“The world is being run by people my age, men my age, with falling-out hair and health worries, and it frightens me. When the leaders were older than me I could believe in their wisdom, I could believe they had transcended rage and malice and the need to be loved. Now I know better. I look at the faces in newspapers, in magazines, and wonder: what greeds, what furies-drive them on?”

This is one of those books so flawless, so whole, that every page you turn you need to take a few seconds- seconds in which you feel the need to hold your breath and release the air slowly- to absorb all the beauty and wisdom it contains. Cat’s Eye shows the complexity of the relationships that define us as a person. It is especially interesting because it portrays, in a profound and three-dimensional way, a mostly unexplored theme in literature; the relationship among girls and how it defines women as adults.

The book tells the story of Elaine Risley, a 50-year-old artist that returns to her hometown, Toronto, for a retrospective of her work. Through flashbacks Elaine reminisces her childhood and teen years. What haunts her the most are the memories of her best friend and bully, Cordelia. When kids, this complicated relationship is characterized by Elaine’s need to belong to the “girls’ world” and what she is willing to withstand from Cordelia to do so. The relationship between the girls changes through the years, however it’s always defined by the early years of bullying. As an adult, although able to overcome most of her traumas, Elaine is still shaped by her early life, as it can be seen in her art and the way she understands herself as a middle-age woman.

Atwood does an amazing job at revealing a world that looks mundane and innocent from the surface, but that most women probably remember as a complicated and, many times, mean one; even if their upbringing was very different from that of Toronto in the sixties. For most of us, it is a world that is regularly shaped by feelings and blurry recollections that are hard to put into words. However, while reading Cat’s Eye one feels like going back to the deepest part of our brain to give shape to these memories. Cat’s Eye is a genius novel that’s definitely worth reading.

About Margaret Atwood

Atwood was born in Ottawa, Canada. She is one of the biggest representatives of Canadian literature. At the age of 78 she keeps creating amazing works of fiction, non-fiction and poetry. She is a committed environmental activist and, although she doesn’t consider herself as one, a very important voice of feminism in literary fiction of the 70’s and 80’s. She is Ceci’s favorite author in the whole world.

Other books written by Canadian women we recommend:

We just recommend books we’ve read!

• Unless – Carol Shields (Read by Ceci)
• The Stone Diaries – Carol Shields (Read by Ceci)
• Blind Assassin – Margaret Atwood (Read by Ceci and Angelica)
• MaddAddam Trilogy – Margaret Atwood (Read by Ceci)
• Alias Grace – Margaret Atwood (Read by Angelica and Ceci)
• The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood (Read by Angelica and Ceci)
• Station Eleven- Emily St. John Mandel (Read by Ceci and Angelica)

Canadian Initiatives and Projects that support and empower girls and women

Sister Writes

Sister Writes is a creative writing and literary program for women affected by homelessness, underhousing, trauma, mental health issues and addictions. They organize workshops and mentoring for professional women writers to develop creative potential and empower these women by building a community around their stories.

Every year, all the effort from the workshops is published in a literary magazine that goes under the same name, where the women involved participate in all the steps of the publishing process.

Canadian Women in the Literary Arts CWILA

CWILA is a community created to support female writers and literary critics in Canada. They bring issues of gender, sexuality and representation into the literary conversation and keep track on statistics on gender representation in the literary sphere in Canada that they publish every year in a thorough report with the aim of showcasing the gender cap that remains in Canadian Literature.