How long does it take to read Negotiating with the Dead?
Negotiating with the Dead by Margaret Atwood takes about 4 hours 3 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.
About 4 hours 3 minutes
A weekend read
First published 2002. 221 pages, about 60,775 words.
9 days at 30 minutes a day
Estimate based on 275 words per page.
At other speeds
| Slow, 150 words a minute | 6 hours 45 minutes |
| Average, 250 words a minute | 4 hours 3 minutes |
| Fast, 400 words a minute | 2 hours 32 minutes |
The page count is the median across 13 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.
About the book
What is the role of the Writer? Prophet? High Priest of Art? Court Jester? Or witness to the real world? Looking back on her own childhood and writing career, Margaret Atwood examines the metaphors which writers of fiction and poetry have used to explain--or excuse!--their activities, looking at what costumes they have assumed, what roles they have chosen to play. In her final chapter she takes up the challenge of the title: if a writer is to be seen as "gifted," who is doing the giving and what are the terms of the gift? Atwood's wide reference to other writers, living and dead, is balanced by anecdotes from her own experiences, both in Canada and elsewhere. The lightness of her touch is offset by a seriousness about the purpose and the pleasures of writing, and by a deep familiarity with the myths and traditions of western literature.
Subjects: Authorship, Fiction, Views on authorship, Fiction, authorship, Writing, Fiction--authorship
