Negotiating with the Dead: A Writer on Writing. . - Reviews - book review

Contemporary Review, June, 2002

Negotiating with the Dead: A Writer on Writing. Margaret Atwood. Cambridge University Press. [pounds sterling]13.50 (US$18.00). 219 pages. ISBN 0-521-66260-5. This book is based on Margaret Atwood's six Empson Lectures before the University of Cambridge in 2000. The Canadian novelist was asked to lecture on 'writing or being a writer'.

The book is about 'the position the writer finds himself in'. The book is refreshingly clear of the theoretical claptrap that is the basis for so much writing on literature by those who have never written anything other than criticism. This is in part a history of writing and an examination of why people write and for whom. She mingles her own experiences as a novelist into her discussions, thereby giving the text a personal tone. She discusses the influence of the Romantics, the conflicts between writers and publishers, the role of the artist in society and politics, the relationship between the writer and the book on the one hand and the book and the reader on the other and, to end, a general and stimulating look at the very nature of writing today. This is a real tour de force and a pleasure to read. (P.P.F.)