Friday Friyay: Book Beginnings and Friday 56

It has been forever since I've joined in on these blog hops on Friday, but they're major fun and hence, I am back! On Fridays we go to Book Beginnings at Rose City Reader, hosted by Gilion Dumas, and Friday 56 at Freda's Voice, hosted by Freda.

This week I've chosen The Edible Woman by Margaret Atwood. I was inspired to pick up Atwood's first novel when I read Terri-Jane Dow's great 'Re-Reading All of Margaret Atwood's Novels in 2019' in the Chicago Review of Books. Since I love a lot of Atwood's fiction, I decided it was time to see where it all began.

Marian is determined to be ordinary. She lays her head gently on the shoulder of her serious fiancé and quietly awaits marriage. But she didn't count on an inner rebellion that would rock her stable routine, and her digestion. Marriage a la mode, Marian discovers, is something she literally can't stomach... The Edible Woman is a funny, engaging novel about emotional cannibalism, men and women, and the desire to be consumed.

I mean, emotional cannibalism? The desire to be consumed? I'm fascinated already. So let's get started with Book Beginnings:

'I know I was all right on Friday when I got up; if anything I was feeling more stolid than usual. When I went out to the kitchen to get breakfast Ainsley was there, moping: she said she had been to a bad party the night before. She swore there had been nothing but dentistry students, which depressed her so much she had consoled herself by getting drunk. 

"You have no idea how soggy it is," she said, "having to go through twenty conversations about the insides of people's mouths. The most reaction I got out of them was when I described an abscess I once had. They positively drooled. And most men look at something besides your teeth, for god's sake."' 1%

I decided to include the first line of dialogue as it showed a little bit more personality thank just the first sentence or two. I'm kind of interested to see where the rest of this narrative is going since that first sentence rather predicts that she is not currently all right!

And now for the Friday 56:

'"That's ridiculous!" Len said. "Nobody wants to get pregnant. Nobody would deliberately do a thing like that!"Marian smiled; he was being simple-minded, which she found sweet, in a sticky sort of way. She felt as though she should take him upon her knees and say, "Now Leonard, it's high time I told you about the Facts of Life."' 56%

Now I still have absolutely no idea what's happening but these two sentences made me laugh out loud. I can't wait to find out the context for them.

Have you read The Edible Woman? And if you're a Margaret Atwood fan as well, which is your favourite of her novels?