On 1 January, I made my reading goal for the year on Goodreads and began with The Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood. I did not anticipate that my first read of the year would turn out to be my favourite already. I’m always surprised when I read a Margaret Atwood novel – I finish it within days and emerge feeling perplexed and satisfied at the same time.
Atwood’s appeal has prevailed ever since she began writing in the 1960s, especially with the 1985 publication of The Handmaid’s Tale. While the two novels differ tonally, Atwood pursues similar ideas in The Robber Bride. Rather than occupying a dystopian society, The Robber Bride is the story of three women (Tony, Charis, and Roz) and their relationship with a fourth woman called Zenia who disrupts and ruins the lives of the central characters.
The 1993 novel takes place in Toronto, between past and present, telling the tales of the lives the women led before and after they met Zenia. Atwood sketches amazingly deep portraits of the lives of the women. Tony is a war-obsessed academic and homebody, Charis levitates through life with her New Age hippie ideals, and Roz is both a kind and successful businesswoman.
Zenia moves through the women’s lives and, on the surface level, takes away their men and attempts to rob them of their passions. All the women emerge scared after these encounters and are comforted by each other. After Charis gives birth to her daughter, Tony and Roz become the baby’s godmothers, but Zenia’s absence is resounding: “There is a third godmother present… The shadow of Zenia falls over the cradle.” Atwood likes to subvert fairy tales (the novel is a reference and reworking of The Robber Bridegroom) and Zenia is presented as an amalgamation of all the most dastardly female villains. However, the male-focused aspect of the story is not the most important element. The novel is hitting upon a problem that many second and third-wave feminists struggled with: the “Sisterhood.” Coming from this generation herself, Atwood’s analysis of why these women keep opening themselves up to Zenia explores the sense of not wanting to betray your fellow woman.
Atwood most importantly deals with the duality that exists in many women. Tony was once Ynot, Charis was Karen, and Roz was Rosalind. These identities are the women we wish we were and the reality of our pasts. When reading the novel, the nature of the feminist spirit is celebrated through the friendship of the three women. But, the complexities of the late-20th century woman are held under a microscopic lens, questioning how women treat other women.
Book cover of “The Robber Bride” by Margaret Atwood