A review by horourke
The Edible Woman by Margaret Atwood

3.5

The tale of a completely passive woman, floating through life merely allowing things to happen to her. She trudges through her job, friendships, and relationships as though she doesn’t care about any of them. Even her engagement comes about almost like an accident. Any time she comes close to discovering her own desires, she runs away - literally - and nothing is solved. Every character in this novel is unbelievably selfish, especially Duncan, the loser grad student she chooses (somewhat bafflingly) to have an affair with. She has the worst roommate in the world and even her married friends only care about themselves. It’s a wonder it took her so long to completely lose her mind, and even then she can’t muster up the nerve to do anything to change her circumstances. 

In some ways, her friends represent the choices she has as a woman. She could be married and overrun with children, as Clara is; single, chaotic and pregnant like Ainsley; or single, virginal, and gainfully employed as her office-mates are. She outwardly despises all three options, and thus struggles with her engagement and the implications of becoming a wife. All this is further complicated by Ainsley’s obsession with femininity and the rejection of it. Her morals are complicated (and largely nonsensical), yet she pushes them on to Marian nonetheless. 

Only in the final pages do we see Marian making decisions for herself, though at first they are largely symbolic. However, that is the style of Margaret Atwood - she excels in the symbolic, using fiction as a vehicle for her second-wave feminism. 

Overall, an interesting read, with some points still salient in the 21st century. Mostly left me feeling glad I did not have to suffer through life as a woman in the ‘60s.