"I think I'm kind of an odd phenomenon in that I'm a serious writer and I never expected to become a popular one, and I never did anything in order to become a popular one." In addition to being the darling of critics, she is a frequent guest on Canadian television and radio, her books are best sellers, and "people follow her on the streets and in stores," as Judy Klemesrud reported in the
New York Times. According to MacGregor in
Maclean's, Atwood "is to Canadian literature as Gordon Lightfoot is to Canadian music, more institution than individual."
Best known for novels such as The Handmaid's Tale, The Robber Bride, and The Blind Assassin, Atwood is also a poet of note, as well as a short-story writer, essayist, children's author, and playwright with several radio scripts to her credit. She explores many of the same themes within these various genres, examining the relationship between humanity and nature or the disquieting aspects of human behavior, and looking at power as it pertains to gender and politics. Employing symbolism, irony, and self-conscious narrators, Atwood takes literary chances by employing techniques from science fiction and the detective novel in her detail-filled novels, poems, and short stories.
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