Cat's Eye

Cat's Eye is widely considered one of Margaret Atwood's most personal novels, and it earned Booker Prize and Governor General's Award finalist recognition in 1988 and 1989. Painter Elaine Risley returns to Toronto for a retrospective and the novel moves between her present and a childhood defined by her friendship with Cordelia — a relationship so psychologically precise in its cruelty that it remains one of the most accurate portrayals of girlhood social dynamics in literary fiction. Atwood uses Elaine's art as a lens for examining memory, trauma, and how we make sense of the people we once were. The honest caveat is that this is a heavy, often bleak book — not an uplifting read, and not faith-oriented. The slow flashback structure may also challenge readers expecting Atwood's faster-paced work. For adult literary readers, it is exceptional.