Overview
- Atwood’s Book of Lives: A Memoir of Sorts has been published at roughly 600 pages, offering an expansive account of her life and work.
- Now 86, Atwood reflects on creativity, luck and feminism, explaining why she chose to write a memoir after decades of resisting the idea.
- The book revisits formative experiences that fed novels such as Cat’s Eye and The Handmaid’s Tale, setting out how personal history shaped her fiction.
- Atwood chronicles her long partnership with author Graeme Gibson, including his decline and death in 2019, noting she would not have published the book while he was alive.
- Current reviews diverge in tone, with The Independent highlighting an overlong, prizewinner’s self-portrait, while the New Statesman challenges specific claims about the Rushdie affair and Booker shortlists.