If you’re a fair-weather Handmaid’s Tale fan, be warned. There is an awful lot of this memoir to get through before we reach the point where Margaret Atwood publishes the book, let alone sees it snowball into a feminist hit. But Book of Lives: A Memoir of Sorts is as pacy and fascinating as any of her books. Atwood, 85, feigns an initial lack of interest in memoir writing. Would a salacious tell-all see “the writing itself treated as a by-product that oozed or sprouted from the compost heap of my outrageous behaviour?”
Thankfully, the opportunity to set her own record straight proved too alluring. Aware of her fierce reputation, Atwood bemoans how few people get to see her funny side. Here she is hilarious, with a poet’s eye for detail and endless short, tart punchlines.
