Cat's Eye

Cat’s Eye

€9.91

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Description

A breathtaking novel of a woman grappling with the tangled knot of her life—from the bestselling author of The Handmaid’s Tale and The Testaments Disturbing, humorous, and compassionate, Cat’s Eye is the story of Elaine Risley, a controversial painter who returns to Toronto, the city of her youth, for a retrospective of her art. Engulfed by vivid images of the past, she reminisces about a trio of girls who initiated her into the the fierce politics of childhood and its secret world of friendship, longing, and betrayal. Elaine must come to terms with her own identity as a daughter, a lover, an artist, and a woman—but above all she must seek release form her haunting memories.

  • Author: Margaret Atwood
  • Publisher: Anchor
  • Published: 2011-06-08
  • Pages: 481
  • ISBN-13: 9780307797964

Additional information

Author

Margaret Atwood

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Summary

What the internet says

Aggregated insights from reviews and discussions across the web.

Overall reception: Mixed reception

Margaret Atwood's Cat's Eye receives generally positive reception online, with readers praising its literary craftsmanship and unflinching exploration of childhood bullying and female friendship. The novel holds a 4.1 out of 5 stars on Amazon (2,777 reviews) and strong ratings on Goodreads, with reviewers consistently highlighting Atwood's precise prose and her ability to capture the subtle cruelty of girlhood. Many readers appreciate the novel's complex structure, which weaves between past and present as protagonist Elaine Risley returns to Toronto for an art retrospective, triggering memories of her traumatic childhood friendship with the manipulative Cordelia.

However, reception is notably mixed regarding pacing and relevance. While some readers find the exploration of childhood trauma profound and emotionally resonant, others criticize the novel as overly long and self-indulgent, questioning whether a woman in her 60s would remain so obsessed with bullying that occurred between ages 8-12. Several reviewers note that the book 'plods along' and would have been more effective as a novella. The novel's themes of memory, time, feminism, and the lasting impact of childhood experiences resonate strongly with some readers who find it deeply relatable, while others describe it as 'forgettable' and 'extremely boring,' suggesting the book's impact varies significantly depending on reader experience and life stage.

What readers loved

  • Exceptional prose quality with Atwood's 'uncanny skill for choosing exactly the perfect word every time' and writing 'with a painter's eye'
  • Powerful and realistic portrayal of childhood bullying and the subtle cruelty of female friendships that feels 'real and heartbreaking'
  • Complex exploration of memory and time, with nuanced narrative structure that questions narrator reliability
  • Deep character development with 'striking depth of characters' built layer by layer like a painting
  • Thought-provoking themes including feminism, gender identity, art versus science, and the long-term psychological effects of trauma
  • Vivid sense of place with detailed descriptions of Toronto across different eras from WWII to the 1980s
  • Emotionally resonant for readers who have experienced bullying, providing 'a deeper understanding of the pain and grief involved'

Common critiques

  • Excessive length at 400+ pages that many reviewers found 'self-indulgent' and would have worked better as a novella
  • Slow pacing that 'plods along' with some readers finding it 'extremely boring' and forgettable
  • Unbelievable premise that a woman in her 60s remains obsessed with childhood bullying from ages 8-12, described as 'somewhat obsessive and unbelievable'
  • Brother's death subplot criticized as 'tedious, awful and distressing' with shock value that 'hardly added anything to the plot itself'
  • Limited focus on the central bullying theme, with detailed exploration appearing in only 'two or three of the chapters, out of 75'

Based on reviews from

  • Goodreads
  • Amazon UK
  • Amazon US
  • Keeping Up With The Penguins
Last updated May 18, 2026 Summary based on publicly available reviews. May not reflect every reader's experience.

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