Cat's Eye - Margaret Atwood [1]
Chapter One
Chapter Two
TWO Silver Paper
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
THREE Empire Bloomers
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
FOUR Deadly Nightshade
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
FIVE Wringer
Chapter Twenty One
Chapter Twenty Two
Chapter Twenty Three
Chapter Twenty Four
Chapter Twenty Five
Chapter Twenty Six
Chapter Twenty Seven
SIX Cat’s Eye
Chapter Twenty Eight
Chapter Twenty Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty One
Chapter Thirty Two
SEVEN Our Lady of Perpetual Help
Chapter Thirty Three
Chapter Thirty Four
Chapter Thirty Five
Chapter Thirty Six
EIGHT Half a Face
Chapter Thirty Seven
Chapter Thirty Eight
Chapter Thirty Nine
Chapter Fourty
NINE Leprosy
Chapter Fourty One
Chapter Fourty Two
Chapter Fourty Three
Chapter Fourty Four
Chapter Fourty Five
Chapter Fourty Six
TEN Life Drawing
Chapter Fourty Seven
Chapter Fourty Eight
Chapter Fourty Nine
Chapter Fifty
Chapter Fifty One
Chapter Fifty Two
Chapter Fifty Three
Chapter Fifty Four
Chapter Fifty Five
ELEVEN Falling Women
Chapter Fifty Six
Chapter Fifty Seven
Chapter Fifty Eight
Chapter Fifty Nine
Chapter Sixty
Chapter Sixty One
Chapter Sixty Two
Chapter Sixty Three
TWELVE One Wing
Chapter Sixty Four
Chapter Sixty Five
Chapter Sixty Six
THIRTEEN Picoseconds
Chapter Sixty Seven
Chapter Sixty Eight
Chapter Sixty Nine
Chapter Seventy
FOURTEEN Unified Field Theory
Chapter Seventy One
Chapter Seventy Two
Chapter Seventy Three
FIFTEEN Bridge
Chapter Seventy Four
Chapter Seventy Five
About the Author
The paintings and other modern works of art in this book do not exist. Nevertheless, they have been influenced by visual artists Joyce Wieland, Jack Chambers, Charles Pachter, Erica Heron, Gail Geltner, Dennis Burton, Louis de Niverville, Heather Cooper, William Kurelek, Greg Curnoe, and pop-surreal potter Lenore M. Atwood, among others; and by the Isaacs Gallery, the old original.
The physics and cosmology sideswiped herein are indebted to Paul Davies, Carl Sagan, John Gribbin, and Stephen W. Hawking, for their entrancing books on these subjects, and to my nephew, David Atwood, for his enlightening remarks about strings.
Many thanks to Graeme Gibson, for undergoing this novel; to my agent, Phoebe Larmore; to my English agents, Vivienne Schuster and Vanessa Holt; to my editors and publishers, Nan Talese, Nancy Evans, Ellen Seligman, Adrienne Clarkson, Avie Bennett, Liz Calder, and Anna Porter; and to my indefatigable assistant, Melanie Dugan; as well as to Donya Peroff, Michael Bradley, Alison Parker, Gary Foster, Cathy Gill, Kathy Minialoff, Fanny Silberman, James Polk, Coleen Quinn, Rosie Abella, C. M. Sanders, Gene Goldberg, John Gallagher, and Dorothy Goulbourne.
When the Tukanas cut off her head, the old woman collected her own blood in her hands and blew it towards the sun.
“My soul enters you, too!” she shouted.
Since then anyone who kills receives in his body, without wanting or knowing it, the soul of his victim.
—EDUARDO GALEANO
Memory of Fire: Genesis
Why do we remember the past, and not the future?
—STEPHEN W. HAWKING
A Brief History of Time
PART
ONE
IRON
LUNG
1
Time is not a line but a dimension, like the dimensions of space. If you can bend space you can bend time also, and if you knew enough and could move faster than light you could travel backward in time and exist in two places at once.
It was my brother Stephen who told me that, when he wore his raveling maroon sweater to study in and spent a lot of time standing on his head so that the blood would run down into his brain and nourish it. I didn’t understand what he meant, but maybe he didn’t explain it very well. He was already moving away from the imprecision