Margaret Atwood: The Robber Bride, The Blind Assassin, Oryx and Crake (review)

Margaret Atwood: The Robber Bride, The Blind Assassin, Oryx and Crake, edited by J. Brooks Bouson, was recently released as part of the Continuum Studies in Contemporary North American Fiction series, a series that offers a range of original interpretations of novels published after 1990. The collection comprises three parts, each of which focuses on a different Atwood novel. In the Introduction, Bouson addresses Atwood's importance and discusses how she has "evolved from a Canadian cult figure and celebrity into an internationally acclaimed writer with a wide popular and academic following" (1). Bouson also explains the logic behind the decision to group these three novels together for this collection; she argues that The Robber Bride, The Blind Assassin, and Oryx and Crake all "grow out of the thematic preoccupations that have long driven Atwood's art even as they showcase her remarkable range and evolving complexity as novelist" (15).

The first part of the collection centers on The Robber Bride (1993), a novel set in the early 1990s that tells the stories of three middle-aged women—Tony, Charis, and Roz—and their respective friendships and betrayals by a fourth woman, Zenia, a "seductress and sexual rival who has threatened the[ir] happiness and security" (Bouson 15) by stealing their men. Bouson argues that readers of this novel are forced to "grapple with the mysterious and ever-changing Zenia" (19) in order to make sense of her character and how she functions in the narrative. Ultimately, Zenia proves to be, as Bouson contends, a "multiple and forever shape-shifting character" (21). Indeed, the various contributors who examine The Robber Bride all offer their insightful individual readings of her character. In "Magical Realism in The Robber Bride and Other Texts," Sharon R. Wilson contends that, although critics and readers often view Atwood as a realistic writer, The Robber Bride is not a work of realism, nor is Zenia a realistic character. Instead, she argues that Zenia is a magical realist character and suggests that the fact that readers of the novel first see her image "reflected in a smoky mirror" (Wilson 29) is just the first of many clues that she is supposed to be read this way. In "Parodic Border Crossings in The Robber Bride," Hilde Staels posits that the novel is an example of postmodern parody. She interprets the character of Zenia as an example of a female trickster figure as well as a "'bad girl' who subverts culturally prescribed codes of morality and propriety" (Staels 43). In "You're History: Living with Trauma in The Robber Bride," Laurie Vickroy interprets the novel as a trauma narrative and views Zenia as a traumatic stressor, "the catalyst for new and re-emergent traumas" (52) in the other characters' lives. Although these three contributors differ in their views about how Zenia functions in the novel, their essays nonetheless share a common thread: they all compellingly illustrate the ways Atwood critiques gender politics and the complex power relations that often characterize female friendships.

The second part of the collection highlights different perspectives on The Blind Assassin (2000), a novel comprised of three competing yet related narrative strands. Atwood tells the story of two sisters, Iris and Laura, at the same time as she offers a retrospective view of women's treatment in twentieth-century Canada. The Blind Assassin functions, as contributor Fiona Tolan notes, as "a milestone in Atwood's canon" (76). Tolan points out that the novel can be "contextualized by concurrent developments in the feminist movement, in particular, the rise of postfeminism." Viewing the novel in this light is key to understanding Iris's desire for "individuation from her sister" (Tolan 77), a struggle that reflects the postfeminist urge toward individualism rather than a collective sisterhood. In "Narrative Multiplicity and the Multi-layered Self in The Blind Assassin," Magali Cornier Michael discusses how, through the narrator of Iris, the novel centers on a "central character who...