Robber Bride, The

I found it difficult to feel anything for the characters, other than thinking they are all exceptionally irritating. There was also so much time devoted to overdrawn descriptions & recounts of the past, instead of actually putting meat into the plot and bringing the story alive. The only character who was anyway interesting was Zenia, yet she was the one with the least told from her point of view. I understand this is deliberate, but the three characters telling the story were so irritating, it would have been refreshing to hear another point of view.

I convinced myself to keep reading as I thought it could only get better as I got through the book, but in the end I finished it just for the sake of finishing. To get through the last two chapters, I ended up skimming over anything that wasn’t dialogue - not a good sign.

There are so many engrossing books out there, that I would definitely recommend leaving this one aside.


One of Atwood's Best   September 5, 2005
5 out of 8 found this review helpful

As a fan of 'Alias Grace' and 'The Blind Assassin' I enjoyed reading this book all the way through. Toni, Charis and Roz although all different (and were all at the same university) are brought together after unfortunate encounters with the evil Zenia. For me personally it was Zenia's character that made me want to keep reading as well as wanting to kill her as I've meet people like her before in my own life. A long but enthrilling read


Virtuoso chaos   January 8, 2004
JOHN (PARIS/FRANCE)
27 out of 30 found this review helpful

I have just re-read this, one of my very favourite contemporary novels, and consider it to be an extraordinary achievement.
Its major strength surely lies in the highly skilful interlocking of themes and narrative technique and structure. The lives of three different women, Toni, Charis and Roz, have been ransacked in various unsavoury ways by the baleful influence of the mysterious Zenia. The reader is given ample opportunity to see things from the points of view of three characters with highly contrasted personalities and attitudes to life in general, and as a result is gradually led to realise that, while all three women are in many ways likeable, none of them is perhaps one hundred per-cent trustworthy...
Many articles and reviews have set out to establish what "really" happens in this novel, who, if anyone, is "really" responsible for what happens in the end. This surely misses the point, which is that subjective interpretations of "reality" inevitably and by definition clash with and contradict one another. And, after all, perhaps Zenia, like the witches in "Macbeth", doesn't "really" exist as any more than a personification or metaphor of the neuroses, uncertainties and vulnerabilities of the other characters?
Margaret Atwood heaps up the images which correspond to the chaos and fragility of our inner lives, and alludes very deftly to the fact that so much of what we do and how we behave corresponds to largely anarchic impulses, rather than to rational, planned behaviour.
I haven't yet read "Oryx and Crake", but I put this firmly at the top of the list of Atwood's novels. Although it wasn't shortlisted - five of her others have been, including "Oryx and Crake" and "The Blind Assassin", which went on to win in 2000 - this, for me, is the one that really deserved the Booker.


Not highly impressed   January 23, 2003
T.M. Mathews
9 out of 30 found this review helpful

The author is excellent, the writing thorough and (almost excessively) detailed, the book; not impressive. The majority of the book examines just the history of the three main characters down to their childhoods up to previous moment. The novel has great potential but then the ending, for me, ruined everything it had built up.
I suppose The Robber Bride could really appeal to a certain reader; women who have, at one point in their lives, allowed themselves to be taken advantage of and who have had low self-images. If that is you, go for it, you'll find it compassionate, beautiful, true, and a masterpiece. I personally found it lacking and a waste of promise. It really depends on the reader, some people loved it obviously, I give it a three.