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The Red Shoes
Portrait of an Artist and her GenerationInternational award-winning and best-selling author, Canadian cultural icon, feminist role model, "man-hater," wife, mother, private citizen and household name ' who is Margaret Atwood? Rosemary Sullivan, award-winning literary biographer, has penned The Red Shoes: Margaret Atwood/Starting Out, the first portrait of Canada's most famous novelist, focusing on her childhood and formative years as a writer and the generation she grew up in.
When Margaret Atwood was a little girl in 1949, she saw a movie called The Red Shoes. It is the story of a beautiful young woman who becomes a famous ballerina, but commits suicide when she cannot satisfy one man, who wants her to devote her entire life to her art, and another who loves her, but subjugates her to become his muse and inspiration. She struggles to choose art, but the choice eventually destroys her.
Margaret Atwood remembers being devastated by this movie but unlike many young girls of her time, she escaped its underlying message. Always sustained by a strong sense of self, Atwood would achieve a meteoric literary career. Yet a nurturing sense of self-confidence is just one fascinating side of our most famous literary figure, as examined in Rosemary Sullivan's latest biography. The Red Shoes is not a simple biography but a portrait of a complex, intriguing woman and her generation.
The seventies in Canada was the decade of fierce nationalist debate, a period during which Canada's social imagination was creating a new tradition. Suddenly everyone, from Robertson Davies to Margaret Laurence was talking, and writing, about a Canadian cultural identity. Margaret Atwood was no exception.
For despite her tremendous success that transcends the literary community, catapulting into the realm of a "household name," Margaret Atwood has remained very much a private person with a public persona.
Rosemary Sullivan reveals the discrepancy between Atwood's cool, acerbic, public image and the down-to-earth, straight-dealing and generous woman who actually writes the books. Throughout, she weaves the issues of female creativity, authority and autonomy set against the backdrop of a generation of women coming of age during one of the most radically shifting times in contemporary history.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR - Rosemary Sullivan was born and raised in Montreal, Qu�bec where she received her B.A. from McGill University. She completed her M.A. at the University of Connecticut and her Ph.D. at the University of Sussex. She has taught at the universities of Dijon and Bordeaux in France, at the University of Victoria, B.C., and at the University of Toronto where she is currently a professor of English. Her academic honours include Killam and Guggenheim fellowships, a Canada-United States-Mexico residency award and a Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute Teaching Residency in India.
Sullivan has written poetry, short fiction, biography, literary criticism, reviews and articles. She is the author of Shadow Maker: The Life of Gwendolyn MacEwen, which won the Governor General's Award for Non-Fiction, the Canadian Author's Association Literary Award for Non-Fiction, the University of British Columbia's Medal for Canadian Biography, and the City of Toronto Book Award.
Sullivan also wrote By Heart: Elizabeth Smart/A Life, which was also nominated for the Governor General's Award for Non-Fiction; as well as two collections of poetry, Blue Panic and The Space a Name Makes, which won the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award and The Garden Master: Style and Identity in the Poetry of Theodore Roethke. Her writing has appeared in numerous literary journals, books, anthologies, and magazines, including Books in Canada, Brick: A Literary Journal, Canadian Forum, Canadian Literature, Cosmopolitan, Descant, �tudes Anglais, The Globe and Mail, The Malahat Review, This Magazine, Oxford Companion to Canadian Literature, Saturday Night, and Toronto Life. Her work has been broadcast on CBC Radio and on "Imprint," a literary television magazine programme.
Sullivan is also the editor of six anthologies of poetry and prose, including Poetry by Canadian Women, Stories by Canadian Women, More Stories by Canadian Women, and Elements of Fiction from Oxford University Press, and co-editor of The Writer and Human Rights from Lester and Orpen Dennys and Doubleday. She has given lectures and readings as well as contributed to conferences across Canada and in the United States, England, France, Belgium, Spain, India, Puerto Rico, and Mexico. A member of the Writers' Union of Canada and a board member of International PEN Canada, Rosemary Sullivan has traveled widely across Europe and Spain and lives in Toronto.
Critical acclaim for Shadow Maker '
"The great gift of Shadow Maker is the sense of humour and legitimacy it con...
When Margaret Atwood was a little girl in 1949, she saw a movie called The Red Shoes. It is the story of a beautiful young woman who becomes a famous ballerina, but commits suicide when she cannot satisfy one man, who wants her to devote her entire life to her art, and another who loves her, but subjugates her to become his muse and inspiration. She struggles to choose art, but the choice eventually destroys her.
Margaret Atwood remembers being devastated by this movie but unlike many young girls of her time, she escaped its underlying message. Always sustained by a strong sense of self, Atwood would achieve a meteoric literary career. Yet a nurturing sense of self-confidence is just one fascinating side of our most famous literary figure, as examined in Rosemary Sullivan's latest biography. The Red Shoes is not a simple biography but a portrait of a complex, intriguing woman and her generation.
The seventies in Canada was the decade of fierce nationalist debate, a period during which Canada's social imagination was creating a new tradition. Suddenly everyone, from Robertson Davies to Margaret Laurence was talking, and writing, about a Canadian cultural identity. Margaret Atwood was no exception.
For despite her tremendous success that transcends the literary community, catapulting into the realm of a "household name," Margaret Atwood has remained very much a private person with a public persona.
Rosemary Sullivan reveals the discrepancy between Atwood's cool, acerbic, public image and the down-to-earth, straight-dealing and generous woman who actually writes the books. Throughout, she weaves the issues of female creativity, authority and autonomy set against the backdrop of a generation of women coming of age during one of the most radically shifting times in contemporary history.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR - Rosemary Sullivan was born and raised in Montreal, Qu�bec where she received her B.A. from McGill University. She completed her M.A. at the University of Connecticut and her Ph.D. at the University of Sussex. She has taught at the universities of Dijon and Bordeaux in France, at the University of Victoria, B.C., and at the University of Toronto where she is currently a professor of English. Her academic honours include Killam and Guggenheim fellowships, a Canada-United States-Mexico residency award and a Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute Teaching Residency in India.
Sullivan has written poetry, short fiction, biography, literary criticism, reviews and articles. She is the author of Shadow Maker: The Life of Gwendolyn MacEwen, which won the Governor General's Award for Non-Fiction, the Canadian Author's Association Literary Award for Non-Fiction, the University of British Columbia's Medal for Canadian Biography, and the City of Toronto Book Award.
Sullivan also wrote By Heart: Elizabeth Smart/A Life, which was also nominated for the Governor General's Award for Non-Fiction; as well as two collections of poetry, Blue Panic and The Space a Name Makes, which won the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award and The Garden Master: Style and Identity in the Poetry of Theodore Roethke. Her writing has appeared in numerous literary journals, books, anthologies, and magazines, including Books in Canada, Brick: A Literary Journal, Canadian Forum, Canadian Literature, Cosmopolitan, Descant, �tudes Anglais, The Globe and Mail, The Malahat Review, This Magazine, Oxford Companion to Canadian Literature, Saturday Night, and Toronto Life. Her work has been broadcast on CBC Radio and on "Imprint," a literary television magazine programme.
Sullivan is also the editor of six anthologies of poetry and prose, including Poetry by Canadian Women, Stories by Canadian Women, More Stories by Canadian Women, and Elements of Fiction from Oxford University Press, and co-editor of The Writer and Human Rights from Lester and Orpen Dennys and Doubleday. She has given lectures and readings as well as contributed to conferences across Canada and in the United States, England, France, Belgium, Spain, India, Puerto Rico, and Mexico. A member of the Writers' Union of Canada and a board member of International PEN Canada, Rosemary Sullivan has traveled widely across Europe and Spain and lives in Toronto.
Critical acclaim for Shadow Maker '
"The great gift of Shadow Maker is the sense of humour and legitimacy it con...
359 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1998
7 people are currently reading
222 people want to read
About the author
Rosemary Sullivan
44 books202 followersRosemary Sullivan is a Canadian poet, biographer, and anthologist. She is also a professor emerita at University of Toronto.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
November 26, 2021
Mixed feelings about this book- loved the history behind the Canadian writing industry and how poetry evolved over the years; but this was a fairly repetitive biography of Atwood. I felt like details and specific phrases were thrown around three times throughout the book and that the author lost interest in Atwood’s story around the Alias Grace era. I also think it’s interesting that she stopped before The Blind Assassin, a cunning mixture of genres and Canadian history that achieved her new literary awards. I’m fairly disappointed that the author didn’t bother to go that far into her career, as this definitely covers more than just the early years “starting out”.
January 6, 2012
A sensitively rendered portrait of one of Canada’s literary icons, a person who has been in the vanguard of CANLIT, since its coming of age in the ‘60’s to the present day. Margaret Atwood has not only lived in just about every province of this country, she is also a child of the great Canadian wilderness and has been a witness to major events that shaped this country in the last half century: the feminist movement, the FLQ crisis, literary Nationalism, the small press mushroom, the founding of the Writers Union, and recently taking on the Ford bothers for their disregard for public libraries (the book covers only her early career, I threw this last bit in because, well, I couldn’t resist it!) Atwood certainly exposed the myth depicted in the movie The Red Shoes (from which the book gets its title) that the female artist does not have to choose between writing and family, although she believes that writing, family and work can be a bit much!
The book brought home to me that each generation of writers faces a unique set of challenges. Margaret’s were: male domination of the literary and academic establishments at the time, and the fact that Canadian writing was considered inferior to those imports from abroad, particularly from Britain. Taking on the role of writer as activist and not victim, she was able to forge an identity for herself that was tempered with fierce criticism, public adoration and a bit of good luck—winning the Governor General’s award for her first published work of poetry was, without doubt, a great weapon with which to slay the naysayers.
The lessons from her early life for the next generation of writers are:
1) You have to commit to your art, even if it impoverishes you. Some of the digs she lived in during her university days were pretty crappy!
2) Be bold – she took on Marshall McLuhan during a lecture
3) If you are not invited to the party, make your own
4) Movements do not define the writer; the writer is her own master and has to be an independent thinker. Although a feminist, Atwood stayed on the fringe of that movement
5) You must give in order to receive. Her dedication of time and effort to the broader development of CANLIT is admirable
My only criticism of this book is that its subject is portrayed as beyond reproach and it would have been more balanced to show some of the neuroses and vulnerabilities that plagued this great writer.
After putting down The Red Shoes I pondered the state of CANLIT, then and now. Certainly it can be argued that there is no shortage of Canadian writers and Canadian female writers today – Atwood and her cohort certainly solved that little problem. But as literary nationalism has swelled and dumped many writers on the shores of Canada and abroad, expanding this cadre like the increasing sizes of a Babushka Doll, the audiences for each book and writer have been shrinking in reverse size. Ah, but that is a problem for the next generation of writers to solve. Or would the grand dame, step up to the plate one more time to show us how?
The book brought home to me that each generation of writers faces a unique set of challenges. Margaret’s were: male domination of the literary and academic establishments at the time, and the fact that Canadian writing was considered inferior to those imports from abroad, particularly from Britain. Taking on the role of writer as activist and not victim, she was able to forge an identity for herself that was tempered with fierce criticism, public adoration and a bit of good luck—winning the Governor General’s award for her first published work of poetry was, without doubt, a great weapon with which to slay the naysayers.
The lessons from her early life for the next generation of writers are:
1) You have to commit to your art, even if it impoverishes you. Some of the digs she lived in during her university days were pretty crappy!
2) Be bold – she took on Marshall McLuhan during a lecture
3) If you are not invited to the party, make your own
4) Movements do not define the writer; the writer is her own master and has to be an independent thinker. Although a feminist, Atwood stayed on the fringe of that movement
5) You must give in order to receive. Her dedication of time and effort to the broader development of CANLIT is admirable
My only criticism of this book is that its subject is portrayed as beyond reproach and it would have been more balanced to show some of the neuroses and vulnerabilities that plagued this great writer.
After putting down The Red Shoes I pondered the state of CANLIT, then and now. Certainly it can be argued that there is no shortage of Canadian writers and Canadian female writers today – Atwood and her cohort certainly solved that little problem. But as literary nationalism has swelled and dumped many writers on the shores of Canada and abroad, expanding this cadre like the increasing sizes of a Babushka Doll, the audiences for each book and writer have been shrinking in reverse size. Ah, but that is a problem for the next generation of writers to solve. Or would the grand dame, step up to the plate one more time to show us how?
May 16, 2021
This book has been sitting in my collection for about 22 years, and now that I've finished it I regret not having read it sooner. A beautifully woven tapestry of Atwood's early days as a student and a writer, against the backdrop of world events and the rise of Canadian cultural awareness and the emergence of Can Lit. This book appealed to me as both an Atwood fan and a dabbler in writing.
June 7, 2024
Twenty-six years later, the release of its Chinese translation puts the book in an awkward position. It bears a strong sense of its era, which may lead Chinese readers to feel a disconnect—or, conversely, to forge an immediate empathy that transcends time. Nonetheless, this work essentially chronicles the formative years of Canadian 'first-generation' authors, with particular emphasis on Margaret Atwood.
Central to the text are two themes: "Canadian literature" and the idea that "women need not choose between family and career(The Red Shoes Curse)." These points form the nucleus around which the author weaves the environmental backdrop and narrative threads. However, herein lies the core contradiction of the book: while Atwood resists being cast as a stereotype or representative figure, the narrator inevitably typifies her as such (given her status as a leading figure of Canadian literature's first wave). Thus, tension arises when the authorial voice and Atwood's narrative intersect within the text.
The value of this book resides in its documentation of a bygone era—it was published in 1998, and it covers only up until the late 1970s in Atwood's life. On the one hand, it elucidates Atwood's formative background against the backdrop of Canada's sea-world change and her evolving creative journey. On the other hand, it also underscores the potential and scope for women writers. This dual focus not only preserves a snapshot of history but also fosters a dialogue about the evolution of literature and women's roles within it.
Central to the text are two themes: "Canadian literature" and the idea that "women need not choose between family and career(The Red Shoes Curse)." These points form the nucleus around which the author weaves the environmental backdrop and narrative threads. However, herein lies the core contradiction of the book: while Atwood resists being cast as a stereotype or representative figure, the narrator inevitably typifies her as such (given her status as a leading figure of Canadian literature's first wave). Thus, tension arises when the authorial voice and Atwood's narrative intersect within the text.
The value of this book resides in its documentation of a bygone era—it was published in 1998, and it covers only up until the late 1970s in Atwood's life. On the one hand, it elucidates Atwood's formative background against the backdrop of Canada's sea-world change and her evolving creative journey. On the other hand, it also underscores the potential and scope for women writers. This dual focus not only preserves a snapshot of history but also fosters a dialogue about the evolution of literature and women's roles within it.
September 17, 2024
3,5. Her ne kadar kitabın tanıtımında yazsa da, Rosemary Sullivan'ın Margaret Atwood'un yaşamının ve yazarlık yolculuğunun sadece ilk döneminlerine odaklanması yine de hayal kırıklığı oldu. Kanada edebiyat çevrelerinin 20.yüzyıldaki gelişimi de bizim buralardaki çoğu okuru ilgilendirmeyecektir. Onun dışında; yazarın karakterini tanımak, istikrarlı, mesafeli, açıksözlü, ketum, kıvrak zekalı, tarot ve astroloji konularına merakını, ailesinin çoğu kişiden farklı yapısını ve özgürlükçü, doğayla bütünleşmiş bir ortamda büyüdüğünü okumak, ilk dönem yazdığı bazı kitapları oluşturan atmosferi görmek, toplumsal değişimlerle iç içe anlatılan biyografiyi okumak iyi geldi. 50'lerde kadınlara ve kadın yazarlara bakış açısının 60'larda 70'lerde değişmeye başladığı dönemleri, Harvard'ın kadın öğrencilere zamanında yaptığı ayrımcılıkları da işliyor. Gönül isterdi ki, Kör Suikastçı'yı, Maddaddam üçlemesini yazış serüvenini de görelim ama bunlar kitapta yok maalesef. İleride daha az mesafeli ve çok yönlü bir biyografiyle karşılaşana kadar şimdilik Margaret Atwood'un bu biyografisiyle yetineceğim.
January 16, 2026
🌹The Red Shoes: Margaret Atwood Starting Out by Rosemary Sullivan 🇨🇦 14/1/2026
Margaret Atwood remembers as a young girl being devastated by the movie The Red Shoes. However, unlike many of her contemporaries, she came to reject its underlying message that a woman must choose between art and love.
In The Red Shoes, Sullivan focuses on Atwood’s formative years through to the late 1970s when major elements of Atwood’s life — the happy and settled relationship with writer Graeme Gibson, the publication of Surfacing, Power Politics, The Edible Woman, the birth of a daughter, the focus on Canadian culture — are set in place.
Margaret Atwood remembers as a young girl being devastated by the movie The Red Shoes. However, unlike many of her contemporaries, she came to reject its underlying message that a woman must choose between art and love.
In The Red Shoes, Sullivan focuses on Atwood’s formative years through to the late 1970s when major elements of Atwood’s life — the happy and settled relationship with writer Graeme Gibson, the publication of Surfacing, Power Politics, The Edible Woman, the birth of a daughter, the focus on Canadian culture — are set in place.
January 20, 2024
I enjoyed this biography of Margaret Atwood as she has always been one of my favourite authors. I particularly loved learning about her rather unique childhood spent partially in Canadian bush country. Margaret's mother was clearly a rather unique character herself as I cannot imagine many women (including my own Mother) spending her summers "off grid" in northern Canada.
And as I learned from this biography Margaret Atwood has published a significant body of work, having published a wide range of poems and books with very divergent styles.
And as I learned from this biography Margaret Atwood has published a significant body of work, having published a wide range of poems and books with very divergent styles.
February 13, 2024
Margaret Atwood is fascinating however this book was slow and repetitive. Major details of her life were skimmed over and timing jumped around to add confusion. Instead of reading this book pick up anything Margaret Atwood has written instead.
October 29, 2017
Rosemary Sullivan (Author)
The Red Shoes: Margaret Atwood Starting Out. Harper Flamingo
In The Red Shoes, Rosemary Sullivan seeks to identify the circumstances that have made Margaret Atwood a phenomenally successful writer, a cultural icon, and a woman who was comfortable with her world and with herself.
Margaret was influenced by her experiences and her interactions with a special father, mother, siblings, environment … and upbringing that made her uniquely her own person.
The title comes from Margaret’s experience as a child of 9. In 1948, she viewed a movie called The Red Shoes, a story of a young ballerina who has to choose between art and love. She ends up choosing her art, which costs her life. Margaret Atwood saw the film as a child, and never forgot its message.
From Rosemary Sullivan’s website, I found the following description:
In the 1940s film The Red Shoes, a beautiful ballerina commits suicide when her life forces her to choose between art and love. Margaret Atwood remembers being devastated by this movie as a young girl, but unlike many of her contemporaries, she came to reject its underlying message. How did Atwood, in those pre-feminist days, find courage and confidence to believe in herself? In The Red Shoes, award-winning biographer and poet Rosemary Sullivan explores the unfolding of a remarkable writer’s career. She focuses on Atwood’s formative years through to the late 1970s when the major elements of Atwood’s life—the publication of Surfacing, Power Politics, and The Edible Woman, the relationship with writer Graeme Gibson, the birth of a daughter, the focus on Canadian culture—are set in place. A stunning blend of narrative and meditation, of discovery and insight, The Red Shoes is a major portrait of one of Canada’s most provocative writers. The Red Shoes has been a national best seller.
I have read only one book by Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale. This biography Red Shoes opened my knowledge of Margaret to her poetry, plays, screen plays and non-fiction as well. She was Peggy to her family, friends and husband. Her views were formed in a world where women’s roles were pre-defined and subservient to those of men’s. Canadian literature, when she started out, had no real tradition. Margaret overcame that; she credited the upbringing provided by her parents, which allowed her to be herself.
This biography continuously emphasizes the theme that you can be a writer AND a wife/mother.
I will end this review with the closing lines of the book:
In her mind, she was simply a woman who wrote books and had a child. And that was
miraculous enough. She hadn’t expected it. All of those years back, when she had started out,
there was the moral of The Red Shoes. She had been told, and half believed, she couldn’t be a
woman and an artist. If she tried, she would end up jumping in front of a train.
There was no train in sight.
The Red Shoes: Margaret Atwood Starting Out. Harper Flamingo
In The Red Shoes, Rosemary Sullivan seeks to identify the circumstances that have made Margaret Atwood a phenomenally successful writer, a cultural icon, and a woman who was comfortable with her world and with herself.
Margaret was influenced by her experiences and her interactions with a special father, mother, siblings, environment … and upbringing that made her uniquely her own person.
The title comes from Margaret’s experience as a child of 9. In 1948, she viewed a movie called The Red Shoes, a story of a young ballerina who has to choose between art and love. She ends up choosing her art, which costs her life. Margaret Atwood saw the film as a child, and never forgot its message.
From Rosemary Sullivan’s website, I found the following description:
In the 1940s film The Red Shoes, a beautiful ballerina commits suicide when her life forces her to choose between art and love. Margaret Atwood remembers being devastated by this movie as a young girl, but unlike many of her contemporaries, she came to reject its underlying message. How did Atwood, in those pre-feminist days, find courage and confidence to believe in herself? In The Red Shoes, award-winning biographer and poet Rosemary Sullivan explores the unfolding of a remarkable writer’s career. She focuses on Atwood’s formative years through to the late 1970s when the major elements of Atwood’s life—the publication of Surfacing, Power Politics, and The Edible Woman, the relationship with writer Graeme Gibson, the birth of a daughter, the focus on Canadian culture—are set in place. A stunning blend of narrative and meditation, of discovery and insight, The Red Shoes is a major portrait of one of Canada’s most provocative writers. The Red Shoes has been a national best seller.
I have read only one book by Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale. This biography Red Shoes opened my knowledge of Margaret to her poetry, plays, screen plays and non-fiction as well. She was Peggy to her family, friends and husband. Her views were formed in a world where women’s roles were pre-defined and subservient to those of men’s. Canadian literature, when she started out, had no real tradition. Margaret overcame that; she credited the upbringing provided by her parents, which allowed her to be herself.
This biography continuously emphasizes the theme that you can be a writer AND a wife/mother.
I will end this review with the closing lines of the book:
In her mind, she was simply a woman who wrote books and had a child. And that was
miraculous enough. She hadn’t expected it. All of those years back, when she had started out,
there was the moral of The Red Shoes. She had been told, and half believed, she couldn’t be a
woman and an artist. If she tried, she would end up jumping in front of a train.
There was no train in sight.
August 31, 2011
Rosemary Sullivan does a superb job of balancing her portrait of the young Margaret Atwood in her childhood, young adulthood and early career with a solid critical assessment of the burgeoning Canadian literary scene and canon. Sullivan also ably dovetails Atwood's place in the Canadian literary realm, as well as Atwood's precocious and always growing potential at that point to influence and shape it. Sullivan also captures Atwood's own sense of balance, grounded in a loving and supportive upbringing, between personal and emotional health, artistic exploration and integrity, and professionalism. Here is an excerpt that expresses it well:
"Margaret made a distinction: personally, art was a vocation, a gift, which required all her imagination and commitment. But publicly, it was also a profession, with rights and responsibilities. Ironically, the romantic notion of the artist confronting demons alone in an attic freed society of any responsibility for art. The artist suffered, by definition, and was placeless in a culture where he or she had no social role. Margaret was beginning to see the artist as completely different from the romantic cliche. The artist was meant to actively shape society, and not be its victim. When the artist actually spoke out, though, society often felt threatened."
Atwood is and continues to be engaged and impressive (for example, the Globe and Mail just named her Canada's Nation Builder of the Decade in Arts, and she tweets voraciously at www.twitter.com/MargaretAtwood), and Sullivan is impressive in her portraiture and context setting. Even if one does not particularly care for Atwood's works (although there is a range of genres and subject to please most omnivorous readers) or politics, "The Red Shoes" is still an absorbing and inspiring examination of a life and a calling well, healthily, optimistically and fiercely lived.
"Margaret made a distinction: personally, art was a vocation, a gift, which required all her imagination and commitment. But publicly, it was also a profession, with rights and responsibilities. Ironically, the romantic notion of the artist confronting demons alone in an attic freed society of any responsibility for art. The artist suffered, by definition, and was placeless in a culture where he or she had no social role. Margaret was beginning to see the artist as completely different from the romantic cliche. The artist was meant to actively shape society, and not be its victim. When the artist actually spoke out, though, society often felt threatened."
Atwood is and continues to be engaged and impressive (for example, the Globe and Mail just named her Canada's Nation Builder of the Decade in Arts, and she tweets voraciously at www.twitter.com/MargaretAtwood), and Sullivan is impressive in her portraiture and context setting. Even if one does not particularly care for Atwood's works (although there is a range of genres and subject to please most omnivorous readers) or politics, "The Red Shoes" is still an absorbing and inspiring examination of a life and a calling well, healthily, optimistically and fiercely lived.
July 22, 2013
Explores Atwood’s life from her early days tromping through and living in the Canadian bush with her entomologist father, mother, brother Harold and sister Ruth, to the publishing of Alias Grace.
Sullivan takes us through Atwood’s undergraduate years At Toronto’s Victoria College to graduate studies at Radcliff and explores her development as a nationalist Canadian writer and a strong feminist. Atwood’s first marriage to Jim Polk ended in divorce but a later relationship with Graeme Gibson resulted in the birth of their daughter Jessica. Atwood has strong ties to Nava Scotia where many of her relatives settled.
An excellent biography and an enjoyable read.
Sullivan takes us through Atwood’s undergraduate years At Toronto’s Victoria College to graduate studies at Radcliff and explores her development as a nationalist Canadian writer and a strong feminist. Atwood’s first marriage to Jim Polk ended in divorce but a later relationship with Graeme Gibson resulted in the birth of their daughter Jessica. Atwood has strong ties to Nava Scotia where many of her relatives settled.
An excellent biography and an enjoyable read.
January 22, 2016
This is a wonderful biography of Margaret Atwood. It's a long book but well worth the read especially if you are or want to be an Atwood fan. Covering the childhood and early years of Atwood the book gives insight into what possibly drove Atwood to choose her themes. The book is also an historical work that chronicles the literary times in the 5o's - 70's in Canada. It shows the struggle that Canadian artists had to endure to bring their works to the forefront.
I found it an easy read. It was a great introduction to Atwoods latest novel, The Heart Goes Last.
I found it an easy read. It was a great introduction to Atwoods latest novel, The Heart Goes Last.
March 22, 2012
A satisfying literary biography of Margaret Atwood and a broader foray into the history literary arts & culture in Canada. This is a really interesting read about the writing life in Canada from the 1960's into the 90's.
I read this years ago, but this re-read proved to be even more enjoyable.
I read this years ago, but this re-read proved to be even more enjoyable.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews