Bodily Harm.

Why everyone should hate politics.

 Rennie Wilford is a twenty-something journalist who writes "lifestyle pieces." Simple articles, like fashion trends and where people like to travel. After learning she has cancer, her life begins to spiral downward. As though having cancer was not hard enough, she develops feelings for her doctor - who is married. Too married, as she puts it. The strain of losing her self-confidence and loving someone who shouldn't love her back affects her relationship with Jake, the man she has been living with. When he leaves, Rennie is alone. And being alone makes her easy prey. Though a close call scares her away, she treats the time as a vacation of sorts, writing an article on a small island in the Barbados. During a time of political unrest, Rennie has chosen a very bad time to travel.

I was very surprised that I enjoyed this novel as much as I did. It's not because I have negative views on the author, because I had no idea who the author was. I'm surprised because the novel is older, taking place in a time period when I wasn't even born. Most of the time, it's hard for me to understand why people can't just pick up a cell phone when I'm reading. Then I remember - there weren't cell phones yet. So strange. I know I probably sound like such a youngin' for saying all this, but I think it's important for some reason.

To start, the novel was written very, very well. It had this elegant ring to everything - even though some of the characters said the dirtiest, raunchiest things you could imagine. Dull moments didn't exist, and Atwood had you on the edge of your seat the whole time. Sometimes you were in suspense waiting to hear of character's fates. Sometimes you were contemplating whether or not the part you read was a flashback. Sometimes you had to decide for yourself when an event took place.

I loved the characters. They were fascinating in so many aspects. Rennie had so many layers, though she did seem a bit whiny during some moments. But how could she not? She's been put into a terrible position and she knows nothing about it. Politics go over my head; politics go over Rennie's head. In this, we match. To tell the truth, I had no idea what the hell was going on most of the time, but neither did Rennie, so that made me feel much better.

There's a possibility that I'm blowing this book out of proportion and giving Atwood more credit than a more dedicated fan would. Since I've only read two of her books (this being number two), I find it intriguing.

4 out of 5 stars.