Rating: 
Summary: Far beyond the "step-by-step" approach...
Review: "Who are you writing for? Why do you do it? Where does it come from?" It is hard to make a generalization about "Negotiating With the Dead," but the quote above (via the introduction) really sums up Margaret Atwood's goal in developing her partial-memoir, partial-commentary on literature and the business of writing.
At times, the language and references were cumbersome while addressing 19th Century literature and rhetorical prose that fit her ivy-league student lectures. Atwood was well-versed on both accounts having studied at prestigious East Coast schools and becoming an avid lover of classic literature. But her story doesn't end there. Atwood is more than a sum of her credentials and literary awards. At a time when the United States was in a state of political and cultural upheaval, Atwood stepped out of the conservative would-be-wed circles and developed her own style and voice before the burgeoning Bohemian crowds in back-water coffee shops and underground poetry circles. In these ways, Atwood was truly inspiring. It was comforting to know that she did not fit in with the bourgeois crowd having grown up in the dense Canadian wilderness while her father studied rare insects. She and her brother were forced to use their imaginations rather than a television or radio program to spark their creative forces. And most of all, she read and read and read. If there were a mantra for her commentary, the overall secret password for an aspiring novelist would be, simply, "read."
Part feminist commentary, part mystery of the craft, and part personal experience all come together to serve the reader well with a helpful dose of "process." Writing is a process if it is anything at all, and Atwood skips the patronizing tone of successful authors who spout mantras and secret ingredients to make a story work well. Atwood, in contrast, looks at the craft as a whole, how it exist naturally full of its quirks and diamonds. Most of all, according to Atwood, writing deals with mortality and that is the moral of the story, and if you are compelled to put pieces of words on paper, just do it, and do it well with some conviction. After all, the clock is ticking. Thank you, Margaret.
Rating:
Summary: Far beyond the "step-by-step" approach...
Review: "Who are you writing for? Why do you do it? Where does it come from?" It is hard to make a generalization about "Negotiating With the Dead," but the quote above (via the introduction) really sums up Margaret Atwood's goal in developing her partial-memoir, partial-commentary on literature and the business of writing.
At times, the language and references were cumbersome while addressing 19th Century literature and rhetorical prose that fit her ivy-league student lectures. Atwood was well-versed on both accounts having studied at prestigious East Coast schools and becoming an avid lover of classic literature. But her story doesn't end there. Atwood is more than a sum of her credentials and literary awards. At a time when the United States was in a state of political and cultural upheaval, Atwood stepped out of the conservative would-be-wed circles and developed her own style and voice before the burgeoning Bohemian crowds in back-water coffee shops and underground poetry circles. In these ways, Atwood was truly inspiring. It was comforting to know that she did not fit in with the bourgeois crowd having grown up in the dense Canadian wilderness while her father studied rare insects. She and her brother were forced to use their imaginations rather than a television or radio program to spark their creative forces. And most of all, she read and read and read. If there were a mantra for her commentary, the overall secret password for an aspiring novelist would be, simply, "read."
Part feminist commentary, part mystery of the craft, and part personal experience all come together to serve the reader well with a helpful dose of "process." Writing is a process if it is anything at all, and Atwood skips the patronizing tone of successful authors who spout mantras and secret ingredients to make a story work well. Atwood, in contrast, looks at the craft as a whole, how it exist naturally full of its quirks and diamonds. Most of all, according to Atwood, writing deals with mortality and that is the moral of the story, and if you are compelled to put pieces of words on paper, just do it, and do it well with some conviction. After all, the clock is ticking. Thank you, Margaret.
Rating: 
Summary: vitally relevant
Review: Battles that were "long since resolved" do not lose their relevancy simply because the matter is no longer front page news. I waited nearly two years for this book's publication, and having read, loved, and laughed out loud over such lectures as "Spotty-Handed Villainess" on Atwood's web site, and having had the recent honor of seeing her speak at Radcliffe, was not disappointed. Any serious reader knows how heavily and intelligently Atwood draws upon and subverts the conventions of fairy tales and especially of 19th century gothic novels; after all, she did years upon years of postgraduate work at both Radcliffe and Harvard in exactly that literary period and genre. With novels as dense and intelligent as Atwood's, did anyone honestly expect a critical, scholarly text by her would be a fun read? Any aspiring writer (or non-passive reader, for that matter) who has not mastered the canon--and the history behind it--won't go far. How can anything new be created if you aren't capable of recognizing what's alredy been done, and playing with conventions with the knowledge that they are conventions, and how they've been used in the past? I can't believe I'm using this analogy, but if you watch the Simpsons without a basic knowledge of American pop culture, you won't get the joke. Nearly everything written after 1950 has some kind of basic postmodern, intertextual play going on somewhere. I am American, and wasn't even alive in the 60s or 70s, and even I know that a basic grasp of literary history (including the impact of the feminism on literature) is vital to any writing life.
Rating: 
Summary: Boring and Depressing
Review: Boring and depressing and really not much help to anyone who wants advice on the art of writing. More of a memoir and not much of one at that. And even the cover was poorly done - don't bother.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant, a thinking person's book.
Review: I agree that this is a graduate level course in one book, and I think the reader who wanted to give it zero stars was probably over her head. It is brilliant, philosophical and witty, as no doubt the author is also, but it is not an easy read memoir. Although there are elements of memoir, it's really a fascinating glimpse into the mind of a literary writer. Yes, these -- the problem of the double in myth and literature, the demonic/godlike sources of inspiration, the moral responsibilities of the artist, the meaning of the book as go-between of author and reader, and the different historical answers to all of the above -- these are the thoughts that occupy this writer. While the rest of us are absorbing entertainment, she is analyzing civilization and here she tells us what she thinks. A most valuable book! I also recommend her novels, especially Oryx and Crake, and The Blind Assassin.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant, a thinking person's book.
Review: I agree that this is a graduate level course in one book, and I think the reader who wanted to give it zero stars was probably over her head. It is brilliant, philosophical and witty, as no doubt the author is also, but it is not an easy read memoir. Although there are elements of memoir, it's really a fascinating glimpse into the mind of a literary writer. Yes, these -- the problem of the double in myth and literature, the demonic/godlike sources of inspiration, the moral responsibilities of the artist, the meaning of the book as go-between of author and reader, and the different historical answers to all of the above -- these are the thoughts that occupy this writer. While the rest of us are absorbing entertainment, she is analyzing civilization and here she tells us what she thinks. A most valuable book! I also recommend her novels, especially Oryx and Crake, and The Blind Assassin.
Rating:
Summary: It was the whiskey talking...
Review: I can't but feel that Margaret Atwood's alcholism is truly having an impact on her work: Negotiating With the Dead is a jumble in thought and the prose is filled with cliche and flatness. It's sad that this "great" Canadian writer has allowed herself to sink so low.
Rating:
Summary: Margaret Laurence, NOT Margaret Atwood...
Review: I feel the need to respond to reader "Liz," who believes that the author's "alcholism" [sic] was to blame for her disappointment in this book. Liz clearly confuses Margaret Atwood for Margaret LAURENCE, the brilliant and troubled Canadian writer who committed suicide in 1983. Atwood is alive, well, and (according to all reliable reports) in no way suffering from "alcholism." I would respectfully suggest that a little more scholarship and considerably less judgmental commentary (not to mention careful proofreading) are in order before posting reviews on Amazon.com. As a longtime fan of Atwood's work and as a writer myself, I found her insight fascinating, though I can understand the disappointment some readers felt; this is not a handbook or a how-to, it's an intellectual memoir and will consequently be a let-down for many. But if you are curious about analysis and process more than in absolutes, there is much here to interest and entertain. Atwood-the-writer can seem remote in her fiction; here she is personable and humane. Anyone who has put pen to paper will recognize and value much that is to be found in this volume.
Rating:
Summary: Re ridiculous, libelous review below.
Review: I felt compelled to write this review because of a previous reviewer's slanderous and ignorant comment that Margaret Atwood is an alcoholic. I am familiar with the arts community in Toronto and so can say with absolute certainty that this is untrue. This is a scholarly and beautiful text culled from a series of lectures and should be read as such. I suppose that if you believe, as another reviewer did, that being a writer does not require familiarity with the body of English literature then this is not the book for you. But if, as I did, you found that comment ridiculous and sad- then consider this text.
Rating:
Summary: Successfully inhaled more Atwood prose
Review: I have collected M.E. Atwood books for years now, and it was by accident that I came across Negotiating with the Dead in the academic section of my university's bookstore. Sure, it's not a novel or book of poems, but if it has her name on it, I buy it. I wasn't dissapointed. I love MEA's characters and stories, and now I love her take on literary aspirations and operations. Her refreshing, cynical angle on this field was inspiring and very interesting. Buy this book if you love Atwood, but also if you love writing and don't know why you do.
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