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POSTED: 09 JAN 09

Margaret Atwood, Payback: Debt and the shadow side of wealth

(Bloomsbury; 240pp hardback; $29.95)

Margaret Atwood is a special writer.

This shows in her new non-fiction work, Payback: Debt and the shadow side of wealth, in a myriad of ways, but for me the three standouts are her artistry as a storyteller, her deep knowledge of literature, history, language and religion over the ages, and her ability to think and ask intelligent questions.

Because Atwood is such a fine writer and storyteller, reading this exploration of the notion of debt and credit (‘you cain’t have one without the other’!) is anything but dull. This is certainly no dry economic tome.

The book is set out as a series of lectures, hence Atwood develops the sense of a dialogue or discussion taking place between author and reader. Her chatty style makes the weighty matters under consideration easy to digest and contemplate.

The use of well known characters from literature (such as Dicken’s Scrooge) to illuminate her arguments is a clever tool, for we already know the characters and stories so well, and Atwood builds and expands on that knowledge in an entertaining and cunningly simple way.

Atwood follows the trail of debt through human society — our religions, our literature, our behaviours — and defines it as a human construct, which mirrors and magnifies both voracious human desire and ferocious human fear.