If holding a grudge is wrong, why does it feel so right? Just ask Margaret Atwood | Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett

In a culture of therapy-approved ‘forgiveness’, the author’s new memoir shows how hilarious long-delayed vengeance can be“A lot of people have died, so I can actually say these things without destroying somebody’s life. Except for the people whose lives I wish to destroy.” Thus spake Margaret Atwood in a recent interview about Book of Lives: A Memoir of Sorts, in a clip that has gone viral. “They deserve it,” she says, of the people she hasn’t said such nice things about. Asked if she likes holding a grudge, she replied: “I don’t have a choice. I’m a Scorpio.”Part of the clip’s appeal is Atwood’s icily sardonic delivery: you can understand why a recent review of her autobiography describes her as “a literary mafia don”, reminding those who have crossed her that she knows who they are, even if they remain unnamed, or pointing out that they may well be dead by now anyway. It reminds me a bit of the writer who once said to me: “If you wait by the bend in the river long enough, the bodies of your enemies will eventually float past”. Not a Buddhist proverb, for obvious reasons.Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

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