- Hardcover: 240 pages
- Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC; First Edition edition (9 Oct 2008)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0747598495
- ISBN-13: 978-0747598497
- Product Dimensions: 17.8 x 12.2 x 2.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 271,085 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Review
`...a fascinating, freewheeling examination of ideas of debt, balance and revenge in history, society and literature' --The Times
`From Scrooge to Faustus, the Canadian seer's fascinating examination of debt, balance and revenge in history, society and literature is essential reading for those curious about the breeding ground for our current financial turmoil.'
--The Times, The Best 100 Books of the Decade
`From Scrooge to Faustus, the Canadian seer's fascinating examination of debt, balance and revenge in history, society and literature is essential reading for those curious about the breeding ground for our current financial turmoil.'
--The Times, The Best 100 Books of the Decade
Review
'One of the most important writers in English today' Germaine Greer 'Margaret Atwood deserves an adjective - Atwoodian - in recognition of her virtuoso wit and unmistakeable style' Chicago Tribune 'Everything she forms in words has substance and weight' Daily Telegraph
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
52 of 52 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This little book, as attractive in its format as in its verbal felicity, is based on a series of lectures about debt. They must have been memorable. It is not about the credit crunch - although the book's publication is timely - but about the imaginary constructions underlying concepts of indebtedness in the widest sense. Using folklore, religion, ancient history, literature, computer simulations and experiments in animal behaviour, Atwood shows that a sense that there should be balance and fairness in relations between debtors and creditors lies deep in the human psyche and that when this is absent, things turn nasty. This applies even among the higher animals, as shown by a fascinating experiment in which monkeys were taught to trade stones for bananas. She concludes with an examination of the `debt to nature', arguing that mankind cannot go on taking rather than giving, without destroying the Earth on which it depends, the point being illustrated with a chilling modern version of Dicken's A Christmas Carol.
Atwood makes the most serious points in a way that is engaging to read, constantly throwing new light on familiar things - from The Merchant of Venice to the meaning of `publicans' and `trespasses' in the New Testament. Once started, the book is hard to put down. It would make salutary reading for economists, politicians and City folk.
Graham Hallett
Atwood makes the most serious points in a way that is engaging to read, constantly throwing new light on familiar things - from The Merchant of Venice to the meaning of `publicans' and `trespasses' in the New Testament. Once started, the book is hard to put down. It would make salutary reading for economists, politicians and City folk.
Graham Hallett
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Very, Very, Very good.
Atwood takes you through the history, the mythology, the religion and reasons for the whole economic breakdown we are currently experiencing. The fact that it has happened so many times before, with terrible outcomes - maybe known to the reader, but the parallels in her writing are spot on.
The book led my wife and I to discuss the thoughts and theories over and over.
Even the beautifully presented, pocketsized binding makes this to a pleasure to hold, if not necessarily to read.
Five Stars, and I will be buying copies as gifts for a long time to come.
Atwood takes you through the history, the mythology, the religion and reasons for the whole economic breakdown we are currently experiencing. The fact that it has happened so many times before, with terrible outcomes - maybe known to the reader, but the parallels in her writing are spot on.
The book led my wife and I to discuss the thoughts and theories over and over.
Even the beautifully presented, pocketsized binding makes this to a pleasure to hold, if not necessarily to read.
Five Stars, and I will be buying copies as gifts for a long time to come.
2 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
MY BEST EVER CANADIAN AUTHOR, READ ALL HER PUBLISHED WORK,LOVE HER INTELLIGENCE AND SENSITIVE INSIGHT.
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