With over 30 novels to her name in genres ranging from ‘Ontario Gothic’ to science fiction, you may wonder how legendary CanLit icon Margaret Atwood stays motivated to write any more.
“The short answer is that I’m a writer; it’s what I do,” Atwood responds in a recent interview. “There really is no other answer.”
In her latest novel, The Penelopiad, Atwood retells Homer’s epic The Odyssey, which recounts the adventures of Odysseus as he travels the Aegean Sea fighting monsters and cavorting with goddesses. However, Atwood shifts the focus from Odysseus to his faithful Penelope, who waits 20 years in their kingdom for his return and whose motives, thoughts, and opinions are never scrutinized in Homer’s version.
“The Odyssey is a myth and there are other ancient sources that are quite different,” Atwood says. “But what is not being said? What is not said was that [Penelope] was running the joint without much help: Odysseus wasn’t there for 20 years, no able-bodied men of his age were there, and her teenage son was still a child. Therefore, she had to have been a practical woman of affairs no matter what else she was.”
Atwood will be reading excerpts from The Penelopiad at Walter Hall on December 2 as part of the U of T Bookstore’s Reading Series, which invites notable writers to read and autograph their books in addition to answering audience questions. Other writers featured in the series include Frank McCourt, author of the best-selling Angela’s Ashes (who reads at Con Hall Dec. 12) and Atwood’s partner Graeme Gibson, who will be reading alongside her on Dec. 2.
In The Penelopiad, Atwood emphasizes the use and abuse of 12 young female maids, who serve as slaves to Penelope and as sexual playthings to rowdy suitors who arrive to seize control of Penelope’s estate. The maids end up dangling at the ends of nooses thanks to Odysseus and what he perceives as their betrayal. The emphasis on the maids has prompted some critics to question Atwood’s presumably feminist agenda.
“These people tend not to read the newspapers,” said Atwood. “I don’t think you need to have a righteous feminist agenda to point out that slavery is still around today. A lot of slavery and the sex trade involve women and children, so what’s so righteously feminist about pointing that out? As far as I’m concerned, these are about human beings. These are human rights issues, not feminist ones.”
Tickets for the Atwood/Gibson reading at Walter Hall (80 Queen’s Park) on Dec. 2 are $6.50 and can be purchased at the U of T Bookstore, online at their website (uoftbookstore.com), or by calling (416) 640-5829.
