Friday, September 11, 2009

Margaret Atwood's Cat's Eye

Are we ready to tackle this impressive book by Canadian author, Margaret Atwood?  I just finished reading it today (!) and finally get the significance of the cover illustration.  What a powerful, mood-filled, thought-provoking book.

Born in 1939 in Ottawa, Ontario, Margaret Atwood is the daughter of a forest entomologist who reared her in the northern Canadian wilderness during her early years.  In a Reading Group Guides interview she notes, "I grew up in the north under rather isolated circumstances, spending most of my early life in a forest with no electricity, no running water, without any radio or movies, and before television.  I was read to a lot as a child."  She graduated from the University of Toronto and earned a masters from Radcliffe College.  Honored with many literary awards, Atwood is best known for novels such as The Handmaid's Tale, The Robber Bride, The Blind Assassin, and Oryx and Crake as well as Cat's Eye.  Her newest book will be published September 22, 2009, and is entitled The Year of the Flood.