The Edible Woman [Paperback]

Margaret Atwood (Author)

Book Description

Release date: March 16, 1998

Ever since her engagement, the strangest thing has been happening to Marian McAlpin: she can't eat.  First meat.  Then eggs, vegetables, cake, pumpkin seeds--everything!  Worse yet, she has the crazy feeling that she's being eaten.  Marian ought to feel consumed with passion, but she really just feels...consumed.  A brilliant and powerful work rich in irony and metaphor, The Edible Woman is an unforgettable masterpiece by a true master of contemporary literary fiction.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Margaret Atwood takes risks and wins."
--Time

"Throughout her literary career...Margaret Atwood has impressed and delighted readers with her wit, lyric virtuosity and imaginative acuity."
--San Francisco Chronicle

"One of the most intelligent and talented writers to set herself the task of deciphering life in the late twentieth century."
--Vogue

"Chock-full of startling images, superbly and classically crafted...Kept me in stitches half the time."
--Saturday Night

"Atwood has the magic of turning the particular and the parochial into the universal."
--The Times (London)

From the Publisher

New in this edition: a Reader's Companion to The Edible Woman--ideal for discussion groups

"Margaret Atwood takes risks and wins."
--Time

"Throughout her literary career...Margaret Atwood has impressed and delighted readers with her wit, lyric virtuosity and imaginative acuity."
--San Francisco Chronicle

"One of the most intelligent and talented writers to set herself the task of deciphering life in the late twentieth century."
--Vogue

"Chock-full of startling images, superbly and classically crafted...Kept me in stitches half the time."
--Saturday Night

"Atwood has the magic of turning the particular and the parochial into the universal."
--The Times (London)

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Anchor (March 16, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385491069
• ISBN-13: 978-0385491068
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.7 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (52 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #82,096 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.

Amazon Author Rankbeta 

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#81 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction

#84 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Literary

#81 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction

#84 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Literary

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

68 of 70 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A tasty treat! January 13, 2003

By Dianna Setterfield

Format:Paperback

I will have to admit that curiosity is the prime reason for reading this book. The back cover blurb doesn't give much by way of details of the actual storyline, just that the main character feels like she is being eaten. I couldn't stop myself from reading this book after reading that! However, the story wasn't exactly what I was expecting, although it was still pretty good.

Set in Canada in the late 1960s, the women's role in life is slowly trying to break free from the 50s television version of the housewife that vacuums in pearls and heels. Marian, a recent college graduate, considers herself a pretty independent woman. Even her relationship with her boyfriend, Peter, doesn't get in the way of her independence. She lives on her own with her roommate and best friend, Ainsley, and she makes her own living as copywriter for a survey service. But when, out of the blue, Peter proposes marriage, strange things start happening. Marian begins to feel consumed with making plans, quitting her job, moving in with Peter, and settling down for her role as housewife. All of a sudden she can't eat certain things and she has strange panic attacks that come from nowhere. Her freedom is being threatened, but Marian sees no way out. Or is there?

While Marian's story is the core of this novel, the host of supporting characters intrigued me the most. Ainsley decides she wants to have a baby and begins her search to find the lucky man to help her out. Marian's friend, Clara, and her husband, Joe, provide a stunning example of what married/family life will be like (and not always in a good way). Then there's Duncan, a man who answers the door when Marian is out doing surveys, who has his own issues. All of these storylines are full of feminist symbolism, and I believe it is important to know this before you read the book. It will definitely help you understand the novel more clearly.

I'm a new Atwood fan, having read and loved The Handmaid's Tale just a month ago. And while The Edible Woman is not as exhilarating or fascinating like Handmaid, I still found it to be very well-written with an interesting storyline, despite its heavy symbolism that mostly went over my head (I'm not too good at picking that stuff out!). I have two other Atwood books on my shelf and I'm looking forward to reading them. I believe that imagination and originality is Atwood's forte, and I have high hopes that the rest of her novels will provide a healthy dose.

26 of 30 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Fun with the world of metaphor December 26, 2001

By Michael Battaglia

Format:Paperback

I've got a few Atwood books and this is by far the oldest one, so if it's not her writing debut (as opposed to poetry, which I think she did as well) it's pretty close and I have to say that I was pretty impressed with how strong her narrative voice was and how confident the book feels. Reading it you get a sense that the author knows exactly what she's doing and how to go about it. That sense makes the book that much more fun to read, even if it's not going to be recognized as one of her absolute masterpieces. The story concerns a woman named Marian, presumably in her mid-twenties, who after getting engaged starts to lose her desire to eat most kinds of food. But even that description is a tad misleading because the eating aspect doesn't even come into play until almost halfway through the book. Indeed those looking for a feminist version of "Thinner" should probably go the other way right now. Instead it's an examination of a woman's role in both society and marriage and that gives the story more weight, balancing the often silly and humorous situations Marian finds herself in. It's definitely the lightest book I've read by Atwood, it's hard to believe this is the same woman who did the ultra-depressing Life Before Man. But the main focus isn't even on Marian's quasi-eating disorder but on her interactions with her fiancee, her roommate (the subplot with her wanting a baby is absolutely hilarious in a darkly absurd way) and an odd graduate student she meets while out doing a survey for her job. That graduate student and his monologues was my favorite part of the chapter and probably represents Atwood's poke at the academic world, but definitely shows off her gift for words. But be on the look out for metaphors, just about everything means something else it seems, even the switch from first to third person struck me as odd until I realized even that represented something. In the end the metaphors get stretched a bit too far and the only truly silly moment is right at the end. But it's immensely enjoyable for an Atwood novel and one of the few that you'll find yourself laughing more than feeling glad you aren't the characters.

28 of 33 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Refreshingly Real September 26, 1999

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

This is only the third Margaret Atwood novel I have read--having picked them all up at various flea markets and discount stores on a whim. I am a woman who usually does not identify with female authors, most of whom seem too aware of being "female authors" to tell a straightforward story without feminist propaganda. _The Edible Woman_, however, really hit me on a visceral level. Marian is the same age as I and has a similar perspective. She has a kitchen sink with molding dishes and a refrigerator whose innards seem to be growing. She has a college education and a job that she has no emotional attachement to, in fact she is horrified when forced to sign on to a retirement package, feeling tied to forever to an apathetic existence. She occasionally feels invisible when in a room with others, particularly it seems around her fiancee, at one point sliding between a bed and a wall while her friends quaff gin and play with camera equipment, never noticing she is gone until she is squashed under the bed as one of them sits down. She seems to be wandering through life without a purpose and clings onto the idea of being a wife by becoming almost accidentally engaged to an "ideal" man. Soon after this she finds herself slowly being nauseated by different sorts of food.

If the young ladies in this book didn't dress up so much and drink alcohol and smoke while pregnant it would seem very much a generation X novel! Starring apathetic protagonists Marian and Duncan, who both manage to be vivid characters in spite of the fact that they seem to spend most of their time just floating through life. A large part of the novel's strength is its well rounded secondary characters from Ainsley, Marian's single connivingly procreating room-mate, to Clara a somewhat disgruntled mother, to Duncan's slightly deranged grad-school room-mates.

This was a very fun book filled with characters I can imagine meeting among my own group of friends.