Submitted by bye_alisha t3_120oycm in books
I finally finished Cat's Eye before bed last night. It's been on my list for a while: I enjoyed The Handmaid's Tale and The Testaments, but I wanted to branch out into the non-handmaid universe of Margaret Atwood. Having slept on it, here's what has stuck with me:
+ Atwood's prose is sharp, descriptive, and poignant. She always impresses me with her ability to tackle delicate topics unflinchingly and pragmatically; however, the humanity of her characters is always intact.
+ >!Having been a victim of childhood bullying myself, I found the description of the pre-teen girl gang of Cordelia, Grace, and Carol inflicting psychological damage on Elaine to be eerily realistic, highly relatable and, if I am being honest, mildly triggering.!<
+ >!It was very powerful and satisfying when Elaine finally absolved Cordelia (and herself) of the events of 40 years ago. It gives the reader the sense that she has finally moved on, metaphorically and literally.!<
+>! Elaine's strength in removing herself from the bullying situation was admirable, but...!<
- >!...the behavior of the adults in the situation was distressing, especially from my perspective as a teacher: 1. Elaine's mother not intervening, even when she knew that Elaine's safety was compromised, and 2. Mrs. Smeath arguably being "in on it" and not putting a stop to Grace and the girls in their bullying efforts. (She event went as far as saying that she felt Elaine deserved it because her family did not practice any formalized religion. Yuck.)!<
- The book was a slow burn. Once I knew that one of the main premises of the book was >!bullying!<, I was disappointed to find that >!it took nearly 100 pages to meet Cordelia!<.
- >!Once Elaine reached upper adolescence and adulthood, the story took a very different turn. This kept my interest, but I was truthfully disappointed in and frustrated with Elaine's character. There was a whole slew of really questionable and complicated situations in which she became involved, but what stuck out to me was that each one of them was her choice! No one chooses the pain of victimhood and bullying, but Elaine made a series of choices in adulthood that kept her firmly planted in her unhappiness.!<
- >!The entire Josef Hrbik subplot disgusted me. I couldn't help but think that, if the book were to come out 30 years later, (...firmly planted in the #MeToo movement...) there would have been a lot of backlash on that. It's vile enough that Elaine is barely 18 and he is 35, but the love triangle with (not-much-older) Susie put me over the edge, especially when she tried to perform an at-home abortion.!<
Overall, I walked away not feeling very hopeful. While I am pretty confident that this is what Atwood was going for, I tend to stay away from stories this heavy that do not end on a high note. If characters are going to be put in difficult situations, I want to be able to root for them and see them attain (at least) a glimmer of hope. I felt this way when reading Jeannette Walls's memoir, The Glass Castle: It arguably starts out even lower than Cat's Eye, but it ends much more optimistically.
Final thought: If I had to pick a "silver lining" >!to counter this sort of an ending!<, I suppose it would be that Atwood demonstrates the duality of human nature very well. I did not find any of the characters in this story to be 100% likable. >!That said, most of the characters had a redemptive or "Aha!" moment in which they moved beyond their previous flaws or stasis.!<
I am eager to hear what others have to say on the book. I also welcome a challenge or a "devil's advocate" take on my perspective(s)!
Edit: For a little more consistency.
helen_twelvetrees t1_jdixeg5 wrote
I really like Cat's Eye. I thought it did a great job in showing how the bullying Elaine suffered in childhood continued to affect her negatively for years afterward. Her tendency to sympathize with men, no matter how badly they were behaving toward the women in their lives, for example. Also, her mistrust of any kind of female authority figures. It's unusual to read a book by a female author where male-female relationships are taken much more lightly while female friendships are portrayed as bloodsport. I also thought Atwood did an excellent job showing how little things that might be easily dismissed by some people, like Cordelia's bullying, which really only lasted for a year or so in her childhood, could have such a huge effect on Elaine that she was still wanting to get closure on it so many years later.
I also liked reading about Elaine's artwork. I'm a very visually-oriented person and I could imagine all of her paintings quite easily and found it fascinating how she used the elements of her past in her artwork.