Lady Oracle

by Margaret Atwood

Overview

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Handmaid’s Tale—now an Emmy Award-winning Hulu original series—and Alias Grace, now a Netflix original series.

Joan Foster is a bored wife, confused by her life of multiple identities. She takes off overnight as Canada's new superpoet, pens lurid gothics on the sly, attracts a blackmailing reporter, skids cheerfully in and out of menacing plots, hair-raising traps, and passionate trysts, and lands in Terremoto, Italy to take stock of her life. But first, she must plan her own death... In this remarkable, poetic, and magical novel, Margaret Atwood proves yet again why she is considered to be one of the most important and accomplished writers of our time.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781451686869
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster
Publication date:	03/27/2012
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	5,825
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Margaret Atwood, whose work has been published in over thirty-five countries, is the award-winning author of more than forty books of fiction, poetry, and critical essays. In addition to The Handmaid's Tale, which was made into a TV series, her novels include Cat's Eye, Alias Grace, Oryx and Crake, and The Robber Bride. She has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize five times, winning once for The Blind Assassin. She lives in Toronto with writer Graeme Gibson.

Hometown:

Toronto, Ontario

Date of Birth:

November 18, 1939

Place of Birth:

Ottawa, Ontario

Education:

B.A., University of Toronto, 1961; M.A. Radcliffe, 1962; Ph.D., Harvard University, 1967

Website:

http://www.owtoad.com

What People are Saying About This

Joan Didion

Brilliant and funny. I can't tell you how exhilarating it was to read it—everything works. An extraordinary book.
—(Joan Didion)

Reading Group Guide

Joan Foster is the bored wife of a myopic ban-the-bomber. She takes off overnight as Canada's new superpoet, pens lurid gothics on the sly, attracts a blackmailing reporter, skids cheerfully in and out of menacing plots, hair-raising traps, and passionate trysts, and lands dead and well in Terremoto, Italy. In this remarkable, poetic, and magical novel, Margaret Atwood proves yet again why she is considered to be one of the most important and accomplished writers of our time.

Editorial Reviews

If Atwood keeps a journal, perhaps some of the brief selections in this slender volume—postmodern fairy tales, caustic fables, inspired parodies, witty monologues—come from that source. The 35 entries offer a sometimes whimsical, sometimes sardonic view of the injustices of life and the battles of the sexes. Such updated fairy tales as ``The Little Red Hen Tells All'' (she's a victim of male chauvinism) and ``Making a Man'' (the Gingerbread man is the prototype) are seen with a cynical eye and told in pungent vernacular. ``Gertrude Talks Back'' is a monologue by Hamlet's mother, a randy woman ready for a roll in the hay, who is exasperated with her whiny, censorious teenage son. Several pieces feature women with diabolical intentions—witches, malevolent goddesses, etc. There are science fiction scenarios, anthropomorphic confessionals (``My Life as a Bat''), and an indictment of overly aggressive women that out-Weldons Fay Weldon. While each of these entries is clever and sharply honed, readers will enjoy dipping into them selectively; a sustained reading may call up an excess of bile. Atwood has provided striking black-and-white illustrations.

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Gertrude hounding Hamlet? A bat critiquing Bram Stoker? There's even more in Atwood's witty new collection.

Library Journal

A rich, subtle, deep, delicate, nourishing book. It’s all joy, but it stays with you. She has things to tell us.” —The Philadelphia Inquirer

“Brilliant and funny. I can’t tell you how exhilarating it was to read it—everything works. An extraordinary book.” —Joan Didion

“A very funny novel, lightly told with wry detachment and considerable art.” —The Washington Post Book World

"Funny, poignant, and briskly energetic." —Newsweek

From the Publisher