Margaret Atwood has created some diabolical characters, and
Zenia in this novel is one of her best. She appears in a restaurant where three of her
friends—Roz, Charys, and Tony--are having lunch—five years after they have
buried what was supposed to be a canister of her ashes. The stories of the three bewildered friends
follow this astonishing sighting, and we find that Zenia is a supreme
manipulator and maneater. Each friend in
turn has befriended Zenia, comforted her, loaned her money, taken her in,
nursed her back to emotional or physical health and then been blindsided when
Zenia runs off with the woman’s lover or husband. Zenia is basically toying with these men, as
she summarily dumps them when their purpose has been served. I never quite got a sense for Zenia’s motives,
however. Was she punishing the women for
having something she did not? Or was she
just stealing these men to prove how weak the men were and how gullible their
women were? In some ways, this novel is
a juicy romp, as each of Zenia’s moves and lies is more outlandish than the
last, and I wanted to pull my hair out when all three women are duped by her
tales of woe, allowing Zenia to upend their lives. They all admire her, then feel sorry for her,
and ultimately want revenge. As I read
this novel, I couldn’t help thinking how much fun it must have been to write
such a blatantly evil character as Zenia and to cast three strong women as her
unwitting victims who finally have a second chance to claim the upper hand.
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