Customer Reviews

Life Before Man

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Being a loyal Atwood fan, I decided to read the last of her unread novels recently. The title of the novel, Life Before Man, held the dark tones of mystery that I appreciate in literature; the hint of scandal, intrigue, or just the promise of what Atwood is so good at dishing up: a rich and intricate tale woven around several characters. This would not have been unlike my favourite novels by Atwood, Cat's Eye, Lady Oracle, and The Robber Bride. I thought that with Life Before Man, I had saved one of the best for last. I was wrong.

What ensued in the next 400 pages was an embarrassing love triangle involving three warped and morally repugnant morons. Even all the sinnin' and flirtin' couldn't save this book from falling flat on its face. The story became not only frustrating, but agonizingly boring - the development of any sympathetic or likeable characters was bogged down by over-tedious use of language and metaphor.

The story did not challenge new borders in literature and failed to violate *my* expectations as a reader. I was more interested in the page count and, sometimes, in the sparse poetic quality of the novel, than what was happening to the three main characters. By the end of the book, I was too disappointed to complain about the lack of resolution and was only glad to say that I'd finished what I'd begun.

A valuable read for true Atwood fans interested in noting the evolution of her work between then and now, but not a book to cluck cluck cluck over. Two-and-a-half stars.

What is the nature of a fossil? Using a quote from Bjorn Kurten to precede this novel, Atwood illuminates much of what is to follow: a fossil is not necessarily a part of an organism, but could be a record of its activity: a footprint, perhaps. It could be a prehistoric equivalent of graffiti.

Using the fossil as the central metaphor for her novel, Atwood tells the story of three individuals whose lives collide with cataclysmic effect. Told in episodes from the three different perspectives the reader uncovers the story much like an archaeologist might uncover the treasures of a prehistoric site. Elizabeth, Nate and Lesje are put under the microscope and steadily stripped down to their essential components by a narrator (although a few of Elizabeth's episodes are told in the first person) who is as objective as a scientist. We all know, however, that scientists are not always objective.

What makes this novel so fascinating is this interplay between cold fact and emotional involvement. Atwood refuses to follow easy paths to happy solutions and the reader senses early on that a tragic outcome is as inevitable as the eventual extinction of Lesje's beloved dinosaurs. Her characters are neither heroes nor villains, neither heartless monsters nor innocent victims. They are driven towards their fates by forces as much in their own natures as in the natures of those around them.

As any true Atwood devotee would expect, the writing is sharp, witty, observant and totally compelling. It is perhaps richer in symbolism than many of her other novels, yet it does not tread the mystical and poetic waters (so to speak) of "Surfacing". It reads deceptively easily and the bubbling volcano at its core is implied rather than stated. If the novel has a possible downfall it could lie in this subtlety, which many readers might not perceive.

"Life before man" is a landmark novel, even for an author who is surely one of the greatest literary minds of our age. Its effect is devastating in the best possible sense, making the reader reflect on the consequences of actions which might seem insignificant at the time, but can leave traces far beyond their original scope.

Life Before Man was a big disappointment to me. I love all of Margaret Atwood's other books and have always enjoyed the skillful movements back and forth through stages in the charcters lives. Unfortunatly, this device doesn't work well in this book because so very little actually happens. It is character driven and introspective to a fault, especially since none of the characters are likeable. Those in sympathetic positions (Lesje and Nate) are too colorless to inspire affection or loyalty, and Elizabeth, while possessing of some spirit and initiative, is too selfish and cold to inspire sympathy. If you've decided to read Margaret Atwood, please start with Cat's Eye or Alias Grace or The Robber Bride. There may be something to be learned from Life Before Man, but it's too sad and slow a lesson.

I've read a few works by Atwood -- poetry and prose -- and had the same reaction to "Life Before Man" that I had to "Surfacing," which was one bordering on hatred and despair. The first few pages of each novel made me feel like I was slogging through a thick mud puddle, but being that I read (and didn't finish) "Surfacing" when I was much younger, I decided to continue on with "Life Before Man" in the hopes of getting *something* out of it.

Therein lies the problem, now that I've actually finished the book; I'm not sure what I've learned. These are some possibilities, which all tie together:

-Essentially, most people are boring and self-absorbed, and having an affair doesn't make one more exotic or interesting. In fact, in the world of Elizabeth, Nate, and Lesje, having an affair seems to reduce one to nothingness. It leaves each character homeless (whether in body or spirit), nervous, and insecure.
-As humans, we are desperately avoiding becoming extinct. "It's better to burn out than to fade away." Atwood's 3 main characters seem to be doing everything in their power to avoid extinction, which is a nice (and obvious) allusion to the dinoaur theme. And this is why suicide is the running solution in this novel: it allows one to burn out instead of fade away. Again, obviously.
-Despite their efforts (not their *best* efforts), the characters gradually fade from existence, at least to this reader.

Perhaps if there is any genius to this novel, it is that Atwood has managed to make her characters extinct, because I for one read the whole book and never felt an ounce of sympathy for any one of them. When I think about the characters now, I conjure up a brownish-gray fog; no distinctions, no borders. Each one had something special about them (Elizabeth's inner strength and resilience, Nate's woodworking creativity and love for his kids, Lesje's paleontologic skills), but those gifts are reduced to nothingness.

I wish Atwood had spent a little more time on Chris and the *real* Auntie Muriel; they're the most interesting characters in the whole book!

So now I don't know if I actually liked the book...

Uncanny, that is, but certainly not pleasant. Don't look to this book for warm and fuzzy feelings about how we're all fabulous and life is wonderful. However, Atwood's ability to expose the most hidden and secret parts of her characters is mind-boggling and that, alone, was enough for me.

In this, as in most of Atwood's novels, I don't feel a lot of affection towards the characters - in this case, Elizabeth, Nate and Lesje (3 people in what might be called a romantic triangle by someone as uncreative as myself, although it's like no romantic triangle I've ever read about before) - but I certainly do find them fascinating.

I also find myself feeling oddly sympathetic towards them, despite the self-centred, weak, or otherwise negative traits that Atwood exposes to us as readers. This can only be because on some level, I recognize at least a few of my own weaknesses, and those of the people I love.

I recommend this book to those looking for a character-driven story, and for those who see the value in harsh but honest insights into human nature.

Life before Man is the first novel I've read by Margaret Atwood. The content is based primarily on the intertwining lives of Lesje, Nate and Elizabeth. Lesje is portrayed as a self concious, bright young woman. Nate a womanizer likes to be in control, but is powerless in his wife Elizabeth's presence. Elizabeth is self pitying, and struggles to get past her lover Chris' tragic suicidel. Atwood delivers the harsh reality of modern relationships beautifully; there are no secrets. She tells it like it is! The characters lack the necessary control over their lives and ultimately end up depressed, and utterly confused. The novel becomes tedious and repititious as you read deeper and interest in the outcome is commonly lost. If you haven't yet read this complicated work and are up for a detailed script on characters roundness and complexity then I suggest you indulge. You may find that it connects to the realism of western lives. Although it is slow and pathos, alot can be derived from this novel, about how one should and shouldn't live!

This book is obviously Very Important Literature, because all the characters are stricken with Very Important Literature Ennui. Everybody is unhappy, but nobody does anything, really, to become less unhappy. They mope around for 300+ pages and then are abandoned by the author, who has apparently become bored by them.

It's not that nothing happens in the book. Things do happen - lovers are taken and discarded, a marriage collapses of its own weight, lives end, lives begin - but no one really seems to learn anything from their actions, and one assumes that they are still wandering around in Atwood's dark landscape, a quarter-century after the fact, miserable with their own choices and too enervated to do anything about it.

Atwood serves her astounding skills poorly here. She continues to draw interior and exterior landscapes with breathtaking precision and folds time inward upon itself like origami, until that which was one-dimensional and flat becomes crenellated, complicated, and contorted into unexpected and graceful forms. But all this authorial sleight-of-hand cannot hide the fact that these characters are ... boring. Their petty adulteries are banal. Their wounds are virtually all self-inflicted, and Atwood never really gives the reader any hook upon which to hang an emotional involvement.

Atwood has done far superior work, and the reader who wants a sense of what she is about would be much better advised to seek out "The Handmaid's Tale" or "Catseye" or "The Blind Assassin".

I have not finished reading this book yet, so I can't comment on the ending, but I am so fascinated by Atwoods writing that I simply can't wait to review it... . I decided to give this book a 4 star rating. Why ? Because the characters are real. Allthough it seems easy to write about real people, Atwood prooves clearly that it is not. To write with such accuracy and nuance, one needs a thorough psychological insight. I could find no clichés in this book, only a description of real, unpredictable, complex human beings in constant interaction with a lot of things: other people, themselves, images of the past, wishes for the future, and so on... . Because of this the reader can recognise parts of each character , not only in himself but also in others. This is a quality I value greatly in books. The last time I read a novel with the same level of human insight was with Peter Careys 'Oscar and Lucinda', although Atwood beats Carey as far as the realistic story is concerned. Why not 5 stars then ? I had some trouble picking this book up for the first 30 pages or so. Perhaps this was due to the gloominess of the story, perhaps it had to do with the English vocabulary I don't master as well as I wish I would. Also, the story didn't really appeal to me at first, I found it hard keeping on track with the constant changement in perspective. On the other hand, once I got through the first part, these changes of perspective started fascinating me very much. In short: I recommend this book to everyone who likes a good psychological novel. Dragging yourself trough the first pages is certainly worth the bother !

I found this novel to be thoroughly compelling and enthralling, if not exactly life-affirming. It is a bleak tale, true, but to me its strengths lie in its uncompromisingly fatalistic outlook. The ordinary idea of heroes and villains in a story are eschewed by a set of protagonists who are each in their own ways pitiful and hateful; in other words, real people - in each one is visible some characteristic of ourselves that we recognise, but are probably not proud of. Elizabeth is manipulative and greedy, but only learnt that from her tyrannical Auntie Muriel. Her husband Nate seems likeable and mild mannered, but you become frustrated with his inability to maintain a relationship. The young Lesje, the object of Nate's desire, is the most agreeable but she allows herself to become embroiled in other people's cattiness. The standard of writing is exceptionally high, although a little hard going, for behind every line there is some hidden meaning, some clue to the personalities of the three main characters. Very little dialogue takes place, with most of the characters' motivation and feelings being revealed through inner monologue; this not only allows the characters total honesty with themselves and the reader, but it also makes us realise how little of our own feelings we communicate to those we know, and how this can create a feeling of resentment and isolation amongst people.

I am a slow reader on the whole, and as I said, this book was challenging in its use of metaphor and subtext, but I polished it off quite quickly, as I found myself connecting with the characters. I did not particularly like any of them, but then they did not like each other. That is not necessary in the reading of this story, you just have to care about them. I would highly reccomend it to anyone who, like myself, enjoys a little melancholy.

atwood, like the greatest of literature, is a first-rate psychologist. She is an observer of humans, a listener. Somehow she has learned more than most of us.
Life Before Man is at its best describing the relations (and lack of such) between men and women. While it may seems obvious that her writings will open the eyes of men as to how women see and feel about them, it is even more eye opening to see how women feel about each other.
The title of the book refers to the fact that women can get along without men. For this reason women, not just men, will benefit greatly from Atwood's insights.