CBR IV # 25 Lady Oracle by Margaret Atwood

The book opens with Joan Foster settling in a villa in a small Italian town.  She had just faked her own death, and was nervous and jumpy, wondering whether he has been successful or not.  From this present day, the book takes us back to Joan's childhood.  Her fatness, he overbearing Mother and distant father.  Her only friend was an eccentric aunt who loved her unconditionally.  We then follow her to her teenage years, running away from home, her love affairs, and finally to her life just prior to her fake death.

Joan is a girls of multiple personalities.  She was a fat girl, a secret writer of Gothic romances, a kinda dumb housewife, a kept woman, and adulterer, and authoress of an intriguing feminist book.  She switches easily from personality to personality, creating personas both innocently and calculatingly at the same time.

The book is not really a thriller about a woman faking her death.  It may seem high concept at first, but really, it is just a story about a woman.

The first book I read of Atwood was the Handmaiden's Tale.  I've noticed that the books by her which I enjoy the most are those with a sci-fi premise.  This book is more along the lines of Cat's Eye and the Robber Bride.  It's good, but i prefer her other works.