Margaret Atwood’s writing, according to Davey, reveals not only an extraordinary facility with language, but also a deep mistrust of it as something shaped by an instrumental and largely male culture. Her language directs its readers to a hidden level of itself – unspoken, symbolic, gestural – and away from denotative meaning. In discussions of her poetry, fiction, short stories, and criticism, Davey offers a ‘glossary’ of recurrent Atwood images and symbols that can open this hidden level in nearly all of her writing.

Margaret Atwood’s writing, according to Davey, reveals not only an extraordinary facility with language, but also a deep mistrust of it as something shaped by an instrumental and largely male culture. Her language directs its readers to a hidden level of itself – unspoken, symbolic, gestural – and away from denotative meaning. In discussions of her poetry, fiction, short stories, and criticism, Davey offers a ‘glossary’ of recurrent Atwood images and symbols that can open this hidden level in nearly all of her writing.