluido una tetralogía, sin que los personajes coincidan ni los argumentos, hay algo en el estilo y en los temas que encadena La mujer comestible (1969), Resurgir (1972), Doña Oráculo (1976) y Nada se acaba (Life before man, 1979).
No existe una novela menor en Atwood. Todas son relevantes, inteligentes y descienden hasta las profundidades más ocultas de los hombres y las mujeres.
"Nate no era consciente de estar siendo cruel. Creía ser atento. Mientras le acariciaba la espalda ella imaginó mirando el reloj para ver si lo había hecho el tiempo suficiente".
February 3, 2023
Purtroppo questo libro non mi e´ piaciuto. Dico purtroppo perche´ Margaret Atwood e´ a. un´icona della letteratura moderna e b. il racconto dell´ancella (che mi accingo a rileggere in inglese) mi era piaciuto moltissimo. Nondimeno questo titolo mi ha lasciato piuttosto indifferente, probabilmente anche per causa mia, perche´ mi sembra proprio di non averlo capito: mi e´ parso sconclusionato e con una serie di voli pindarici che non mi sembravano avere senso. Anche i personaggi non mi hanno spinto verso nessun sentimento particolare, se non Nate, che ho detestato profondamente, e le loro storie non mi hanno suscitato nessuna empatia nei loro confronti. Inoltre vorrei aggiungere che questo e´ uno di quei libro che descrivo con ¨no plot, just vibes¨ e che di solito apprezzo particolarmente, ma non in questo caso specifico, visto che le vibes erano, a mio parere, particolarmente off. Stile di scrittura incredibile in ogni caso, e´ comunque Margaret Atwood, e pure un ignorante come me sa apprezzarla.
September 15, 2018
Within twenty pages of starting this, I was identifying myself in the characters. That's me, I'd say about one. No, wait that's me, I'd say about another. Wait, I'm that one!, about the third.
Imagine my surprise when I finished the book and skimmed through a few reviews on here to find a recurring theme of readers describing the three protagonists as unlikable.
No, scratch that. Imagine my not giving af***.
This might be my new favorite of Margaret Atwood's but more importantly it's my favorite kind of Margaret Atwood: almost dreamy but grounded in reality (as most bewildering dreams are), not overtly political but evoking a commentary on humanity, and full of a steadying darkness that suggests regret and confusion are ever present in our success and love.
In the end I think I'm mostly Lesje but with enough Elizabeth in me to frighten myself a bit.
Imagine my surprise when I finished the book and skimmed through a few reviews on here to find a recurring theme of readers describing the three protagonists as unlikable.
No, scratch that. Imagine my not giving af***.
This might be my new favorite of Margaret Atwood's but more importantly it's my favorite kind of Margaret Atwood: almost dreamy but grounded in reality (as most bewildering dreams are), not overtly political but evoking a commentary on humanity, and full of a steadying darkness that suggests regret and confusion are ever present in our success and love.
In the end I think I'm mostly Lesje but with enough Elizabeth in me to frighten myself a bit.
June 30, 2015
Entirely unlike anything I'd normally read. But Margaret Atwood's unsettlingly realistic way of relating the stories of the characters' lives makes me want to phone them up after I put down the book and see how they're doing.
July 25, 2016
Escrito en los 70's y trata de los mismos problemas/ sentimientos de ahora.
February 28, 2020
Personajes complejos llenos de conflictos, de rencor, de desilusión, esperanzados y temerosos a un mismo tiempo, pero absolutamente reales: eso nos entrega “Nada se acaba”, novela de Margaret Atwood finalista del Governor General’s Award en 1979.
Dividida en cinco partes, esta historia es narrada en breves apartados por los tres personajes principales: Elizabeth, cuyo amante Chris se suicida; Nate, esposo de Elizabeth, que ha terminado la relación con Martha, su amante; y Lesje, una paleontóloga a quien Nate quiere conquistar.
La virtud de Atwood radica en que combina a un narrador omnisciente, que observa a cada personaje desde fuera, con la voz de cada uno de los protagonistas: así conocemos tanto la forma en que son percibidos por los demás como sus pensamientos y sentimientos más profundos, la complejidad de su esencia. A veces iracundos, a ratos trastornados, son un reflejo fiel de lo que todos los que alguna vez hemos estado en una relación sentimental hemos vivido; parafraseando a Epicteto, no somos los primeros humanos en morir… o en enamorarnos. Y la vida sigue, aunque nos pese o nos agobie.
Seré honesto: el libro me gustó, está muy por encima del promedio de relatos cuyo eje rector es el amor o las pasiones. No obstante, la prosa de Atwood es extraordinaria en el género en que más la conozco, la ciencia ficción. Sin ser tan buena como “El cuento de la criada” u “Oryx y Crake”, no se compara asimismo con “Ana Karenina” o “Cumbres borrascosas” (aunque siendo literatura de muy alto nivel; como bien apuntó Marta Sanz en “El País”, “Margaret Atwood construye en ‘Nada se acaba’ un relato agudo y nada convencional sobre la identidad del amor”).
Dividida en cinco partes, esta historia es narrada en breves apartados por los tres personajes principales: Elizabeth, cuyo amante Chris se suicida; Nate, esposo de Elizabeth, que ha terminado la relación con Martha, su amante; y Lesje, una paleontóloga a quien Nate quiere conquistar.
La virtud de Atwood radica en que combina a un narrador omnisciente, que observa a cada personaje desde fuera, con la voz de cada uno de los protagonistas: así conocemos tanto la forma en que son percibidos por los demás como sus pensamientos y sentimientos más profundos, la complejidad de su esencia. A veces iracundos, a ratos trastornados, son un reflejo fiel de lo que todos los que alguna vez hemos estado en una relación sentimental hemos vivido; parafraseando a Epicteto, no somos los primeros humanos en morir… o en enamorarnos. Y la vida sigue, aunque nos pese o nos agobie.
Seré honesto: el libro me gustó, está muy por encima del promedio de relatos cuyo eje rector es el amor o las pasiones. No obstante, la prosa de Atwood es extraordinaria en el género en que más la conozco, la ciencia ficción. Sin ser tan buena como “El cuento de la criada” u “Oryx y Crake”, no se compara asimismo con “Ana Karenina” o “Cumbres borrascosas” (aunque siendo literatura de muy alto nivel; como bien apuntó Marta Sanz en “El País”, “Margaret Atwood construye en ‘Nada se acaba’ un relato agudo y nada convencional sobre la identidad del amor”).
January 25, 2024
⭐️⭐️⭐️,75 stelline (a voler fare i fiscali)
Che follia, Margaret Atwood!
L'unica capace di scrivere un libro come questo, in cui in superficie non sembra muoversi una foglia, ma dove invece in profondità avviene di tutto.
Una delle protagoniste, Lesje, è una paleontologa (da qui anche una possibile interpretazione dell'enigmatico), e non a caso proprio ad uno scavo paleontologico assomiglia questo romanzo, per il modo in cui affonda e trivella nelle vite dei suoi protagonisti, andando a riesumarne la primordiale struttura fossilizzata, per restituircene un ritratto a tutto tondo.
Come sempre l'uso della lingua è impeccabile ed immaginifico, al servizio di questo character study portato avanti con ironia e una vena di dolce crudeltà che non risparmia niente e nessuno.
Che follia, Margaret Atwood!
L'unica capace di scrivere un libro come questo, in cui in superficie non sembra muoversi una foglia, ma dove invece in profondità avviene di tutto.
Una delle protagoniste, Lesje, è una paleontologa (da qui anche una possibile interpretazione dell'enigmatico), e non a caso proprio ad uno scavo paleontologico assomiglia questo romanzo, per il modo in cui affonda e trivella nelle vite dei suoi protagonisti, andando a riesumarne la primordiale struttura fossilizzata, per restituircene un ritratto a tutto tondo.
Come sempre l'uso della lingua è impeccabile ed immaginifico, al servizio di questo character study portato avanti con ironia e una vena di dolce crudeltà che non risparmia niente e nessuno.
March 3, 2025
Ne znam da li sam goru knjigu ikada procitala. Ako jesam, ne secam se.
Depresivna prica u kojoj svaki akter vodi nezadovoljavajuci zivot, pun problema, praveci gluposti iz glupih razloga, bez zelje da taj svoj zivot unapredi i poboljsa na neki nacin. Na knjizi pise da je ovo anatomija modernog braka, ali ako je ono opisano u knjizi moderan brak, hvala Gospodu pa zivim na staromodan nacin!
Depresivna prica u kojoj svaki akter vodi nezadovoljavajuci zivot, pun problema, praveci gluposti iz glupih razloga, bez zelje da taj svoj zivot unapredi i poboljsa na neki nacin. Na knjizi pise da je ovo anatomija modernog braka, ali ako je ono opisano u knjizi moderan brak, hvala Gospodu pa zivim na staromodan nacin!
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