“Alternatively, thoughts on Margaret Atwood or Arundhati Roy.”

That was a reader request.  My thoughts are simple:

I am a fan of Atwood's Cat's Eye and The Handmaid's Tale, both of which are well constructed and compelling on virtually every page.  Many of her other books seem meritorious to me (The Blind Assassin, Robber's Bride), but I don't enjoy finishing them and my attention ends up wandering.  The failing may be mine.  I don't think I would find her non-fiction book on debt very interesting but I haven't tried it.

Roy's The God of Small Things impressed me as I was reading it, but since then it has vanished from my mind.  Her musings on economics, or for that matter politics, are under-informed to say the least.  I view her as a "one hit wonder" and I am not even sure the one hit stands up.  I admire Atwood's humanity and universality and scope of vision, even when I think her work is failing to connect; I don't have a similar response to Roy.