A touch of the strange. (Cat's Eye - Margaret Atwood)

Member Name: Bryn Pearson

Product:	Cat's Eye - Margaret Atwood
Date:	21/06/01 (654 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: funny, thoughtful, mixing the real and the unreal.

Disadvantages: none.

"Cat's Eye" by Margaret Attwood follows the life of artists Elaine Risely, and the influcences from childhood that continue to haunt her.

Writen in first person, from Elaine's perspective, this is a strange tale that will often leaving you wondering if you are getting at the whole truth. Sinister thnigs are implied, but never quite shown, and there is a lot for you to ponder over as you read the book.

Elaine's early life comprises of travelling about with her family - her father collects insects for a living. When her father takes a permenant post, the family settle down and Elaine is sent to the local school. Initially, she is delighted by the new friends she makes, but as she is not wealthy, no Christain and just a bit weird, she soon becomes the victim of bullying. The central figure in this bullying is Cordellia, who Elaine adores, and it is this attachment that allows so much pain to be caused.

Moments from later life show Cordellia as a failure, a nrevious and troubled wreck who sees Elaine as her only childhood friend. it becomes clear that the torments practised by Cordellia had been learned from an unsympathetic father.

In later life, Elaine paints the images of her childhood, taking her revenge on the parents who encouraged their children to be cruel to her, and finally elarning to see them as she shabby hypocrites they clearly were. Cordellia flits through her life like a restless ghost, a somewhat unreal echo of the past that will not go away. The tables turn, and in some ways Elaine becomes the powerful one, the one who is cruel.

The book is narrated from the perspective of a mature Elaine, but none the less we can see her perspectives change as the book developes. Her understanding of the world, and ehr growign sense of perspective are fascinating, as are the stories of her love affairs and her developing art - some very funny tales about a femenist exhibition she is involved with.
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Watching Elaine watching her own offspring is interesting - the fear that they will sufferas she did, or that worst of all, their calm exteriors are due to the fact that they are agressors. She is never sure.

There is one thing in this book that marks it out as more than just a tale about bullying. The cruel games played by Elaine's friends result in her being left in an icey gorge one winter's night. It is clear that she could well die, and during these moments she sees an unusual form of a woman, who she believes to be the virgin Mary. This vision lends an air of mystery to the book and becomes one of the driving forces in Elaine's life.

If you can find it, there is a particularly good edition of this book which combines it with a selection of short stories. The cover is the same. The short stories include "The Edible Woman" and other Attwood classics.

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