The Robber Bride

by Margaret Atwood

Overview

From the bestselling author of The Handmaid's Tale and The Testaments—one of Margaret Atwood’s most unforgettable characters lurks at the center of this intricate novel like a spider in a web. The glamorous, irresistible, unscrupulous Zenia is nothing less than a fairy-tale villain in the memories of her former friends.

Roz, Charis, and Tony—university classmates decades ago—were reunited at Zenia’s funeral and have met monthly for lunch ever since, obsessively retracing the destructive swath she once cut through their lives. A brilliantly inventive fabulist, Zenia had a talent for exploiting her friends’ weaknesses, wielding intimacy as a weapon and cheating them of money, time, sympathy, and men.

But one day, five years after her funeral, they are shocked to catch sight of Zenia: even her death appears to have been yet another fiction. As the three women plot to confront their larger-than-life nemesis, Atwood proves herself a gleefully acute observer of the treacherous shoals of friendship, trust, desire, and power.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780307797971
Publisher:	Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Publication date:	06/08/2011
Sold by:	Random House
Format:	eBook
Pages:	528
Sales rank:	8,040
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Margaret Atwood is the author of more than fifty books of fiction, poetry and critical essays. Her novels include Cat’s Eye, The Robber Bride, Alias Grace, The Blind Assassin, and the MaddAddam trilogy. Her 1985 classic, The Handmaid’s Tale, was followed in 2019 by a sequel, The Testaments, which was a global number one bestseller and won the Booker Prize. In 2020 she published Dearly, her first collection of poetry for a decade.
 
Atwood has won numerous awards including the Arthur C. Clarke Award for Imagination in Service to Society, the Franz Kafka Prize, the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, the PEN USA Lifetime Achievement Award and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. In 2019 she was made a member of the Order of the Companions of Honour for services to literature. She has also worked as a cartoonist, illustrator, librettist, playwright and puppeteer. She lives in Toronto, Canada.

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

Reading Group Guide

1. In The Robber Bride Tony says that people like Zenia don't get into your life unless you invite them in. What devices does Zenia use to first gain entry into the lives of Tony, Charis, and Roz? How does she alter her techniques to attract and control men?

2. On the surface, Tony, Charis, and Roz are not a bit alike yet similarities exist. For example, during their childhoods they each developed what could be called "dual" identities. How do the psychological devices they developed as children help or hinder them?

3. While seeming all-powerful, the constantly changing Zenia lacks a center of her own. Do women have to break rules and operate as outlaws to achieve the same power as men? Do women have a kind of power that is different from male power?

4. Is there a difference between the lies Zenia tells and those told by other characters in the novel? Are there "good" lies and "bad" lies? Do the hearers play a role in the construction of these lies?

5. Read the poem "The Robber Bridegroom, " reversing gender as you read. What does this poem tell us about the nature of evil?

6. The American writer Lewis Hyde has asked, "Why is the Trickster the Messenger of the Gods?" Is Zenia a trickster? Is she also a messenger of the gods, and how?

7. Think of female villains from literature and film. What do they seem to have in common? Is female villainy portrayed differently from that of men?

8. William Blake said of Milton's Paradise Lost that Milton often seemed to be of the devil's part without knowing it. Does Atwood have a sneaking sympathy for Zenia? Do you?

Editorial Reviews

Set in Canada in the early 1970s, The Robber Bride continues Atwood's satiric exploration into sex and empowerment. Three women and the femme fatale who unites them are set against a backdrop of draft dodgers and the resurgence of feminism. Atwood is an astute observer of contemporary misinformation, and references to tarot, auras, astrology, and more abound. Despite some wonderful passages, however, the narrative thrust consists of self-contained vignettes that do not easily lend themselves to audio. The histories of these women are intense and distinctive, but the superficial present in which they do little more than move from restaurant to restaurant blurs them to the point of being interchangeable. When she stays with one character long enough (e.g., her treatment of Charis's incest-filled childhood at the start of the third tape), the poignancy increases. It's slow going, but a lively reading by Blythe Danner and musical interludes that accentuate the New Age mood should help keep maintain listeners' attention.

Library Journal

. . .In a shorter, more focused book, [a] cartoonlike approach to writing might have resulted in a kind of darkly colored fairy tale. . . .Her characters [here] remain exiles from both the earthbound realm of realism and the airier altitudes of allegory, and as a result, their story does not illuminate or entertain; it grates.
—The New York Times

Michiko Katukani

"Funny, thoughtful, moving. . . . Atwood's plotting is masterful, and her humor is razor-edged, sexy, and raucous." —The Washington Post

“Vividly written, acutely observed and . . . very possibly the most intelligently tongue-in-cheek novel of the year.” —Salman Rushdie, The Independent

“Moving amid these three women, touching up their portraits with one perfect detail after another, conjuring Zenia from their memories and tears, Atwood is in her glory. What a treasure she is.” —Newsweek

"Margaret Atwood continues her long-running roll, offering us the good fortune of yet another disturbing and brilliantly conceived work of fiction." —Chicago Tribune 

From the Publisher

Charis, Roz, and Tony are haunted by Zenia, a man-eating master manipulator from their college days. They are almost literally haunted—as they thought Zenia was dead until she reappeared to wreak havoc on their settled middle-aged lives. Bernadette Dunne’s throaty purr nicely portrays both Zenia’s predatory ways and the trio’s grown-up concerns. The story jumps back and forth in time, so listeners get to hear Zenia’s past exploits and present-day psychological torture. Dunne is especially adept at showing resignation and world-weariness. But the story is not all dark. Dunne has more than a bit of playfulness in her tones, which suits Atwood’s penchant for clever wordplay. The youthful edge in Dunne’s voice moves beautifully from college-age concerns to middle-aged trials. G.D. © AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine

OCTOBER 2011 - AudioFile

Charis, Roz, and Tony are haunted by Zenia, a man-eating master manipulator from their college days. They are almost literally haunted—as they thought Zenia was dead until she reappeared to wreak havoc on their settled middle-aged lives. Bernadette Dunne’s throaty purr nicely portrays both Zenia’s predatory ways and the trio’s grown-up concerns. The story jumps back and forth in time, so listeners get to hear Zenia’s past exploits and present-day psychological torture. Dunne is especially adept at showing resignation and world-weariness. But the story is not all dark. Dunne has more than a bit of playfulness in her tones, which suits Atwood’s penchant for clever wordplay. The youthful edge in Dunne’s voice moves beautifully from college-age concerns to middle-aged trials. G.D. © AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine

OCTOBER 2011 - AudioFile