Quote:
Originally Posted by faithbw
I've only read one book on that list: The Handmaid's Tale. I enjoyed that book but it took some maturity to do so. I admit that when I was assigned to do so in high school, I only read a quarter way through before deciding I hated it. I decided to try again last year and felt very differently about it.
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The first thing that drew me into Atwood's novels was the cadence. Because I started as a pianist and poet even as a little boy, I could be carried along purely by rhythm from page to page. Atwood had that in
Surfacing and
Life before Man (the first books I read by her) and that continued with
The Handmaid's Tale. The feminist allegory and SF dystopian aspect were second nature to me because we had a lot of feminist books and magazines in the house and every child reads
1984.
I doubt that most kids are likely to get swept up by Elizabethan/metaphysical poetic rhythm unless they have unusual experiences that connect them to those sounds. Children do tend to be sensitive to rhythm, but not necessarily that kind.