Commentaires client les plus utiles
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1 internautes sur 1 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
3.0étoiles sur 5
Witty and Original, Mars 3 2001
I'd give this 3.5 stars, for the record...I was pleasantly surprised by this book, especially after reading the blurb which loudly declared "The Edible Woman" to be a book about wild sex. Luckily it actually turned out to have more substance than that: if anything, the sex scenes are so low-key as to be nonexistent. Instead the focus is upon the psychological aspects of Marian's relationships with her fiancee and with Duncan, and most of all upon the way she views herself. While on the surface "The Edible Woman" can be viewed as a feminist rant against marriage and commitment, this would be in my opinion a reductive perspective to take. "The Edible Woman" is primarily the charting of one woman's loss of identity as she attempts to mold herself to conform to the expectations of others. Despite the serious and even dark undercurrents, this is a light, fun read. The characters are almost caricatures, even the main character, saying and doing things that no one in their right minds would ever do in real life. Fortunately this cartoonish treatment of the characters works in the novel's favor: it makes Marian's strange disorder more believable, and ultimately the message of the book being carried through in such a manner makes it--dare I say--more palatable. Atwood may have an axe to grind, but she does it with such delicate strokes that one can only appreciate the elegant subtlety she employs. Atwood's prose is lucid and witty, and she takes some playful jabs at academia that are truly hilarious. The assembled cast of characters, even while they are too zany to be real, are also vastly entertaining. This book is not incredibly deep or substantial; though it does deal with some complex themes, it is in the end exactly as it comes across on the surface: a fun read. I probably wouldn't read it again, but I'm glad to have read it once.
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2 internautes sur 3 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
5.0étoiles sur 5
Atwood is a genious, Mai 23 2002
Many authors who have risen to the heights of fame and acclaim that Atwood has reached have forgettable first novels, but Atwood is a clear exception to that. The Edible Woman is brazen, thought-provoking,and amusing all at the same time. Marian McAlpin is a recent college graduate living in an unnamed Canadian city. She began dating Peter, an attorney, just as she started her job as a copy writer at a marketing research firm. Before she even realized that their relationship was serious or "going somewhere", she and Peter become engaged. Strangely enough, it happens after a fit of anxiety that literary causes Marian to run frantically into the night, away from Peter and the possibility of captivity.
The wedding plans are hastily taken over by Marian's family, the plans for the rest of their life are taken over by Peter (plans that included Marian quiting her job and becoming a housewife) and Marian begins to feel consumed. Marian's onset of food aversions are comical, but also very symbolic--the thought of being coldly and methodically consumed keeps Marian from eating during the weeks leading up to her wedding as she tries to imagine giving up her independence. Nearly every aspect of this novel is a symbol, a cultural comment of some kind. The most obvious, of course, is about food, but there are others, including the deep pit Marian stares into just days before her wedding. The characters are also neatly compartmentalized into varying degrees of traditional stagnation. They range from the stodgy old sexless landlady; the 3 "office virgins" at Marian's company; Clara, a college friend who is deeply immersed in the doldrums of wifery and motherhood; and the scheming Ainsley, Marian's roommate who plots to become pregnant with the help of an unsuspecting man. Peter, Marian's fiancee, openly balks at marriage at the novel's beginning; however, superb plot development shows that men have nothing to lose and everything to gain. It's the wife-to-be who is expected to surrender everything. Not-so-subtle remarks about uppity women who "trap" men by becoming pregnant (like Ainsley and the wife of Peter's friend Trigger) and about the perils of educating women (it's a risk to allow them to get ideas, you see) make this novel all the more wonderful. This is not a lightweight novel, in spite of its somewhat silly subject matter and hilarious plot twists. Only those who go in with their eyes wide open will finish this novel having been enriched and satisfied.
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3.0étoiles sur 5
(Almost) a contemporary novel, Nov. 13 2007
This is the first book I read by Margaret Atwood, it was written in 1965 but I believe that the only aspects giving away the years depicted are the absence of modern technology in the narrative (i.e. mobile phones, computers etc. -not that this is a "technological" read anyway, just the opposite)and perhaps, only perhaps -that's the way I perceived it- a certain candour in some of the characters/situations which conveys "something" dated.
It's the tale of Marian, a quiet, well-brought up girl in her early 20s who's struggling to conform to the demands and unwritten rules of modern society. This is not because she does not want to, in fact, she would like to, but she realises that her inner self craves more than a proper, suitable and predictable routine (a good job, a respectable marriage, children in due time etc.), as it was expected -and often still is, if you think about it-. Something in her rebels, in a subtle but undeniably determined way. Will she manage to tackle and overcome her gnawing uneasiness, consistently on the rise, rapidly becoming a true torment and assailing her own being? (A fact that her "cool" but obtuse boyfriend completely fails to see). That's for you to find out if you get this book.
Bearing in mind the year in which it was written, some considerations about our modern society arise. Have women's -and men's- roles changed much since then? Of course they have, in many ways. Still, could and can a demanding society have such an impact in the configuration of our lives -or, in what we thought/think our life should be like- that sometimes we felt and feel crushed under the pressure? Has the vortex of speed in which the world has changed in this past century -with its good and bad consequences- changed the core of human nature? These are questions which came to mind as soon as I turned the last page.
I'm glad I read this book, but I cannot honestly place it among my favourites. For instance, in the beginning it almost completely failed to engage me and I kept on only because I always do (as a principle). Thankfully the tale got more interesting later on, which helped, even though I think the author was overly-descriptive especially, but not only, in connection with Marian's issues, rendering the read a bit tedious. Still, and it may sound like a contradiction, I do think it was worth reading it, because it triggers questions and comparisons with today's Western society, and it was certainly worth it for the quality of its prose, essentially studied and quite elegant.
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