Bodily Harm [Paperback]

Margaret Atwood (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 13, 1998

A powerfully and brilliantly crafted novel, Bodily Harm is the story of Rennie Wilford, a young journalist whose life has begun to shatter around the edges.  Rennie flies to the Caribbean to recuperate, and on the tiny island of St.  Antoine she is confronted by a world where her rules for survival no longer apply.  By turns comic, satiric, relentless, and terrifying, Margaret Atwood's Bodily Harm is ultimately an exploration of the lust for power, both sexual and political, and the need for compassion that goes beyond what we ordinarily mean by love.


Margaret Atwood is the author of over twenty-five books, including fiction, poetry, and essays.  Among her most recent works are the bestselling novels Alias Grace and The Robber Bride and the collections Wilderness Tips and Good Bones and Simple Murders.  She lives in Toronto.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This is a story about one of today's women...Bodily Harm is strong stuff, and the writing is nearly flawless."
--People

"It knocked me out. Margaret Atwood seems to be able to do just about everything: people, places, problems, a perfect ear, an exactly right voice."
--Anatole Broyard, The New York Times

"Romance and adventure by a female Graham Greene at his peak."
--Marilyn French, author of The Women's Room

"Superior writing, terrifying suspense."
--The Atlantic Monthly

"Secures her place in the upper ranks of important novelists."
--Cosmopolitan

From the Publisher

New in this edition: a Reader's Companion to Bodily Harm--ideal for discussion groups

"This is a story about one of today's women...Bodily Harm is strong stuff, and the writing is nearly flawless."
--People

"It knocked me out. Margaret Atwood seems to be able to do just about everything: people, places, problems, a perfect ear, an exactly right voice."
--Anatole Broyard, The New York Times

"Romance and adventure by a female Graham Greene at his peak."
--Marilyn French, author of The Women's Room

"Superior writing, terrifying suspense."
--The Atlantic Monthly

"Secures her place in the upper ranks of important novelists."
--Cosmopolitan

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 291 pages
• Publisher: Anchor; 1st Anchor Books ed edition (April 13, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385491077
• ISBN-13: 978-0385491075
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #310,127 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

MARGARET ATWOOD, whose work has been published in over thirty-five countries, is the author of more than forty books of fiction, poetry, and critical essays. In addition to The Handmaid's Tale, her novels include Cat's Eye, shortlisted for the Booker Prize; Alias Grace, which won the Giller Prize in Canada and the Premio Mondello in Italy; The Blind Assassin, winner of the 2000 Booker Prize; and her most recent, Oryx and Crake, shortlisted for the 2003 Booker Prize. She lives in Toronto with writer Graeme Gibson.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars This book is difficult to read., July 4, 2000

By 

Auliya "An Avid Reader" (Austin, TX USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bodily Harm (Paperback)

Alright, maybe you have to be extremely sophisticated to understand this book. Or maybe I just wasn't up to the task. I adore Atwood's work, largely speaking. I love the play on gender issues, the windows onto the character's personal worlds, the suspense and tension Atwood can introduce and tease into page-turners... But this book? Maybe it's because it spent so much time developing a "politics" sub-plot, or because it took place on an island that was difficult for me to render inside my head... but I just never understood what was going on. Never exactly understood, never could get "connected" enough with anything to care. That's so weird, since I get completely wrapped up in her other stories and novels, and I've read them all. I don't want to give this book a thumbs down, for fear that it's my own lack of skill *as a reader* that made the book so opaque and boring... but at least this review might give you some information pertaining to the apparent difference in this work from Atwood's others, you know?

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Wasted potential, but still a good read, September 20, 2006

By 

e. verrillo (williamsburg, ma) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bodily Harm (Paperback)

Bodily Harm is one of those rare books which is almost impossible to evaluate. On the one hand, Atwood's prose is flawless. (You really cannot complain.) The plot is excellent, and the "back story" is quite compelling. The title manages to cover all bases - the "bodily harm" serving to cover the main character's (Rennie's) breast cancer, her abuses at the hands of her boyfriend (cleverly not described as abuses), her wretched childhood and then onward and upward through hard pornography, Caribbean revolution and the continuing "bodily harm" perpetuated on third world nations by "sweet Canadians" and their counterparts down here in the belly of the beast. Nevertheless, this book fails to live up to its title and to its potential.

Where Atwood falls down is in the way she has structured her novel. The flashbacks into her main character's past had an appeal at the beginning of the novel, and served to thoroughly "peg" her personality, but eventually they slowed down the action - and right at the worst possible moments. (Do we really need a boyfriend flashback when her life is in danger?)The device gets so old towards the dramatic climax, that you may be tempted to throw the book down in disgust.

But you won't. You will continue reading (because the climax really is dramatic) until you reach the last page, when you will be tempted to burn it. Because after countless pages in which Atwood devotes herself to laying out the inner contradictions of her main character, the horrific challenges to her shallow, self-absorbed "life so far," Atwood - unforgivably - does not devote more than a single sentence to the transformation which finally takes place in Rennie's soul (and long overdue I might add). One measly little sentence of resolution to all the endless anomie, despair, confusion, depression and utter willful ignorance which we have been subjected to throughout the exploration of Rennie's ragged interior is enough to make the most hardcore Atwood fans pull out their hair.

All that being said, I would still recommend this book. Even when she doesn't live up to her own well-deserved reputation, Atwood is still a remarkable read.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Strange but Compelling, August 29, 2000

By 

Amy Krug "amykk25" (Centerville, OH United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bodily Harm (Paperback)

Though I wouldn't consider this my favorite Atwood novel, it is a good one, nonetheless. Atwood has a way of involving you with her characters, even if you don't necessarily like them. I couldn't put this book down, because I was so intent on finding out the fate of the heroine. Part mystery and part romance but all introspective, I'd recommend it.