Lady Oracle

I have read and enjoyed other books by Margaret Attwood in the past, but I felt more than a little cheated by Lady Oracle. The main character, Joan, seems to stumble from one unlikely incident to another, with little point or direction to her life. I didn't think there was any plot at all, and I wonder whether Ms Attwood is having a laugh at our expense - thinking she can write any old rubbish and people will say it is wonderful just to prove how wordly-wise and literary-minded they are.If you want to read it borrow it from the library -then you won't waste your money.

Atwood does it again with another brilliant book (11/11 people found this helpful)

The only thing I found disappointing about this book is that it came to an end. I therefore immediately went out and bought The Edible Woman so that I could stay in Atwood's world a bit longer.

Margaret Atwood has such a wonderful way of telling the story about an ordinary woman - she isn't beautiful beyond imagination, she doesn't have fantastically wonderful relationships, a model husband and unrealistically good looking children, she is simply Joan Foster, with long red hair and, as one of the characters puts it "built like a brick nuthouse". But she doesn't need to have all the above things because Margaret has given her character a wonderfully touching and extraordinary life. Extraordinary because it is so ordinary!!!
Atwood strikes exactly the right balance in this book between moments of raw pain (Joan's childhood and relationship with her mother) and comic moments. I really really loved this book. It doesn't really have a proper ending but it wouldn't have because this is a snapshot of someone's life so it wouldnt tie up neatly at the end as you would not then be left wondering how Joan gets on.
Some people have moaned that Atwood includes too much detail in her novels but I think this is tosh - the details make it more real - who wants to read a book where the characters don't eat, sleep, burp, become obese, look ugly, in short, they don't behave like real people.
She has a wonderful way of describing relationships, especially the tensions and misapprehensions but by far the most chilling, Atwood can convey exactly the relationship between a bully and a victim and this is a common theme in her novels. It can be very unnerving to read especially if you yourself have been through similar experiences but then again, that just goes towards making the book more "real".

I would DEFINITELY suggest that you read this book, get it out of the library for free if you want to read it first before commiting yourself to buying it, but I reckon that most of you will end up with a copy of your own as you will want to read it again and again!!

Absolutely classic Atwood, insightful as ever. (18/18 people found this helpful)

'Lady Oracle' tells the story of serious feminist writer Joan Foster, (the Lady Oracle of the title) and her secret life as gothic-romance writer Louisa Delacourt, from Joan's life from a chubby child, her conflict with her mother who wants the perfect daughter, her battle to lose weight, bizarre affairs, (one with a Polish Count and another with an artist named 'The Royal Porcupine',) eventual marriage to the pasteboard Arthur, and the bizarre way in which she leaves the mundanity of her marriage to quite literally begin a new life.

The novel opens with the fantastic line 'I planned my death carefully; unlike my life, which meandered along from one thing to another, despite my feeble attempts to control it' and goes on to explain that the narrator has faked her own death in order to escape both her stillborn marriage and a blackmail attempt by the mysterious Fraser Buchanan.

It then continues with vivid, moving, and highly amusing accounts of her childhood. The narrator was a fat person until her late adolescense, and here Atwood gives a voice to the underrepresented and oppressed overweight of today's society. Joan's battles with her mother, of which her body was the battleground, are telling of a society where it is unacceptable to be anything except a perfect ten.

Atwood then alternates the narrative of the story with extracts from the gothic romance her narrator is writing: 'Stalked by love.' It is in these extracts, and the narrator's thoughts on them, that Atwood's trademark insightfulness truly flourishes, as even the most militant feminist finds herself confessing that what they really want is a Rochester. I particularly like the quotation 'Escape wasn't a luxury for (my readers), it was a necessity ... and when they were too tired to invent escapes of their own, mine were available for them at the corner drugstore, neatly packaged like the other painkillers.'

What more can I say? This gives a fantastic insight into the world of the fat woman in modern society, and makes the reader of romance novels consider their guilty pleasure in a new light. Atwood at her thought-provoking best.

Captavating Atwood at her best (6/34 people found this helpful)

I think everyone can relate to this book. We all have had some "Joan" type experiences in our lives, an outstanding novel

In one word, FANTASTIC! (7/18 people found this helpful)

This is a fast-moving, skilfully written book that once picked up, you do not want to put down until the very last word. This is not to be missed by either Atwood fans or any reader that enjoys compelling fiction.

Margaret Atwood

Reader Reviews:

Disappointing (0/0 people found this helpful)

Atwood does it again with another brilliant book (11/11 people found this helpful)

Absolutely classic Atwood, insightful as ever. (18/18 people found this helpful)

Captavating Atwood at her best (6/34 people found this helpful)

In one word, FANTASTIC! (7/18 people found this helpful)

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