Sunday, December 6, 2009
"The Robber Bride" by Margaret Atwood
I haven't actually finished Freakonomics yet, but will either today or tomorrow. Since everyone else has already finished it, I thought I'd open this new post for you. I've heard good things about this book from friends and academics- let's hope we share their opinion!
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17 comments:
I got my copy. M's pick does not disappoint, with 520 pages. =) Seems perfect for my next trip through Philly International tomorrow.
You know why I pick long books? Because picking them for the book club MAKES me read them when otherwise I keep putting them off in favor of shorter books. :-)
All my traveling drama in the past two weeks has had 1 good result: I am about halfway through Robber Bride now. I'm enjoying it very much!
Is it just me, or do you also picture Tony as Linda Hunt? (she's on NCIS Los Angeles, here is a picture: http://www.imdb.com/media/rm1984400896/nm0001373 )
All my "remodeling" drama in the last 2 weeks means I am on page 100 out of my 850 pages edition.... For some reason, I'm thinking girlfriends like in Sex in the City..... strange.
All my "end of semester" drama means you're both way ahead of me. I'm only on page 70, but liking it. Better than Shirley anyway!
No, I don't picture Tony as Linda Hunt, but I am feeling the Sex in the City vibe. I didn't like Charis from Tony's viewpoint, but I really like her from her own viewpoint. I can't wait to read Roz's storyline. That should be interesting! Do you see yourselves as fitting more the Tony, Charis, Roz, or Zenia mold?
I would like to be a Tony, but am probably more like a Roz.
I see Joy as Charis, Melissa as Tony and Krista as Zenia. Sorry Krista!
Now that I've been through each storyteller twice, I like Tony's naration best, but am most intrigued by Charis's story. Roz kind of bores me a little.
The description of Charis and her chickens is my Mom to a T!
I'm a definite Tony (I like things sdrawkcab - I SO totally get that). Charis is too touchy feely & scatterbrained, but I do like Roz. So who is Zenia?
Zenia is the culmination of everything that is evil and wrong in the world.
I have 80 pages left, will probably finish it tonight. The last 200 pages have been flying by.
My favorite part so far involves Tony and a cordless drill (trying not to spoil anything). I love Tony, and that section is just superb.
I wonder if I more closely identify with Tony because she was the first main voice of the book. How would it be different if we heard Charis's version first, or Roz's?
Roz's naration continues to be on the boring side.
I really enjoyed this book. It's destined to be a modern classic, read in many a literature classroom.
Through the end I enjoyed Tony's point of view best, liked Roz's character but didn't enjoy her naration, and adored Charis like you do a wobbly fawn.
** Spoiler alert **
Towards the end I also kind of came around to Zenia as well, her speech to Roz about Mitch, near the end of ch 53, was key to changing my mind. I really enjoy when a character finally (finally!) says what I have wanted to say the entire book. Mitch was an ass, get over it; which brings me to one of my favorite lines, from ch 26:
"He [West] thinks she [Zenia] needs his protection, but Tony must keep her sneers about this to herself. There is no rival like an absent one. Zenia is not there to defend herself, and for this reason Tony can't attack her."
Indeed, there is no lover like an absent one either, as both Charis and Roz show throught the book. Absent lovers never say the wrong thing, never forget birthdays or fart in bed. Absent lovers are faultless; they are easy to pine for.
Now for a few of my other fave lines:
ch 10 "In the school play, Tony would have been a snowflake... Charis herself was usually cast as a tree or shrub... They didn't realize that her clumsiness..was just because she wasn't sure where the edges of her body ended and the rest of the world began. What would Roz have been? ... the role of one of the Three Kings, wearing brocade and jewels, carrying a splendid gift."
I think this description was perfectly written, the essence of Charisness.
ch 14 "Roz has been known to print the names of new receptionists and secretaries on her wrist, in ballpoint ink, like a high school crib. If she were a man she could get away with a brief nod; but she's not a man, and she knows a whole lot better than to try acting like one."
Indeed, the entire passage about how it is to be a woman boss was brilliant. It made me look at my woman boss in a whole new light.
ch 51 " 'I bet he's [West] bored out of his skull, with nobody but you to stick his boring dick into! Jesus, it must be like fucking a gerbil!' "
Although humiliating, this line made me laugh out loud.
There were two other lines that I loved, but darned if I can find them now. One was in a Tony section, and said something along the lines that she had assumed, in error, that Zenia was as smart as she was. As smart as, but not smarter. The other was about Karen knowing how to make herself invisible by sucking in her color. It reminded me of Sookie putting up her wall.
cont..
I thought a key discussion point (and essay question, if Joan Jannone were teaching this book) would be the 3 childhoods of Zenia and how they relate to the women to whom they were told. For your refence they are:
White Russian child prostitute, to Tony in ch 24
Roumanian gypsy mother stoned to death, to Charis in ch 36
Mischling smuggled to freedom, to Roz in ch 46
Thoughts? Do you think she told the same stories to the corresponding men (West, Billy and Mitch)? Also, how do you account for the differences in the state of Zenia's hotel room throughout the visits from the other 3 women?
Did you guess that Larry was gay? I did not see it coming.
Do you think that any or all of the women played a part in Zenia ending up in the fountain? I really liked when Charis told the police "We were her best friends" because it was probably true.
Given their backgrounds, I think Charis, Tony and Roz turned out to be rather well adjusted - Charis especially. Reading about her mother and uncle made me a litle sick to my stomach.
I guess that's all I have to say for the moment; I think I'm going to check around online for some Robber Bride discussion questions - maybe something else will spur me to more blogging.
I realize I have been woefully neglectful of my selection to this point, but I promise to make up for it this week. First, I definitely connect more with Tony. I think it is because I study political science, which is ultimately about war. Plus, I really get how she looks at the world. I see Angie more as a Roz (but I really enjoy Roz's character, so that's not a bad thing) and I don't know Joy or Krista well enough to hazard a guess for them. Sorry!
I'm about halfway through the book and I just can't bring myself to hate Zenia. It seems to me that she just takes advantage of everyone else's faults and weaknesses. That's bad, but they LET her! They are as equally to blame in my estimation. Of course, it could be I'm a hard-hearted bitch... :-)
Angie, I'll address some of your other points as I progress further into the book.
I've loved so much of the writing thus far that it is hard to pick out favorite lines. You picked several of my favorites, Angie, but I have a couple more to add:
From CH. 19- "Tony did not say that she did not want to meet any more people. It would have sounded too strange." I echo this sentiment completely. People are work- meeting people are work- yet say this aloud...
From Ch. 25- "What is an ambush, really, but a kind of military practical joke? Hiding yourself, then running out and yelling Surprise!" I don't think I'll ever be able to hear about military ambushes with a straight face again. :-)
I've gone through each of the women's life stories and have to say that I found Charis's most interesting- depressing, but interesting. The way she describes things as lights and feelings and her grandmother are so fascinating! I think I like her narration even better than Tony's. Roz's lifestyle seemed interesting but that storyline left me least interested.
Other favorite lines:
Charis's description of seeing the future in Ch. 35: "There's nothing mysterious about it, any more than there is with a backwash in a lake or with harmony in music, two melodies going on at the same time. Memory is the same overlap, the same kind of pleat, only backwards." It almost makes me believe in seeing the future when it is described this way.
Then Roz discussing the twins feelings about books in Ch. 39: "They'd wanted Peter Pan to end before Wendy grew up, they'd wanted Matthew in Anne of Green Gables to live forever." I echo this sentiment completely.
And from the same chapter, Roz describing Zenia: "... for Zenia, who was, after all- who is surely nothing more than an up-market slut. The Rubber Broad is more like it- her and those pneumatic tits." Made me laugh out loud.
I expect to finish this week, especially if the last 200 pages move as quickly as Angie promises. Not to rush anyone but so I can plan ahead, it's Joy's next pick, right? Is it still A Year in Provence?
All finished at last. Overall, I really liked this book (even though it took me forever to read it) and now I understand why it was so highly recommended to me. I did think there were many depressing parts, namely the childhoods of just about everyone, but the solidarity of the three main characters and the way they came through for each other made it worth while.
I second Angie's love of Tony and the cordless drill. In that same chapter, I also enjoyed her imagining as West as the white knight saving Zenia. :-)
Only one more favorite line to add, from Ch. 49: "Mirror, mirror, on the wall, Who is the evilest of us all? Take off a few pounds, cookie, and maybe I can do something for you." Another laugh out loud moment for me. :-)
If you haven't finished the book, don't read the rest of this post as I will probably spoil something for you.
Okay, on to Zenia. I have mixed feelings about her. Part of me pities her and thinks she really got a bad deal. On the other hand, she was a really mean bitch. WOW. When she finally figured out that she couldn't play any of the other women at the end then she got rather nasty to them. Told them some truths about their pathetic men, but did it in a way that really hurt them.
I wish we did know her childhood. I imagine it must have been something awful for her to turn out as devious as she did, but it seems pretty clear that none of the stories that she gave the women were true. I'm thinking that she gave the men different stories too, we know that West got a different story from Tony. I see how Tony's, West's, and Roz's stories were tailored to them and their hang-ups (Tony's sexlessness-Zenia's prostitute, West's oversensitivity- Zenia's frigidity, and Roz's fear of her father's badness- Zenia's story of Roz's fathers goodness), but I don't really understand how the story she tells to Charis connects to Charis. Any ideas?
I was trying to reconstruct Zenia's last day and the state of her hotel room. It was neat to start, when Tony visited (maybe she wasn't there overnight and so it was tidy from the maids?). Then it was a wreck, with cigarettes and broken glass when Charis came (maybe she was so upset when Tony left that Zenia through a tantrum and chain-smoked?), then it was relatively tidy, with suitcases out when Roz arrived (I'm thinking that she realized she was not going to get anywhere with the three women and was frantically preparing to leave.) I haven't decided yet how she died. Murder? Suicide? I'm leaning away from accident because with Zenia's conniving I just can't imagine that she could accidentally die. I'm open to other interpretations.
I guess I'll stop here for now until everyone has read the book and commented.
M, you might enjoy this essay and the others linked at the bottom.
http://www.dancingbadger.com/robber_bride_zenia.htm
A- Thanks for the link to the essays. I particularly enjoyed the one about mirrors. It was an AHA moment for me.
I agree with the essay about the death. I just can't see any of our narrators having committed it, but I can't see it as an accident either. I am now leaning toward suicide. Further yet, do you think Zenia meant the three women to question whether or not the other did it? She must have known that they were in cahoots (sp?) and thus would know about each other's visits and anger toward Zenia. What better way for her to go out then by planning it so that they would never know and thus would always wonder?
Personally, I think Zenia ave herself the injection, and Karen pushed her off the balcony. Charis seems like she has a touch of the schizophrenia, and I think she did it as Karen. There was just so much of the "Jezebel falling from the tower" in her storyline.
Joy and I had an excellent day yesterday crafting and discussing the book. Wish you could have been there, you would have liked it! =)
Well, Melissa, this is the "Shirley Redeemed" choice, it was a good one. My head is FULL of thoughts, I am going to have to re-read this one now that I know the ending.
One question I am still foggy about is why did they all go to the 1st funeral? It seems then the women were all on the "outs" with Zenia at that time.
I do not seem any endearing qualities to Zenia at all, I didn't like her at any point in the book. She is a LIAR! And works always to the "soft" spot of these 3 women. I did NOT like her! Am I clear?
I have to say towards the end I like Roz the best, I think she was the most "adult" of them all. Tony was playing in the basement with a sand box and Charis was just out there. One thing I did like about Tony was the backwards thing and the line I really liked from her was "raw sex wars". A line that totally defined Charis was "she doesn't consider the alphabet to be an accurate way of classifying things". That made me laugh because I know a few people like that. Another section I really enjoyed was the conversation between Roz and Mitch about the difference between
adverturer and adverturess (chapter 47) - wits versus tits. HA HA HA.
Because I like colors, I was interested in Charis's color seeing ability and the color names of the Roz's lipstick company. I don't recall any big color moments for Tony.
I did enjoy Boyce, Roz's secretary. He seemed obviously gay but I never put him together with Larry....
I really liked Charis's grandmother, I wish she had a longer part in the book.
And what's the deal with Chapter 50?
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