Meet the remarkable MARGARET ATWOOD and chat about her award-winning novels, including THE HEART GOES LAST, in November's Bookclub, Wednesday 4 November, 9-10pm

[TillyMumsnetBookClub]

Over her exceptional career, spanning forty books and almost fifty years, Margaret Atwood has returned to themes of totalitarianism, environmental destruction, sexual politics and economic failure. She always takes on these monsters with a piercing intelligence, and a wit that makes the pages sing. Her latest novel, The Heart Goes Last, is set in a future world that is ruined, lawless and based on greed. Stan and Charmaine used to have a fairly regular life, but now they are forced to live in their car, existing on scraps and cheap doughnuts. When they see an advert for the Positron Project, offering a job and a home, they desperately sign up, despite a gut feeling that this might not be the paradise that is promised. Still, all they have to do is give up their freedom once a month and spend a bit of time in a prison cell. How bad can that be? The plot becomes increasingly circus-like, involving Elvis sex-bots, eugenics, mind-control and some strange knitted teddies, but the remarkable truth is that it all seems entirely possible.

Margaret Atwood has written volumes of poetry, children’s literature, fiction, and non-fiction and is known across the globe for her novels, which include The Edible Woman (1970), The Handmaid's Tale (1983), The Robber Bride (1994), Alias Grace (1996), and The Blind Assassin (2000) and the MaddAddam trilogy. Find out more at our book of the month page.

You'll also find a huge range of reviews, videos and information on Atwood's excellent website or follow her very active Twitter feed.

Bloomsbury have 50 hardbacks of The Heart Goes Last to give to Mumsnetters: to claim your copy please fill in your details on the book of the month page. We’ll post on the thread when all the copies have gone. If you’re not lucky enough to bag one of those, you can always get a Kindle version here or hardback here.

We are honoured and delighted that Margaret Atwood will be joining us on 4th November 9-10pm to discuss The Heart Goes Last, her many award-winning works and her writing life. Please feel free to discuss the book here throughout the month and then come and meet Margaret on the night, ask her a question or simply tell her what you think of her books. Look forward to seeing you there!

@RachelMumsnet

Hi Margaret - we're hearing you loud and clear. Am about to email over further instructions. Really looking forward to the webchat tomorrow eve. Rachel

Okay Rachel, looks like the Quote button is functioning...
www.mumsnet.com/emo/te/2.gif.pagespeed.ce.pqlGYGVWqX.gif

@RachelMumsnet

Hi Margaret - we're hearing you loud and clear. Am about to email over further instructions. Really looking forward to the webchat tomorrow eve. Rachel

[quote IdiotMargaret][quote RachelMumsnet]
.
I just posted a pic of the cover I made for the ms while working on The Heart Goes Last.

An apt image for a dystopian world. Thank you for my copy of The Heart Goes Last. An interesting idea for a story. Very dark, yet there are moments of humour. Unfortunately, I have not finished it completely and will not be around this evening. Look forward to reading the web chat tomorrow.

Just a quick explanation: IdiotMargaret is the poster name the real Margaret Atwood set up herself for the webchat. So in the strange dystopian world of MA you'll be chatting to IdiotMargaret tonight. Can't wait!

Looking forward to tonight very much indeed. Just a reminder that even if you haven't finished your copy of The Heart Goes Last, please do come and join in and ask a question about any of Margaret's previous books.

See you all here at 9...

My question is:

Hi Margaret, I was delighted to see that 'The Heart Goes Last' is dedicated to Angela Carter, along with others. As you and Angela Carter are two of my most favourite authors, I just wanted to ask why you decided to dedicate it to her and about the reasoning behind it.

Thank you,

Roxie

I agree with ktlq that we are being seriously spoiled with amazing writers for bookclub!

I also echo Susan74's observation that you frequently change your mind about your feelings towards Stan and Charmaine throughout The Heart Goes Last which can be so true in life!

My questions to you Margaret (gulp) are:
Do you prefer short story, novel or poetry writing, and how far ahead do you plan your writing projects?
and
How difficult do you find it to name your chapters?
Really looking forward to the webchat tonight. Thank you for sharing your time with us Margaret, and thank you Mumsnet for my copy of The heart Goes Last.

God I love your books! I read the Handmaid's Tale in 1990 when I found a copy at college, and have been devouring your works since. I love the feeling of disorientation, of 'what the hell is going on here?' for the first chapter or so of your books as you are thrown feet first into an alternative world.

A very dull question though - I have episodes 1-3 of Positron; am I right in assuming that the publication of The Heart Goes Last means I won't just be able to pick up the last parts to the piecework?

Hi Margaret You are one of my favourite authors seriously trying to not gush too much and although I haven't had a chance to The Heart Goes Last it's my birthday next week so I will stick it on my birthday list.

How much of The Heart Goes Lasts' dystopia is taken from real events past or present, like The Handmaidens Tale.

Btw thank you for Cats Eye. Especially the part where she stands up to the bullies, I re read that over again and wished it was my 8 year old self!

I'm so pleased you are here for a webchat - I am a big fan of yours and have read many of your books. I have just finished "The Heart Goes Last" in a matter of days as I just wanted to swallow it up.

My question is: When you write a novel with a dystopian setting, are you predicting what you believe to be a possible future? And, in that, are you trying to convey a warning or a message to the reader (or to society as a whole?) Something I very much feel with your novels, and especially The Heart Goes Last, is as far-fetched as some of the scenarios seem, to me they also seem very believable and possible.

Another huge, huge fan here - I haven't started The Heart Goes Last yet, but it is on birthday list for next week :-) Thank you for many hours of reading pleasure, from my teenage years to my more grown up ones.

My question is about Book Groups in general, and what keeps your feminism motivated. Whenever I am feeling low about feminism, I reflect on the rise of book groups over the last few years - esp given that they are often (I know not always) female spaces, and expressly to think, hold and express opinions, and reflect on our own reactions to others experience. What keeps your feminist spirit hopeful (or maybe it isn't...?)

Hi Ms Atwood!
I am loving The Heart Goes last but must admit to only being half-way through as I had another (much lesser) book to finish first. What are you reading at the moment? Which book have you most enjoyed in the last year? I have read most of your other books and will gush about them to anyone who'll listen (and those who won't as well, just in case). Keep writing!

Hi Margaret, my question is what was the last novel you read and did you enjoy it? ??

My question is 'Who has been the biggest influence on your life and why?' Welcome to MN :)

Evening everyone

Firstly, thank you to all those who have written their reviews and thoughts so far, and I do hope you’ve been able to make it tonight for the live chat.

Ever since we started Bookclub, I’ve hoped to have this magnificent writer as a guest, therefore I'm particularly thrilled and honoured to welcome Margaret Atwood to Bookclub this evening. Margaret is a poet, essayist, critic, novelist and environmental activist and her career has spanned almost fifty years and around forty books, including the classic The Handmaid’s Tale, Cat’s Eye, The Blind Assassin (Booker Prize winner in 2000), The Penelopiad, the MaddAddam trilogy and over a dozen volumes of poetry. Her latest novel is THE HEART GOES LAST. I am delighted that we have the opportunity to talk about this exceptional body of work with Margaret over the next hour.

Margaret, thank you very, very much indeed for giving us your time tonight, especially as I know you have an extremely punishing publicity schedule. And congratulations on the excellent THE HEART GOES LAST and on your countless awards and prize nominations for all your terrific books.

We've already got a fair few questions to get through so I'll quickly add the standard Mumsnet ones that we like to ask all our authors...

What childhood book most inspired you?

What would be the first piece of advice you would give to anyone attempting to write fiction?

What is the best book you have given anyone recently?

And the best you've received?

Over to you...

@TillyMumsnetBookClub

Evening everyone

Firstly, thank you to all those who have written their reviews and thoughts so far, and I do hope you?ve been able to make it tonight for the live chat.

Ever since we started Bookclub, I?ve hoped to have this magnificent writer as a guest, therefore I'm particularly thrilled and honoured to welcome Margaret Atwood to Bookclub this evening. Margaret is a poet, essayist, critic, novelist and environmental activist and her career has spanned almost fifty years and around forty books, including the classic The Handmaid?s Tale, Cat?s Eye, The Blind Assassin (Booker Prize winner in 2000), The Penelopiad, the MaddAddam trilogy and over a dozen volumes of poetry. Her latest novel is THE HEART GOES LAST. I am delighted that we have the opportunity to talk about this exceptional body of work with Margaret over the next hour.

Margaret, thank you very, very much indeed for giving us your time tonight, especially as I know you have an extremely punishing publicity schedule. And congratulations on the excellent THE HEART GOES LAST and on your countless awards and prize nominations for all your terrific books.

We've already got a fair few questions to get through so I'll quickly add the standard Mumsnet ones that we like to ask all our authors...

What childhood book most inspired you?

What would be the first piece of advice you would give to anyone attempting to write fiction?

What is the best book you have given anyone recently?

And the best you've received?

Over to you...

Hello, and welcome. The reason I am “Idiot Margaret” is that the website would not accept me under my usual name. Technology is strange. But it was very happy with “Idiot Margaret,” and we didn’t want to risk a Tech Fail by trying to change it to Margaret Atwood.

Hello Tilly, and thank you for moderating. Here are the answers to your first four questions:

What childhood book most inspired you?

Oh dear. “Childhood.” It comes in so many stages. 1-6?  7-10? 11-13? Let’s take 1-6, although I wasn’t much in the business of being inspired then. I did believe that animals could talk, though like Prufrock’s mermaids they unfortunately did not talk to me. So from that period of my childhood I attach a lovely infographic about Beatrix Potter as my early writing model and instructor. Apart from her, it was Grimm’s Fairy Tales, and in the 1940’s – before they got Princessed and Disneyfied – that meant red-hot shoes, gouged out eyeballs, and the whole nine yards. Did that put me off? Evidently not, since the good folks were generally rewarded; which was more than can be said for Hans Christian Anderson, who I don’t think was writing for children really. 

What would be the first piece of advice you would give to anyone attempting to write fiction?

Read, read, read, write, write, write. Especially the latter. It doesn’t matter what at first, just keep the words flowing; because if you aren’t actually writing, you aren’t a writer.
There are a million blogs and advice books and tip sheets out there, but make a bargain with yourself: you aren’t allowed to peek at them until you have actually done some writing first.
In the self-confidence department: No one will see what you write unless you show it to them.
And: Read something that is self-evidently worse than what you’re writing yourself. It’s encouraging.

What was the best book you've given recently?

I shy away from “best.” I have trouble choosing “bests.” Is vanilla better than strawberry?
But let’s say one I enjoyed reading, and that the recipient enjoyed. Neither of us skipped any bits.

A Whole Life, by Robert Seethaler, translated by Charlotte Collins. Simple, charming, magical. A treat.

www.bookdepository.com/Whole-Life-Robert-Seethaler/9781447281894

And the best you've received?

A lot of those. But Jamie Byng of Canongate gave me a copy of Get In Trouble, by Kelly Link; funny, smart cross-genre spookery, unlike anything I’d read recently. And then when I was at the Boston Book Fair this fall, who should be my onstage interviewer but the very same Kelly Link. We had a fine old time, and neither one of us wove any knobbly-fingered charms around the other.

www.canongate.tv/get-in-trouble-hardback.html

@TheSecondOfHerName

I borrowed this from my local library and I'm about half-way through. Totally compelling so far.

Thank you!

@Spikeinhiscoat

Woo hoo! I've just got the email notification that I'll receive a copy of the book. A new Margaret Atwood is always very exciting! Eagerly awaiting the post now.....

Thank you!

Evening all!

I found The Heart Goes Last seriously gripping - I thought the creation of the dystopia very, very convincing in its detail and quite frighteningly believable.

It was the very last section that crystallised what I had been thinking about the book (I guess up to that point I'd just been enjoying the ride), all about the choices we make between freedom and safety. (Although sometimes, of course, as in the book, we can choose neither)

And also I was wondering about love - the way Charmaine feels so much more in love with Stan in the final section.

Which left me with these questions for Margaret:-

1. To what extent would you describe Western society as unfree? What can we do about? (or, conversely, should we do anything about it?)

2. How far is it possible to choose who we love?

3. How can we break out of the mental jails we (well, those of us who might identify with Charmaine, any how) build for ourselves?

Sorry if those are all far too broad, or too trite.

And finally - I'll never look at a blue teddy bear in the same way again!

@Spikeinhiscoat

My copy arrived today, and thanks to an amenable ds2 I'm about three-quarters of the way through already. Even the formatting of the contents page is a bit different, breaking the story into short sections of several chapters each. The dedication is to three other writers, only one of whom I knew already, but as I really like Angela Carter's writings, I'll look up the others as well. I have really enjoyed the other Margaret Atwood novels that I've read, especially the dystopian ones The Handmaid's Tale, and the Oryx and Crake trilogy, and this reminds me of those. The story of Charmaine and Stan draw you in quickly. Some of the choices that the characters make/the situations they find themselves in, I was thinking "no, dont do that", but it all flows and seems naturalistic (what I mean is that some dystopian/sci-fi (I don't even know how to correctly categorise these types of novel, other than to say I enjoy reading them) set up situations that are shouting " look at me, I'm so futuristic that I'm completely unbelievable to you now" but this feels more credible (and maybe worryingly so). From about two-thirds in, the story escalates and I'm looking forward to see how it concludes. As a scientist, I also want to say that I liked the brief "chemistry is magic" comment, too

Thanks a lot!

Hi Margaret, I really enjoyed reading The Heart Goes Last. It's a fearless book. It challenges many of the illusions that we all buy into (about the Economy, Technology, Romantic Love…). Charmaine’s ‘real’ prison job, selling babies blood, men gaining access to chickens – all genuinely surprised me because they were uncomfortably plausible. I was also struck by your descriptions of sexual lust from a female point of view (not many of those in literary fiction). Are you a braver writer now than when you were younger? Are you a braver person?

@ItchyArmpits

Evening all!

I found The Heart Goes Last seriously gripping - I thought the creation of the dystopia very, very convincing in its detail and quite frighteningly believable.

It was the very last section that crystallised what I had been thinking about the book (I guess up to that point I'd just been enjoying the ride), all about the choices we make between freedom and safety. (Although sometimes, of course, as in the book, we can choose neither)

And also I was wondering about love - the way Charmaine feels so much more in love with Stan in the final section.

Which left me with these questions for Margaret:-

1. To what extent would you describe Western society as unfree? What can we do about? (or, conversely, should we do anything about it?)

2. How far is it possible to choose who we love?

3. How can we break out of the mental jails we (well, those of us who might identify with Charmaine, any how) build for ourselves?

Sorry if those are all far too broad, or too trite.

And finally - I'll never look at a blue teddy bear in the same way again!

Hello: Well, those are tough questions. We're more free than many people have been in the past, but like everyone, always, we're limited by the circumstances in which we find ourselves. And then fear limits us, as well.So no one has unlimited choice, despite the ads that show us flying and so forth. We can choose only among possibilities.

2. Difficult to control "falling in love," but love potions aside, as in Midsummer Night's Dream and the Heart Goes Last brain=probe equivalent you can choose what to do about that. More or less. Sometimes.

3. How about "By reading novels?" Just kidding. More or less. Sometimes.

@Susan74

I was lucky enough to receive a copy of this book and, have to admit, it's the first Margaret Atwood book I have read. I read it within a few days! It grabbed me from the start and kept my attention right to the end. Both the main characters had traits I liked and disliked and I found myself changing my mind about each of them frequently throughout the story. I am looking forward to reading other books by this author very soon. Any suggestions which one to start with?

Hello: Maybe "Oryx and Crake" or possibly "The Blind Assassin"? Or "The Handaid's Tale"? Always hard to choose books for someone else.