Power Politics [Paperback]

Margaret Atwood (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1971

Margaret Atwood's Power Politics first appeared in 1971, startling its audience with its vital dance of woman and man. Thirty years later it still startles, and is just as iconoclastic as ever. These poems occupy all at once the intimate, the political, and the mythic. Here Atwood makes us realize that we may think our own personal dichotomies are unique, but really they are multiple and universal. Clear, direct, wry, unrelenting —Atwood's poetic powers are honed to perfection in this important early work.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Margaret Atwood is the award-winning author of more than 25 books. She was the winner of the 2000 Booker Prize, and lives in Toronto. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 56 pages
• Publisher: Stoddart Pub; First Edition edition (June 1971)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0887840205
• ISBN-13: 978-0887840203
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,458,505 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

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The heart of Margaret.., September 26, 2002

By 

Peripeteia (St. Louis) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Power Politics: Poems (Paperback)

The idea of poetry written about intimacy may make some readers shudder. One might think it is even a cliché, but no matter who the objective logical thinker is, they are forced to admit there's a tiny part of them who has lived and breathed a relationship of power struggle, one that might have had them seizing and submitting to the core of their innermost thoughts. Love that has left them in doubt and strengthened the self in ways that only passion can accomplish.

As Atwood writes, "....and there isn't anything I want to do about the fact that you are unhappy and sick, you aren't sick and unhappy, only alive and stuck with it." She opens up to her readers those personal witticisms we have thought towards are own "unhappy relationships" while throwing in insightful humor and wild imagery, breaking the rules of all poets with her fascinating rhythms and adjectives. If you are missing this collection of poetry from your Atwood repertoire, you are missing the heart of Margaret, her furious meticulousness and unlikely metaphors aimed into the bloodied heart of an adoration and boredom for her unlikely male worshipper. This book is an absolute must read, must own and an altogether pleasure to read.

"I raise the magic fork over the plate of beef fried rice, and plunge it into your heart." - from "They Eat Out" (Power Politics)

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars still relevant, still potent, March 2, 2008

By 

datura2002 "datura2002" (Houston, TX) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Power Politics: Poems (Paperback)

"you fit into me
like a hook into an eye

a fish hook
an open eye"

Twenty-five years after its first publication, Margaret Atwood's verses still retain their power -- her imagery still startles and disturbs; her insights are still relevant. As Sharon Thesen has written, Power Politics is "astonishing, notorious, a classic."

Atwood is better-known as the Booker-Prize-winning author of The Handmaid's Tale, Cat's Eye, and Blind Assassin. Though I admire her prose, if I had to choose, I would pick the poetry. It has always seemed more immediate, more personal than her novels and short stories, while still thoughtfully composed and within Atwood's glacial tonal range. As with her prose, Atwood delights the reader with her dry wit and elegant irony, even while maintaining her cool veneer of detachment.

5.0 out of 5 stars biting, honest, crushing, captivating... brilliant., November 25, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Power Politics: Poems (Paperback)

this is one of my favourite atwood collections, and one of the few books of poetry that i can (and want) to read every minute of the day.

atwood can capture human relationships, romantic relationships, conflict, love and the play for power all in a single stanza, line or even individual word. this collection is page after page of language so outstanding that you wish you were born from atwood's mind; no one else has the piercing insights and the flawless word choice to describe them that this woman does. if she can't blow you away, no one will.