Finally....

After three long weeks of plodding through it, I've finally finished my book club's latest pick, The Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood. It just took me forever to get through this book, and I'm not entirely sure why as it's not an extremely long or difficult read. At first I thought it might have to do with the author's pacing, but I think it came down to more of me lacking the motivation to read more than a handful of pages at a time. And it's not because the story was uninteresting- it was...or should have been, in theory. It deals with three middle aged women, former college classmates, and their mutual "frenemy" Zenia who has had a negative impact on each of their lives. After attending her funeral, they encounter her again, alive, and each have to revisit their pasts with her before a final confrontation. I think there's a lot of potentially interesting book club discussion material here, like issues of multiple names and identities, and the flawed relationships in the novel. But in the end, something about this book felt tired to me. Possibly the setting and time period (1950s-1990s Toronto) had something to do with it, but I suspect it had more to do with the fact that the characters and themes seemed like things I've seen before, although I can't put my finger on where or when. I'll be interested in hearing what the rest of the club thinks.

And in the meantime, onto my next book...Hurray!