The Edible Woman by Margaret Atwood Marian's life is beginning to change, and not for the better. It is a gradual shift that at first, she cannot put her finger on. She begins to feel detached from her friends and coworkers, becoming ever more unable to
relate to their "normal" lives of mundane employment and domesticity: unable
to replicate their complacency.
It is the late 1960s, and college educated, 20-something Marian finds there is no real place in society that she fits. Women are permitted to pursue school and careers, yet also expected to set these pursuits aside when they attain their "true" goal: a husband.
Marian's degree allows her a decent paying job in market research, but it also leaves her feeling unfulfilled and unchallenged. Can she really get as excited as her co-workers over interviewing housewives on their preferences for various brands of prepared rice pudding? Can she truly find fulfillment analysing the effectiveness of yet another beer jingle? Evidently not, as feelings of alienation and discontent begin to grow within her.
Then, Marian's boyfriend proposes. As she feels herself being groomed for, and absorbed into, her impending role as "doting wife", Marian's reality begins to take an even more unsettling turn.
It begins one evening when she and her fianc are out for dinner. Marian looks at the rare steak sitting on her plate, and her stomach begins to churn. Once, she used to relish a juicy, rare steak. Now, she sees only a slab of muscle, bloody and dead, that was once a living thing. She cuts a piece and tries to put it in her mouth, but she cannot.
Each day, Marian discovers more and more formerly enjoyed foods that she is now unable to stomach. It is as though her body is becoming increasingly adamant in a literal rejection of her consumer existence. Her panic grows as even vegetables soon become intolerable. She fears she may actually starve to death, yet she cannot seem to gain control.
As we witness Marian's gradual physical and mental decline, we wonder with a sense of growing horror: what could possibly be the solution?
The Edible Woman is an enthralling novel that will keep readers guessing at Marian's fate until the very end.
-- Reviewed by Teresa DeReis, reader's advisory assistant at the Prince
George Public Library
The Captains by William Shatner
For Star Trek fans, The Captains is a cool ride, a behind-the-scenes visit with every actor who has ever sat in the captain's chair, chaperoned by William Shatner.
This documentary confirms the stereotype of actors being strange and quirky.
Shatner is amazed to discover someone even weirder than he is - Avery Brooks, who played Capt. Sisko on Deep Space Nine, is a laid-back jazz hipster academic philosopher.
In separate conversations, Shatner talks about ruined marriages and missing out on kids growing up because of the demands of filming a weekly TV series with Scott Bakula from Enterprise and Patrick Stewart from The Next Generation.
Kate Mulgrew from Voyager talks about life on the stage.
Chris Pine tells William Shatner how terrified he was to not only play Captain Kirk but to not disappoint William Shatner.
For a view from the centre of the bridge, have a seat and check out The Captains.
- Reviewed by Neil Godbout, the former communications coordinator at the Prince George Public Library.
