TODAY Margaret Atwood is practically a Canadian institution with novels, poetry, short stories, critiques and recently an opera libretto among her publications.
Noosa Library has stocked a number of her titles for your reading pleasure but I’m going to talk about her first novel, one of my favourite books of all time.
Cast your mind back to 1969, it’s a time of gender revolution, phones were attached to walls, and bits and bytes were just appearing as words in the vernacular when Atwood’s first novel, The Edible Woman, was published.
Its heroine is Marian McAlpin, a university graduate who settles for a lacklustre job in marketing to pay the bills – not such a bad choice because “what else can you do with a BA these days?” says her roommate, Ainsley.
Marian’s boyfriend Peter is a business-suited “dress for success” type who “never flakes or shines” in the wrong places, yet once Marian commits herself to their engagement her body begins to rebel in the most unusual way.
With marriage looming in the not-too-distant-future, lifestyle choices begin to be examined by Marian and each one offered up to her sensible mind is rejected as unacceptable, her engagement still preferable, but so far her body is not coming along for the ride for its protestation begins to manifest itself as a rejection of food.
The first to go is the animal-related, next the vegetables begin to scream their protest at her using kitchen implements on them, and, finally, seeing her own face in the empty spoon makes her wonder if she will ever be able to eat again.
– Suzanne King
