Customer Reviews

NEGOTIATING WITH THE DEAD - A Writer on Writing

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I feel the need to respond to reader "Liz," who believes that the author's "alcholism" [sic] was to blame for her disappointment in this book. Liz clearly confuses Margaret Atwood for Margaret LAURENCE, the brilliant and troubled Canadian writer who committed suicide in 1983. Atwood is alive, well, and (according to all reliable reports) in no way suffering from "alcholism." I would respectfully suggest that a little more scholarship and considerably less judgmental commentary (not to mention careful proofreading) are in order before posting reviews on Amazon.com.

As a longtime fan of Atwood's work and as a writer myself, I found her insight fascinating, though I can understand the disappointment some readers felt; this is not a handbook or a how-to, it's an intellectual memoir and will consequently be a let-down for many. But if you are curious about analysis and process more than in absolutes, there is much here to interest and entertain. Atwood-the-writer can seem remote in her fiction; here she is personable and humane. Anyone who has put pen to paper will recognize and value much that is to be found in this volume.

I just finished reading this book--twice!--and may just read it again. An intelligent, provocative, and very funny discussion of life lived in the writing realm. Each of Atwood's chapters could support a book-length volume of its own. Her ability to cross the boundaries of time, genres, genders, the human and the divine is astonishing. She is genius.

The back matter--notes, bibliography, acknowledgments, and index--are invaluable, and if you'd like you could launch a lifetime of study just using her references as the guidepost. This book has gotten me excited again about literature--a dive deep into the profound waters, far from the frothy, frivolous "acclaimed" writing that has increasingly made me feel so discouraged and alienated.

No, this is not a how-to. This is a wondering-how-and-why.

I agree that this is a graduate level course in one book, and I think the reader who wanted to give it zero stars was probably over her head. It is brilliant, philosophical and witty, as no doubt the author is also, but it is not an easy read memoir. Although there are elements of memoir, it's really a fascinating glimpse into the mind of a literary writer. Yes, these -- the problem of the double in myth and literature, the demonic/godlike sources of inspiration, the moral responsibilities of the artist, the meaning of the book as go-between of author and reader, and the different historical answers to all of the above -- these are the thoughts that occupy this writer. While the rest of us are absorbing entertainment, she is analyzing civilization and here she tells us what she thinks. A most valuable book! I also recommend her novels, especially Oryx and Crake, and The Blind Assassin.

You have to wonder if most of the previous reviewers of this book have actually read any of Atwood's fiction. If they had, they would have known the kinds of topics that interest her and that she might pursue in lectures about her career as a writer. It's hard to imagine, for example, criticizing Atwood for drawing references from 19th century literature. I see this book as following in the tradition of Virginia Woolf and Eudora Welty, by combining stories about the author's life as a woman with her reflections on what it has meant to write fiction of the highest order.

A very entertaining, ultimately serious work about the various relationships between a writer, a work of literature and the reader - and the ethical and motivational issues that underly those relationships. All this is worn very lightly however, and one can easily overlook the intriguing ideas beneath the witty accessible prose. Recommended for the reader who wants to know what the self-examining writer thinks about when they choose to interrogate their profession in an ideological way.

I love the new perspectives I gained from Atwood. She provides her view of the relationship between the text and the reader, the author and the text, and the reader and the author. She delves into literary theory in way I find approachable. I gained much insight from her literary references (allusions, if you will) and find the endnotes and bibliography to be a treasure trove. At times, I felt a bit disconnected to the text, but after reading a library copy, I need to get my own, so I can write in it.

I just finished reading this book and I must say, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I feel that anyone who truly ponders the intricacies involved in the process of writing, anyone who has grappled with the process itself, will find this book relevant, beneficial, and even entertaining.
Margaret Atwood mingles wit with wisdom. Erudition with transparency.
It is unpretentious from start to finish, which I think is an Atwood hallmark.
As explained in the prologue, the six chapters are really six re-worked lectures, delivered in the year 2000 at Cambridge University. They are intended for "specialists in literature, general readers, and - especially - writers at an earlier stage or dewier stage than my own."
They are not sequentially built upon each other, but rather, they circle like gulls over a set of common themes having to do with the writer, the writer's medium, and the writer's art.
The three main questions covered are as follows: "Who are you writing for? Why do you do it? Where does it come from?"

Who, why, and where... and nowhere how.
This is not a book about how to write.
It is a book about what it is like to write.
What it MEANS, to be a writer.

The most interesting section, in my opinion, was the third, entitled "The Great God Pen" because it focused on the second question "Why does the writer write?"... my favorite of the three. Here, Atwood talked about the topic of "art for art" and it was fascinating. Does the writer write to make money? For hope of fame? To project a moral statement? Create something beautiful? Exonerate oneself? Impress the masses?
Her prodigious and eclectic wealth of reference points and allusions show that she did not begin her thoughts on this topic just last week. In this chapter (and the entire book) we are the recipients of a very-much-still-alive LIFETIME of experiential and theoretical research, of such a caliber it can be considered among the finest scholarship in the field.
And again, witty as all get out.
Here is an example of what I mean by that: "I can still hear the sneer in the tone of the Parisian intellectual who asked me, `Is it true you write the bestsellers?'
`Not on purpose,' I replied somewhat coyly." (p.68).

Much of the book reads as memoir yes! (as other reviewers have commented). But how can this be a negative thing? If it is the writer's life we are concerned with learning about, is it not wonderful that one of the best in the world will share with us relevant glimpses and pieces of her own?

"Who are you writing for? Why do you do it? Where does it come from?"

It is hard to make a generalization about "Negotiating With the Dead," but the quote above (via the introduction) really sums up Margaret Atwood's goal in developing her partial-memoir, partial-commentary on literature and the business of writing.
At times, the language and references were cumbersome while addressing 19th Century literature and rhetorical prose that fit her ivy-league student lectures. Atwood was well-versed on both accounts having studied at prestigious East Coast schools and becoming an avid lover of classic literature. But her story doesn't end there. Atwood is more than a sum of her credentials and literary awards. At a time when the United States was in a state of political and cultural upheaval, Atwood stepped out of the conservative would-be-wed circles and developed her own style and voice before the burgeoning Bohemian crowds in back-water coffee shops and underground poetry circles. In these ways, Atwood was truly inspiring. It was comforting to know that she did not fit in with the bourgeois crowd having grown up in the dense Canadian wilderness while her father studied rare insects. She and her brother were forced to use their imaginations rather than a television or radio program to spark their creative forces. And most of all, she read and read and read. If there were a mantra for her commentary, the overall secret password for an aspiring novelist would be, simply, "read."
Part feminist commentary, part mystery of the craft, and part personal experience all come together to serve the reader well with a helpful dose of "process." Writing is a process if it is anything at all, and Atwood skips the patronizing tone of successful authors who spout mantras and secret ingredients to make a story work well. Atwood, in contrast, looks at the craft as a whole, how it exist naturally full of its quirks and diamonds. Most of all, according to Atwood, writing deals with mortality and that is the moral of the story, and if you are compelled to put pieces of words on paper, just do it, and do it well with some conviction. After all, the clock is ticking. Thank you, Margaret.

I felt compelled to write this review because of a previous reviewer's slanderous and ignorant comment that Margaret Atwood is an alcoholic. I am familiar with the arts community in Toronto and so can say with absolute certainty that this is untrue. This is a scholarly and beautiful text culled from a series of lectures and should be read as such. I suppose that if you believe, as another reviewer did, that being a writer does not require familiarity with the body of English literature then this is not the book for you. But if, as I did, you found that comment ridiculous and sad- then consider this text.

This is my first book reading experience by Maraget Atwood. It is a personable memoir that opened my eyes to the value, importance and creativity of writing. If anyone writes--in any way---they'll learn from this book. I was especially astonished to read how most writers have a sort of "double identity". It makes perfect sense in that a writer has to take on many forms, personalities and feelings in order to emote a character. She also points out that 'an art of any kind is a discipline'. I loved this book...and I feel like I'm a WIZARD (as in the Wizard of Oz). You'll understand what I mean if you read this book. I have to leave some element of suprise. Trust me, you will be surprised. A great book--for writers of any type. ;)