The Robber Bride

I love Margaret Atwood.  The Robber Bride probably isn't her best, but it's still bloody fantastic.  I wish I could of studied it at school, I could have written such an amazing essay on it.  The plot of the book itself is one of those that starts at point A, spends 400-odd pages on exposition and back story before shuffling along a few plot points to B, leaving you with simultaneous feelings of nothing having happened and that you've lived entire characters' life stories.  Of course, half of what you've been told probably isn't true.

The book tells the story of three women (Tony, Charis and Roz) and their friendship which takes its roots in their collective cuckholding (for lack of a better word) at the hands of the mysterious Zenia, but more on her later.  The trio believe Zenia dead and upon finding out she is, in fact, not the book recounts how each of them reached where they are now.  It's strange that a book that seems initially to be about the women's relationship turns into this.  The three of them appear together in very few scenes and are always discussing Zenia.  As much as they begrudge their men for being obsessed with her; they too are in Zenia's thrall.  The segmentation of the book also meant some parts were more difficult to get into.  Right off the bat, I didn't like Charis.  She reminds me of this woman I know who believes that all illnesses are caused by negative energies and that Western medicine is not to be trusted. So, I was dreading reading the 100 or so pages that form her narrative.  Sure enough, Charis believes cancer can be cured by eating right and thinking happy thoughts.  It can't.  But she grew on me nonetheless, there was a bad childhood involved, so I just felt a bit guilty about any ill will toward Charis.  The other two ladies of the novel are just as blighted by family tragedy in their pre-Zenia days; Zenia, it appears, has a type.

Zenia herself is a fantastic villain.  Her role in life is to befriend lonely women and then steal their men.  Only when she leaves does it become clear that she lies- inventing stories tailored to the sensibilities of each in order to earn their sympathies.  All this makes Zenia an ever present but unknowable figure.  She is an embodiment of the monstrous feminine to the point where she is almost a caricature.  She follows her own sexual appetites, refers to men as accessories, "pure latex flows in her veins."  She refuses to be contained, even by death.  And she should be wonderful for it, Atwood's a feminist and I don't know why she doesn't glorify a woman who does what she wants.  As I said, Zenia is the villain of the piece and not just because it's a story told by her victims.  Zenia is chooses to be a villain because of the lies she tells.  She claims a childhood of sexual assault, she says she has cancer.  They are unforgivable untruths.  There's a quote on the front of the book that compares her to Richard III, I don't agree with this at all.  Richard III becomes a villain because he is treated poorly- he believes he is not fit for anything else.  Zenia creates herself as a sexpot, as far as the reader is aware she chooses her own destiny; we don't know enough about her to think she has been forced into the role she plays.

The Robber Bride does cause problems for me though.  It's not just the whole way Atwood buys into the transgressive women are bad and must be stopped thing with Zenia.  The friendship between Tony, Charis and Roz is built entirely on the hatred of another woman.  It's kind of a slap in the face to second wave feminism.  Roz even acknowledges this at one point, but nothing can be done about it.  Roz herself is a character who is a feminist running a magazine for women which becomes diluted into another glossy fashion mag.  She is a frustrating character because she recognises the inequalities and wants to be above the gender politics of the office, but ends up buying into them anyway.  She feels she cannot be a boss in the same way as a man without being perceived as a bitch and so pretends to befriend the women she is in charge of.  She is so close to being like Zenia in this regard, only she cares too much what other people think.

As I said, I could easily write an essay on this book.  It's so wonderfully full of contradictions and themes.   I miss writing about themes.  I haven't even started on Tony.   And I think she might be my favourite character in the thing.  Short and geeky, I can relate to her- although I'm almost certain she's wittier than me.  The book is pushing 600 pages and I devoured the thing in less than two days.  Now I'm a little bit sad.  I want to go back and spend some more time on those wonderful themes.  Oh, and the foreshadowing...

I've just moved onto Sheridan Le Fanu's In A Glass Darkly. Mostly because I do love a good scary story over Christmas.