Why did I resist Margaret Atwood for so long.....?

[MinaLoy]

.....I'm almost finished The Robber Bride and I'm already pining. Is all of her stuff this good? Any recommendations?

I am going to dig out my MA books for a well earned re read I think!

have read the Handmaid's Tale twice but not read any of her other books...I think I only read the book because of the quite terrible movie that I used to stay up late to watch on my little black and white tv when I was supposed to be asleep when I was a kid.. that and some really terrible horror movies but thats for another thread..

have put her name back on my authors list now.

Same as MrsMattie. Would recommend The Handmaid's Tale and Alias Grace.

Yes - keep reading. I have loved the Handmaids Tale and Oryx & Crake, which seems frighteningly possible somehow.

i've enjoyed them as commuter reading but was a but mystified as to why they are considered more intellectual than that - she gets on plenty of university courses! But then that's the same for Angela Carter, so maybe it's me.

I thought the Handmaid's tale was sort of enjoyable enough, but wasn't particularly subtle. I like her better on relationships between women on a more Joyce Carol Oates level.

"Alias Grace" is good. "The Handmaid's Tale" is great. I didn't like "The Edible Woman" at all and I was disappointed by "Oryx And Crake".

Margaret Atwood is my favourite author! I have a shelf full of her books.

Best ones are: "Alias Grace" and the "Handmaid's Tale". (I read the Handmaid's Tale when I was a student and it absolutely terrified me.) Robber Bride, Blind Assassin and Cat's Eye also v. good.
I didn't enjoy Oryx and Crake so much - too depressing.
Her early books and short stories are also beautifully written: Edible Woman, Surfacing etc

I didn't like Oryx and Crake. Nowhere near as good as Cloud Atlas. I think she isn't very good at SF, too heavy-handed (although Oryx and Crake is worse than Handmaid's Tale for this).

I like the early stuff. My favourite is Murder in the Dark, a short story collection.

i liked oryx and crake - obviously not everyone's cup of tea

Slaps NotQuiteCockney on the cheek with a copy of Cloud Atlas and challenges her to a duel

Have read almost all her books. I found The Blind Assasin disappointing tho...

Pah!

Alias Grace & Handsmaid's Tale (one of my A Level texts many moons ago...)

Unfortunate confusion earlier between [[bracket>> shapes.

Love love love the handmaids tale, it was the first of her books I read (when a student) and I so looked forward to reading her others but found none of them to be as good as the handmaids tale which really captured my imagination. Cat's Eye I didn't like, Alias Grace and Oryx and Crake and the Blind Asassin all ok. Don't let the fact that it won a prize for SF writing put you off, it's really not SF IMHO.

Cats Eye is my favourite book of all time.

Have just finished rereading it.

assassin
Muddleduck, maybe I should revisit Cat's Eye look at it with an older head!

Interesting diversity of opinions on here...

I loved The Blind Assassin, although my favourite is still probably Cat's Eye. Handmaid's Tale and Alias Grace I also thought brilliant.

Oryx and Crake was OK but I didn't enjoy it as much as the others, ditto The Penelopiad and Life After Man, The Robber Bride and The Edible Woman even less so. And I've had Moral Disorder plus one of her books about writing on my shelves for ages and not been able to get into them. Maybe I'm growing out of her??

She's got a new one out in the autumn, I believe.

I've read them all and loved them all with the exception of the blind assasin which I struggled through. I finished it, only becuase my granddad was canadian and the backdrop of the economic climate explained hwy he left Canada, something I'd always wondered!

Couldn't get past page fifty of cloud atlas!

I'm sure I've got a copy of the Handmaid's Tale somewhere, but I've never read it. Will dig it out.

Read Brave New WOrld, it's better, and unless I was missing something, they're similar ideas. Running with a scary futuristic notion of the abuse of science.

fertility science?

Handmaid's Tale one of my fav books ever and i studied Cat's Eye at uni and liked that too. Haven't read any of her more recent ones, maybe i should.