Product Description

A splendid work...superb - Marilyn French

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #16928 in Books
• Published on: 1998-01-03
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Synopsis
Elizabeth, monstrous yet pitiable, Nate, her husband, a patchwork man, gentle, disillusioned; Lesje, a younger woman at the natural history museum, for whom dinosaurs are as important as men. This is a sexual triangle; three people in thrall to the tragicomedy we call love...

About the Author
Margaret Atwood is Canada's most eminent novelist, poet and critic. Her books include The Edible Woman, Surfacing, Lady Oracle, Alias Grace, Cat's Eye, which was short-listed for the Booker Prize and The Handmaid's Tale, which won both the Arthur C. Clarke Award for Science Fiction and the Governor-General's Award, was short-listed for the Booker Prize and made into a major film. She lives in Toronto with the writer Graeme Gibson and their daughter.

Customer Reviews

Skillful character writing
In 'Life Before Man', Margaret Atwood presents us with several lead characters, displays their troubled souls and lets their worlds overlap. No-one would envy any one of these characters but perhaps we can identify with some of their traits. In Elizabeth we witness the self-destruction that comes from excessive self-control - I wanted to slap her, shake her, anything to make her speak out. I watched with sadness Lesje's innocent quest to find love that will not suffocate her, although she risks becoming the one who smothers. Nate is almost docile. He tries to find happiness but is pulled apart between Elizabeth's oppressive coldness and Lesje's neediness.

This is not a cheerful book, but nor is it overly morose. I found that I could see what was going to happen, how each character would feel about it and how they would try to deal with it. But being able to foretell the consequences does not mean that the book is dull or predictable, rather that the characters seem so real that I could second guess them. Margaret Atwood has written these people so well that they feel as familiar as friends or colleagues - a skill demonstrated by only the best of writers. You will look upon them as you would a friend who is ignoring your wise advice and heading for a downfall! If you are a fan of Atwood's work then this is represents a worthy addition to your bookshelf.

The traces we leave behind
What is the nature of a fossil? Using a quote from Bjorn Kurten to precede this novel, Atwood illuminates much of what is to follow: a fossil is not necessarily a part of an organism, but could be a record of its activity: a footprint, perhaps. It could be a prehistoric equivalent of graffiti.

Using the fossil as the central metaphor for her novel, Atwood tells the story of three individuals whose lives collide with cataclysmic effect. Told in episodes from the three different perspectives the reader uncovers the story much like an archaeologist might uncover the treasures of a prehistoric site. Elizabeth, Nate and Lesje are put under the microscope and steadily stripped down to their essential components by a narrator (although a few of Elizabeth's episodes are told in the first person) who is as objective as a scientist. We all know, however, that scientists are not always objective.

What makes this novel so fascinating is this interplay between cold fact and emotional involvement. Atwood refuses to follow easy paths to happy solutions and the reader senses early on that a tragic outcome is as inevitable as the eventual extinction of Lesje's beloved dinosaurs. Her characters are neither heroes nor villains, neither heartless monsters nor innocent victims. They are driven towards their fates by forces as much in their own natures as in the natures of those around them.

As any true Atwood devotee would expect, the writing is sharp, witty, observant and totally compelling. It is perhaps richer in symbolism than many of her other novels, yet it does not tread the mystical and poetic waters (so to speak) of "Surfacing". It reads deceptively easily and the bubbling volcano at its core is implied rather than stated. If the novel has a possible downfall it could lie in this subtlety, which many readers might not perceive.

"Life before man" is a landmark novel, even for an author who is surely one of the greatest literary minds of our age. Its effect is devastating in the best possible sense, making the reader reflect on the consequences of actions which might seem insignificant at the time, but can leave traces far beyond their original scope.