This book is like an autobiography, a memoir, a microcosm of Canadian history, biology, physics, and art. The memory is so clear and vague, and the characters love and hate, but the more so, the more real it is.
The content of the book is divided into two parts, one is the moment when the 50-year-old female artist returned to her hometown Toronto to hold an art exhibition many years later, and the other is the time when she kept recalling her childhood, high school, learning to draw, falling in love, getting married and having children, divorcing and taking children alone, remarriing, when her brother and parents died, ending, the past coinciding with the present - returning to her hometown to hold a painting exhibition, and not waiting for her best (perhaps) friends.
Just as Elaine (first-person) described Colledia as the version of the story of the book, in that book, Colledia is the protagonist. The protagonist of the book is Elaine.
Elaine is a negative person, her restoration of the environment, characters, and language is so meticulous and full of doubt and denial. She seems to have love for everyone but also real hatred and resentment. In her final years with her mother, she still remembered the inconvenience of her childhood caused by her non-religious father and her mother who did not pay attention to appearance and clothing as a pagan in the community. Maybe it's because she's 50 years old and too sharp at looking at things in the past or in the present.
Elaine was supposed to have been born in Canada in the 1930s and 1940s, and her childhood had the shadow of war. Although it is not said, a strong sense of dogmatism prevails in her school and community. Her brother was perfect and excellent, like dad, obsessed with research. If she hadn't woken up in the big exam (similar to the college entrance examination), she would have become a botanist if she had been obsessed with drawing animal and plant solutions. However, she became a painter.
In Elaine's recollection of her more than fifty years of life, the cowardice of being bullied, the poisonous tongue that learned to fight back, the love game of adolescence, the diligent creation, the stability of the husband and wife halfway, the reconciliation and warmth of the ex-husband, I think at the end of the last page she is lonely, the loneliness of the absence of relatives, so she began to miss the Cordelia who spent time with her more and more, otherwise Toronto would have nothing for her. Time erases everything in the book.
Elaine wasn't a perfect inspirational woman, not a Kochi like her brother, and she might not be a great artist either, but her art fed her and her family, and she also had a passion for creation. She works with the curators. She had her own set of ideas about the exhibition and the surroundings, but she didn't say it.
Because of the move, eight or nine-year-old Elaine, with new neighbors and new friends, is a girl, before she was with her brother and father outdoors to learn about insects and the universe.
In the world of the four girls when she was a child, she was the one who was bullied, and she had the weakest voice. Often bullied, which led to her inferiority, although she resisted, although she could see their little tricks, but did not dare to resist and quit. Even, I regularly go to one of the churches every Sunday. Slowly, it was discovered that in fact, the children's contempt came from the prejudice of adults. After she learned to paint, she vented her hatred for "Mrs. Smith" in her paintings.
When she was 9 years old, the 3 of them even deliberately let her fall into the ice water and almost froze to death. At that time, friendships, wherever there was loyalty and truth, were some false ghost tricks. The cat's eye is a blue cat's eye marble that Elaine treasured when she was a child, it is like her amulet, helpless, she believes that this marble will bring her strength.
But as time went on, one day, she learned to say no and found relief. Instead, Cordelia, after the advantages brought about by the wealth of the family disappeared, the gap and strength between the two people who were independent individuals began to reverse. Of course, Cordelia's childhood was not happy, and in a family of 3 girls, the stubborn Cordelia would not be better, but this is not what Elaine wanted to talk about.
If the honeymoon period of adolescence's good friends is the reason why their energies are evenly matched, and then the subsequent reunion and no longer have contact, it is 2 two lines that no longer intersect, and the road is different.
Elaine is poisonous but not disgusted, she is more often clever. After coming out of the bullying of her childhood, she couldn't be more stupid. She matures, matures to learn that three is three, be the teacher's lover, and regard it as a kind of salvation, at the same time, she has her own boyfriend. She can see through the false friendship of women and can read men's hearts.
At the age of eight or nine, she was in a small group of four people, and she was the one who was bullied, accepting their emotional preferences and religious morality; In her 20s, she was single with children and was pulled into extreme feminism to demand reform. Maybe it's because she's in her 50s now, and she can always see through those traps.
She said that the woman's heart is full of complaints, and the shape of the body changes. But I always felt that she was not loyal to men. Her narration
"Delving into the false side of women's friendships, uncovering the common scars of women's growth with deadly accuracy",
There is.
Although the ages are different and the countries are different, it seems that when I was a child, there were girls like Cordelia around me, and the female friendship before marriage was also strong, and it would be difficult to continue after marriage.
Do I like Elaine? Can't say. Watching her inner activity, I felt scared, but real. Maybe all self-interest is out of a kind of self-preservation. But after so much experience, she is at least brave, strong, persistent, she has her own values and positions, and she has more courage and strength.
Girls must read it, at least for older girls.
The author of this book, Margaret Atwood, is more famous for her other book, The Handmaid's Tale
There is no mention of politics, history, or ZJ too much in the book, but indian graduate students, refugee teachers in Eastern Europe, primary school teachers in Scotland, ZJ neighbors, big pits, and reconstruction scenes also illustrate that chaotic era. Elaine felt, like me, that the building had gotten taller and the hearts of the people had gone bad. Now, for example, they fear that the Apple of Halloween will be poisoned.
The father of the insect family and the brother of Kochi, the expression of knowledge theories and opinions on environmental protection, the universe, biology, physics and so on is extremely wonderful. In the words of "Daddy": the level of human intelligence can be improved. The introduction of Elaine and Jon's paintings will also be very beneficial, although the author says that the paintings are all made up by her, but they are like in front of you. The exposition of art is also the highlight of this book.
In the book, I can have a certain thinking and inspiration for the education and feminism of various countries.
The glass ball is really beautiful