I wonder if Atwood decided to go with the lowest paying publisher.

"What she doesn't understand is that forgiveness, in order to be meaningful, requires a party willing to be forgiven -- and conscious, moreover, of needing forgiveness."

You have to be kidding me...forgiveness does not require consciousness on the part of the offender - otherwise, most human acts of forgiveness would NOT HAVE HAPPENED.

The act of forgiveness raises consciousness...not the other way around

Is this reviewer a "poet"???

Could he be any more ignorant of the human condition?

our act of forgiving heals our own soul

it need not be reciprocated.

from the WIKI "Asking for forgiveness from God was a staple of Jewish prayers. It was also considered proper for individuals to be forgiving of others, so the sentiment expressed in the prayer would have been a common one of the time. "

Another spew of useless drivel extolling the virtues of the "Free Market". Which we now know to be "Free" untill they needed to be "socialized" and be bailed out by taxpayers. Atwoods screed may be clumsy but this reviewer is as dense as anti-matter.

Forgiveness requires what? Where does it say that Louis? It's okay, I forgive you.

Atwood could outwrite you lying in a comma.

You say Atwood is stupid or naive or something for having the crazy idea that if America had not killed 600,000 to 1.2 million, mostly Muslims, in revenge for 911 you would be safer! Yes of course! Ha ha what a stupid idea, the mass murder of innocent people ALWAYS makes things better, and safer of course -- especially for the people living in the country that did it!

Every single one of those people had brothers, fathers, mothers and friends. If there were x number of people who hated America prior to America's revenge murders, then there must millions more who have joined them since then. You are NOT 'safer'? And you call her naive?

When are you going on O'Reilly? He'd like you.

I'm intrigued enough by this review to want to read the book and reach my own conclusions. I am however, chastened enough by the subject matter that I will not put it on my credit card and will instead wait for my local library to get a copy. :)

I respect Mr Bayard's opinions, even if I haven't yet decided whether I agree. When I read the book, I'll have a better idea.

All any of us can honestly bring to a review is the filter of our own perceptions. The trick comes in knowing where your tastes & sensibilities lie compared to the reviewer. I'm not familiar enough with Mr Bayard's work to know that yet. I do want to thank him for putting this book on my radar. It sounds worth checking out.

As for all the vitriol over forgiveness, perhaps the posters should try it themselves and see how it works for them. There were some pretty passionate opinions and not a lot of generosity of spirit as far as I could see.

My own opinions? No one cares, so I'll keep them to myself. Not good for the blogosphere - where volume often trumps content, but occasionally useful in the real world.

Maybe we wouldn't have pissed away a couple of trillion dollars fucking around in Iraq. I don't know if forgiveness is good for your soul, but it certainly would have been better for our pocketbooks.

And since we still haven't managed to catch Osama or shut Al-Qaeda down, forgiveness would have been no less effective at achieving our ends than vengeance proved to be.

Dear Mr. Bayard,

Would you please elaborate a bit on the following business (I can't be the only person who's just read this and immediately thought "What?")?:

"..What she doesn't understand is that forgiveness, in order to be meaningful, requires a party willing to be forgiven -- and conscious, moreover, of needing forgiveness."

Who in the world (from the Pope all the way to Dr. Ruth or the local rape-counselor) has ever declared that forgiveness isn't "meaningful" unless the offending party is both willing to accept forgiveness and, in fact, conscious of needing forgiveness?

Actually, the Inquisition often applied that standard....so, I guess you do have a precedent. It's just kind of odd to run across that definition/standard in a 2008 book review

As for "If so, she is guilty of both intellectual and imaginative failure"?........well...there you have it, I suppose...

Just asking....

sincerely,

david terry

"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do"-while he was being crucified. At least Margaret Atwood is in good company. Forgiveness might not prevent violent acts, but it doesn't add to them.

The letter-writers are quite right, and I should have been clearer. As a spiritual practice, forgiveness CAN be unilateral; sometimes, that's the only way it can happen. But from a practical perspective, forgiving Al Qaeda would have done nothing to alter the dynamic of that relationship, other than to make us feel (possibly) better about ourselves.

No matter how many times we "forgive" them, Al Qaeda will still be dedicated to destroying us. Indeed, our forgiveness could have the counterproductive effect of encouraging more attacks. So frankly, it strikes me as an indulgence we can't afford.

None of this should be construed as a defense of the ungodly Iraq war, which, of course, had nothing to do with Al Qaeda or 9/11 (other than in its opportunistic tapping of American fear and rage).

Thanks for your comments.

LPB

"If We'd Forgiven The Terrorist Nutjobs

Maybe we wouldn't have pissed away a couple of trillion dollars fucking around in Iraq. I don't know if forgiveness is good for your soul, but it certainly would have been better for our pocketbooks."

So next time there's a terrorist attack, our response will just be to kill huge numbers of Muslims with standoff bombardment, suitably impressing them with our ability to retaliate. This would be have been far cheaper than our years-long adventure in sending ground troops, and politically popular in the wake of a terrorist attack.

We have chosen to fight the hard way because even a low probability of creating another Japan makes even a couple of trillion a worthwhile expenditure. And the world cannot blame us for not having tried.