Books and Cooks June 1998
The Robber Bride
Our rating: 4 cups of tea!
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Discussion date: Monday, June 8, 1998, 7:00PM
Discussion place: Vera's
Menu: A little of this and a little of that, including Vera's chocolate-covered strawberries.
At the June meeting we will be discussing Margaret Atwood’s The Robber Bride, along with The Robber Bridegroom, a short fairy tail by the Brothers Grimm. A reading group guide for this Atwood novel is available. Rachel W. Jacobsohn, author of The Reading Group Handbook, comments on The Robber Bride:
"This book made publishing history when Doubleday’s vice president Marly Rusoff created the first Reading Group Guide to accompany it. Marly’s vision hailed a revolutionary change in reading-group discussions by providing author info, probing questions, and plot synopses in pamphlet form, free to the public. … Atwood’s novel describes and updates the relationship between four college "girlfriends." Her examination of inter– and intra-gender power dynamics fascinates and instructs us. Use this book. Squeeze every ounce of insight out of it. Zenia, as character and archetype, transcends time and space and may be unforgettable for you, as she is for so many of my groupies who kept bringing up her name in subsequent discussions of other titles."
There are a couple of reviews at the NYTimes Book Review (one good, one bad).
Reading Woman recommends this as a "must read."
There is a Margaret Atwood homepage. A quick websearch turned up lots of "unofficial" Atwood websites as well.
The Cornell library has a couple copies of this book.
Last updated: November 21, 2000 .