Book of Lives: A Memoir of Sorts by Margaret Atwood

On October 3, the day after I received my copy of Book of Lives: A Memoir of Sorts, I emailed a publicist with a “the book arrived, thank you” message. The reply included a third reminder: “And no spoilers please.” Spoilers, I wondered?

In April 1841, a spoiler would have been “The orangutang did it” for someone in the midst of reading “The Murders in the Rue Morgue.” Or, in August 1999, that Malcolm Crowe, a character played by Bruce Willis in The Sixth Sense, was actually dead. 

As for what constitutes a spoiler in a memoir, I was stymied: what was a review permitted to reveal and what should it leave undisclosed?

I lugged the heavy — 600+ pages — book to work (at a beleaguered Canadian institution lately associated with strike actions), where T____, a colleague, asked “Who’s that?” as he pointed to ATWOOD, in all-caps, printed on the back cover. Moments later, another colleague remarked, “Oh, I could never get into any of her books.” Philistines, I thought, my Margaret-Atwood-superfan feathers truly ruffled. Happily, I later realized that for biographer Rosemary Sullivan, author of Margaret Atwood: Starting Out (2019), a spoiler would be on a different order of magnitude than my answer to T____: “She’s the best-known author Canada has ever produced.”

In her “memoir of sorts,” Atwood does talk about U____, an unpublished novel. She mentions venerable author M____’s affair with a married woman. Plus, she shares the real-life inspiration of a character in C____, one of her canonical novels. There’s the erratic and hostile behaviour of M____, another bright light in the CanLit pantheon, and a caustic and unethical interview with J____, a memoirist and journalist. Atwood touches on her involvement with A____ (and with S____), recent outrages in the CanLit world, and the humble origins of T____, another of her novels that’s a household name.

With all those tallied, though, any voyeuristic reader who might choose a hefty memoir due to a profound hunger for juicy details about personal and professional betrayals, illicit affairs, and feuds would be wise to give Book of Lives a pass. Atwood is not a good speller, she admits (spoiler!). Likewise, as a scandalmonger Atwood’s no Hedda Hopper.

For the rest of us, however, wow—wittily funny and engrossing on every page, absolutely, but supremely assured too. The book is magisterial, minus the fussy officiousness that the word sometimes connotes. 

An adept technician and genius at the craft of spinning a story, Atwood, who turns 86 in November, breathes tremendous vitality into Book of Lives. In the candid self-portraiture, the lively Canadian social history, and the fulfilling behind-the-scenes of CanLit’s bourgeoning in the ‘60s and ‘70s, the book simply slays (to the point, in fact, that on page 433, which is set in early 1984, I felt pangs of anticipatory remorse: I understood then that Atwood would cover the next four decades in under 200 pages).

Pick a book, any book—The Journals of Susanna Moodie, Lady Oracle, Cat’s Eye, The Testaments, Murder in the Dark, Wilderness Tips, Oxyx and Crake, Alias Grace, Survival—and readers will discern echoes of it throughout the memoir. Book of Lives is a catch-all in the best way.

Whether she’s focussed on her family’s move from Nova Scotia to Ontario, the moment she first decided to write a poem, dire juvenile employment, quirky roommates at Harvard, winning the Booker Prize (twice), or caring for an ailing spouse, each and every aspect illuminates the writer’s life. 

With a distinctive narrating voice (it could be trademarked!), which I first encountered and admired decades ago in The Edible Woman (1969), Atwood surfaces over and again as canny, wise, prickly, cogent, and endlessly curious about whatever it is she has fixed her attention. It’s charismatic, that voice, eloquent and yet forcible. One wrong turn and she could have led a cult. 

And naturally, with a career that spans seven decades and is defined by literally millions of published words — 26 (novels and short story collection), 18 (poetry volumes), 11 (nonfiction books), 8 (kids’ books), and 3 (graphic novels). (Lest I forget: countless magazine articles and the libretto for the opera Pauline. Book covers too, including that of The Circle Game, which received 1966 Governor General’s Award.) —there’s material by the bundle, by the bolt, and in far greater a volume than any review can cover. Suffice it to say, readers questions will be answered. 

For better or worse (worse, I’d say), Atwood’s become synonymous with her speculative fiction, The Handmaid’s Tale in particular, and hence as oracular in a doomsday vein. In a recent New York Times interview, she called herself “an optimistic person”: “‘I’m doomed’ is very far down the line. I wouldn’t say ‘I’m doomed’ unless you’re about to be eaten by a bear.” Perhaps it’s that aspect of Atwood that turns Book of Lives into so many pleasurable hours of reading.

Brett Josef Grubisic

Brett Josef Grubisic resides on Salt Spring Island, BC, where he's currently at war with his sixth novel. Previous novels include The Age of Cities and My Two-Faced Luck.