Title: The Edible WomanAuthor: Margaret Atwood
First Published: January 1, 1969
Publisher: Anchor
Pages: 320
Genre: Contemporary, Feminist Fiction
Format: Paperback
Source: Gift
Rating:
Synopsis:
Marian McAlpin is an “abnormally normal” young woman, according to her friends. A recent university graduate, she crafts consumer surveys for a market research firm, maintains an uneasy truce between her flighty roommate and their prudish landlady, and goes to parties with her solidly dependable boyfriend, Peter. But after Peter proposes marriage, things take a strange turn. Suddenly empathizing with the steak in a restaurant, Marian finds she is unable to eat meat. As the days go by, her feeling of solidarity extends to other categories of food, until there is almost nothing left that she can bring herself to consume. Those around her fail to notice Marian’s growing alienation—until it culminates in an act of resistance that is as startling as it is imaginative.
Buy the Book: AmazonReview
Marian is an average college-educated woman who lives with a roommate in a decent apartment, works for a survey company, is moderately good-looking, and has a handsome fiancé who is on his way to being a big-shot lawyer. It sounds like life is going pretty well for Marian, yet she feels that something is missing. The Edible Woman is a strong novel that explores the themes of losing a sense of self with maturity.
At work Marian is treated poorly, her roommate Ainsley is toxic, the landlady is judgmental, and her boyfriend Peter is gaslighting her. Marian constantly puts aside her pride for the sake of avoiding conflict. The more that Marian lets the people around her eat away at her the less she eats, hinting at a potential eating disorder. Just as she feels inhibited in life, she suddenly feels inhibited with the kinds of food that she can eat.
Marian begins to dread marriage and question the direction her life is going; she fears becoming as listless as her friend and former classmate Clara, who after marriage and childbirth just seems beaten down. Marian’s fiancé Peter is the stereotypical perfect bachelor: a man’s man that looks down on women and views marriage as a ball and chain. Peter pushes Marian around in order to mold her into a subservient woman. There is no longer any room for her thoughts, her feelings, or her desires from under his shadow.
But what about work? What are women’s roles in society and the workforce? Throughout the story, there are several women including Marian with college educations, yet none of them really have a stable career. Women are expected to be wives and mothers, there’s simply no time for an education or a job. In this case, their educations are ultimately viewed as their downfall due to the crushing reality of how little opportunity they would have. This was the very sad truth at the time the book was written and thankfully is not exactly the case now in most parts of the world.
Atwood tackles a large number of social issues throughout the book that I think would be important for any young woman. Adulthood, relationships, marriage, the choice between work and education versus starting a family, and lastly what feminism really means.
There are certain elements of the book that are becoming quite dated: typewriters, the social expectation that all women can be are housewives, and the limited ways that women can dress; these things might make it difficult for young women to look past and relate to the main character. Despite this, the book is still incredibly relevant in the message that it brings about maintaining one’s individuality and the conflict between work and marriage is still present for many young women. I absolutely love this book and found a lot of my former self in its pages.
Quote
“They had been pathetically eager to have the wedding in the family church. Their reaction though, as far as she could estimate the reactions of people who were now so remote from her, was less elated glee than a quiet, rather smug satisfaction, as though their fears about the effects of her university education, never stated but always apparent, had been calmed at last.”
Content Warnings
View Spoiler »About the Author
About Margaret Atwood
Margaret Atwood was born in 1939 in Ottawa and grew up in northern Ontario, Quebec, and Toronto. She received her undergraduate degree from Victoria College at the University of Toronto and her master’s degree from Radcliffe College. Margaret Atwood’s longtime partner was fellow writer Graeme Gibson.
Throughout her writing career, Margaret Atwood has received numerous awards and honourary degrees. She is the author of more than thirty-five volumes of poetry, children’s literature, fiction, and non-fiction and is perhaps best known for her novels.
Associations: Margaret Atwood was President of the Writers’ Union of Canada from May 1981 to May 1982, and was President of International P.E.N., Canadian Centre (English Speaking) from 1984-1986. She and Graeme Gibson are the Joint Honourary Presidents of the Rare Bird Society within BirdLife International. Ms. Atwood is also a current Vice-President of PEN International.
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