Recommendations from our site
“Elaine is a painter. She is haunted by memories, and specifically one girl from the past: Cordelia. While she’s in Toronto, memory is used as a narrative tool to take us back to these episodes of childhood, when Elaine was very young and looking for a friend. She wants to be with the girls, and to do what the girls are doing. Cordelia, unfortunately, is a bully and a sadist and tortures Elaine in many ways. The whole thing builds to a damaging, destructive, horrible experience, that even forty years on Elaine hasn’t shaken. What stops it wallowing in despair is Atwood’s writing. She balances it all perfectly. It’s inspiring and off-putting at the same time.” Read more...
Emma Jane Unsworth, Novelist
