Birthday Book Recs 15/50 : Cat’s Eye by Margaret Atwood
Cat’s Eye by Margaret Atwood
Birthday Book Recs: 15/50
Cat’s Eye by Margaret Atwood
It’s been eons since I’ve read this novel, but it’s such an astute look at intense friendships from one’s past. I think we all — or maybe it’s just women? — have at least one person from our childhood and teenage years who we just can’t shake from our psyche. This novel was published in 1988, so the internet — and certainly social media — would shape the story differently if it were written today because with a few taps or keystrokes we could (likely) figure out what these larger-than-life people from our memories were up to. Read this one if you’d like to exonerate or examine those feelings of friendship power plays. Plus, the main character is named Elaine and the friend from her past is named Cordelia, and that is just the most wonderfully incongruous set of names for a set of friends. (I’ve read a fair bit of Margaret Atwood — although truthfully, not for several years — and I think this is a perfect one to start out with if all you know of her work is The Handmaid’s Tale.)
{This book personally means a lot to me because an essay I wrote about it over 15 years ago was the first time I was published since my early 20s. Not that you remember this, Alissa Wilkinson, but 30-something-year-old me has always been appreciative of the opportunity to see if “I could just write about books the way I want.”
PS: If you swipe back a couple of posts, maybe you’ll spy one of Alissa’s books. I’m a wee bit embarrassed to say that I haven’t read it yet, but if you’re a Joan Didion fan — and who isn’t? — I’m going to point you toward it anyway. We Tell Ourselves Stories: Joan Didion and the American Dream Machine, published in May of this year.}
You can find all my 50th Birthday Book Recommendations HERE.
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