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Liked It “Atwood is an amazing author she can simply draw her readers in and keep you there.” see full review » see other reviews » |
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0 of 1 members found this review helpful“February 2008 Book Club
Mandi C wrote this review 4 weeks ago. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
Sarah's house
1976
More like 3 and a half stars. This book had some delightfully quirky and original moments, but overall fell short of a completely good book. Would recommend for entertainment reading. ”“Atwood is an amazing author she can simply draw her readers in and keep you there. ”
Jamie E wrote this review Monday, September 14 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Another amazing book by Atwood. She's quickly become my author-hero.”
Melissa M wrote this review Thursday, September 10 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“One of my favourite Atwood novels about a woman who fakes her own death while writing gothic fiction. Its a bit 70's and has escapism and neuroticism in equal measure.”
Selina C wrote this review Saturday, August 8 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Long one of my favorites of Atwood's - who is one of my favorite authors - revisiting Lady Oracle proved quite timely, with it's reminders that an interesting life can be more trouble than it's worth, escapism can be dangerous, and running away from your life is incredibly difficult if not completely impossible.
Surfacing wrote this review Saturday, August 23 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
This is possibly the most light-hearted of Atwood's novels ("possibly" because Atwood is far to sharp-eyed to be entirely light-hearted). The plot pushes the edges of plausibility, anchored by Atwood's remarkable ability to create flawed, realistic, messy characters that evoke sympathy in spite of themselves.
As in many of her best novels, Atwood adopts and adapts genre conventions to excellent effect here, treating the reader to her take on the gothic romance. Lady Oracle is worth reading for this alone - seeing miraculous transformations, spiritualism, intrigue, adventure and the damsel-in-distress trope replanted to contemporary Canada is deeply amusing.
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“This is the very first Atwood novel that I read, which I did for a literature paper. I'm so glad I discovered this book, because I totally fell in love with her writing! It remains one of my favorites because of this.”
Lord Shaper wrote this review Monday, May 12 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“I thought this was a very good story, but not one of Margaret Atwood's best. I really didn't think Joan was a very strong character. She was molded by the men in her life. Her many lives just didn't appeal to me. ”
blackadder wrote this review Friday, March 7 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No“
Lissa T wrote this review Sunday, December 30 2007. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
I love Margaret Atwood and she can do (almost) no wrong, so it's probably not shocking that I really liked this book. After all, I have read (in order): The Handmaid's Tale (multiple times), Cat's Eye, Robber Bride (I should go back and re-read these as it's been a long time) The Blind Assassin, Alias Grace and The Penelopiad.
Lady Oracle treads over some of what most readers of Margaret Atwood will realize is familiar ground. The premise of the book is that Joan Foster, a woman who for all appearances seems to be a success, has found herself unable to escape the mess she's made of her life. Therefore, she decides to fake her death and embark on a new life. However, most of the book is not dedicated to this new life - in fact, it only appears briefly in the beginning and occasionally throughout other parts of the book. Instead, the book in the story of her life. Through her recollections (starting from childhood) we see how things like childhood and teenage obesity, a controlling mother, an absent father, and and emotionally distant husband shape the way that she views the rest of her life and ultimately leads to the mess that she has made. Joan Foster is incidentally a closet writer of gothic romances, and many of the parts of her story and interspersed with snippets of the books that she writes as well.
Lady Oracle is one of her earliest books, written before her success with The Handmaid's Tale. It doesn't quite have the same lyric quality to the writing that some of her later novels have. It's also interesting to see the way that some of the themes from this early novel appeared later in The Blind Assassin, like the secret novels, the way that the book passages are written into the narrator's life story, and the possible death by drowning.
I remember my friend E reading this book and not particularly liking it. Certainly, it's less polished than her later work. That being said, some of this book really resonated with me and I would still recommend it almost without reservation.”“ Darkly funny story of Joan who escapes the self-esteem shattering barbs of her mother only to reinvent herself over and over for a series of loser men who come into her life. At times I wanted to take Joan and shake her, at other times I felt like I was looking into a mirror. Entertaining and unsettling. ”
StellaMac wrote this review Sunday, November 4 2007. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
