Response # 2 "Bodily harm"

Alas, I can relate to dear Rennie. Part two of my novel begins with a lovely introduction about the closeness between Rennie and her grandparents, both of whom have a wonderful history of interesting background. The grandmother adores the Grandfather, and I feel very warmed by this fact because my grandparents are like this, they respect each other and love each other. Rennie respects her grandmother, and says that "my grandmother is an amazing woman for her age," and I like this new aspect to Rennie, it seems that she is the keeper of family history, just like me.
I have also found another similarity between Rennie and myself that I have found comforting, we both want to get out of our home towns, due to depressing history or just merely the craving of new adventures and new life.
I have also figured out Atwood's method of story telling. Each flowery thing is a time portal, or so I'm calling it. She cleverly writes a short body of words, that has to do with the present situation, and then puts a flower, and writes another body of history, introducing more and more information and background having to do with Rennie. My thoughts are that each historic reference is going to become more relevant to her currant situation before the end just magically comes together, so that has me excited.
Atwood uses a lot of really good metaphors, and this is especially effective for Rennie. She had recently underwent surgery to remove cancer in her left breast, and the experience has her petrified. She describes her fear very well in one line that had my attention and sympathy, it was very strong... "She is in remission. Remission is the good word, terminal is the bad one. It makes Rennie think of bus stations: the end of the line." This even scared me, and Rennie uses frequent metaphors like this to describe her ending, that she hopes won't come soon. She doesn't want to know if she's dying, so she doesn't ask her doctor Daniel, but underneath it all she's dying to know if she's terminal or not, and her constant reference to this ordeal has gotten me all worked up, just tell her already!
I must say I do not enjoy her flashbacks to previous journalism experiences, for they are rather dry. There are just a lot of stories mentioned, like articles in Pandora called "women of achievement" and other boring non-related stories. Sure, it furthers Rennie's character that she is brutally honest and a good writer, but it's just not an interesting part of the story.
I have also realized what I think is one of Margaret Atwood's classic trademarks, or so I hear, she makes the brutal ex boyfriend of Rennie into a perverted, terrible man with no sense of respect. I hate Jake, I hate everything about him because every piece of information given about Jake says that he is a scumbag, who uses foul language and calls women and Christians c***s. I reeeeaaallllyyy don't like him, he makes me want to hit the next man I see. Is this her goal? Maybe, but there has been on decent man that has come out of this, the doctor Daniel, and I like him for being the only normal, respectable man in this entire novel.
My favourite part so far, is the one part that made me laugh. Rennie was running through the streets of the town she is vacationing in, and a man is following her with an outstretched hand. Suddenly, her male friend Paul grabs her arm and tells her to stop and face the man following her, and he says, " he's just deaf and dumb, he only wants to shake your hand, he thinks it's good luck." I had to laugh, not only because the situation itself was funny, but because of the irony; Rennie is anything but lucky. I'm also getting very giddy, Daniel finds Rennie interesting, and this is the first clue that he's starting to like her! yay for Rennie!

Rennie wants desperatly for someone to take of her, she keeps meeting man after man... Daniel, Paul, Dr. Minnow... and just wants protection, and so far Daniel is the only one capable of that. She reminds me often of my mother, and her search for love and comfort in many men after the first one let her down, it gives me a better respect for Rennie, she's not in an easy place.