On My BookShelf: "The Robber Bride"

I've always had Margaret Atwood's "The Robber Bride" on my bookshelf but I've never got around to actually picking it up until just yesterday. I've only read a couple of chapters so far, but I was immediately sucked into the book when I read about a conniving femme fatale who steals all of her friends' husbands and lovers. The theme of it somewhat reminds me of Toni Morrison's book "Sula", where her friend steals her husband. I'm excited to see if the plot develops and if Atwood makes the character sympathetic or whether she is just a complete bitch. Check out the book for yourself by clicking here.

Crazy Nymphomaniacal Penis-Envying Fucked-Up Frigid Bitch

In the feminist novel Memoirs of an Ex-Prom Queen, the female character Sasha Davis visits a male psychoanalyst in order to discuss being miserable in her marriage and her perceived "frigidity". The novel takes place in the fifties and sixties, so of course the therapist tells her that if only she embraces her feminine true self then she will be able to be happy. You know, her main problem is that she needs to set aside her penis-envy and get with the program, right?

At one point in her therapy session, she discusses with her therapist her need to have extramarital affairs. She considers leaving her husband, but the therapist advises her that she shouldn't make any drastic decisions. Sasha reflects to herself, "He seemed to feel that the known was better than the unknown, another man would prove no better for me than this one, and a crazy nymphomaniacal penis-envying fucked-up frigid bitch like me was lucky to have hooked any man at all".

Gotta love it.