I Am The Edible Woman

The Edible Woman

by Margaret Atwood

Rating: 5 stars

I am Marian. I am the edible woman. This was the only thought that came into my mind when I read the blurb given at the back of this book.

Here, give it a read and I’ll tell how Margaret Atwood roped me in by choosing to make her protagonist so much like me.

"Marian is determinedly ordinary, waiting to get married. She likes her work, her broody flat-mate and her sober fiance Peter. All goes well at first, but Marian has reckoned with an inner self that wants something more, an inner self that calmly sabotages her careful plans, stable routine - and her digestion. Marriage a la mode, Marian discovers, is something she literally can't stomach..."

It's not just the name, Marian, quite similar to mine but the hard facts of her life that made me do a double take and quickly add it to my overflowing book cart.

There's a boring job, an interesting flat-mate , a 'sober' fiance (whatever that is) and some secret friendships budding in the laundromat; this book has a lot going on but is never overwhelming. But what exactly does the title refer to, you'd ask?

Imagine your stomach rejecting everything you eat. It starts with meat, then eggs, you soon find that you can't even eat rice pudding. You start questioning whether you are 'normal'. You most obviously think you're not but how do you tell others? Your friends wouldn't understand, your fiance might call off the marriage. What would you do? (And no, Star World, I'm not asking Meredith Gray).

Read the book to find out what Marian does. It's worth the two hundred something pages.