"Margaret Atwood didn't want to write a literary memoir. She worried it would be boring I wrote a book, I wrote a second book, I wrote another book Alcoholic excess, debauched parties and sexual transgressions would have perked things up, but she hasn't lived that way. In the end what she has written is less a memoir than an autobiography, not a slice of life but the whole works, 85 years."
"She was lucky in her parents, a foresting entomologist father, Carl, and tomboyish mother, Margaret, both from Nova Scotia. Carl's work on insects meant that the family spent half the year in the bush, at times without electricity, running water or a telephone. They'd camp in tents or shacks by a lake while Carl cut down trees to build a wooden cabin."
Margaret Atwood feared writing a literary memoir would be boring and instead produced an autobiography covering 85 years. The book lacks scandal but remains sharp, funny and engaging. She grew up with parents from Nova Scotia: a foresting entomologist father, Carl, and a tomboyish mother. The family spent half the year in the bush, often without electricity, running water or a telephone, camping in tents or shacks while Carl built a wooden cabin. Young Margaret, nicknamed Peggy, loved the outdoors and learned to fish, canoe, beachcomb and pick berries. She wrote short poems at six and endured fourth-grade bullying that influenced Cat's Eye. She also believed in horoscopes, palm-reading and exorcists.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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