I discovered Margaret Atwood in high school when I first read The Handmaid's Tale, but I didn't read any of her other books until college, when I realised she's actually an amazing feminist writer with an incredibly versatile imagination. The Edible Woman was her first novel -- I think it was written in the late 60s or early 70s -- and was the first book of hers that I really fell in love with.
Marian graduated from college and drifted into a job, a boyfriend, and a holding pattern, then got engaged to the suave Peter, a pretentious git who really just wanted a trophy, not a life partner. Between the engagement and the imminent wedding, she meets Duncan, who seems to be Peter's complete opposite -- a never-ending graduate student (in English, ha ha) who writes a sentence a day of his thesis and likes to hang out in laundromats. He's febrile and emaciated, and Marian thinks she needs to sleep with him in order to save him. And there's that pesky problem with food -- she can't eat anything that was alive, and grocery shopping is becoming a bit of a problem.
My favourite part is probably the end, although Marian doesn't seem to come to any sort of resolution about her role as a woman. She just keeps drifting, although she makes major changes to her life. But what's next? I love this book because the story is timeless and I relate to it on so many levels. I even think I've married Duncan (sometimes). And I definitely dated Peter. I haven't had Ainsley for a roommate... or am *I* Ainsley? Anyway, this is one of those classics that every self-respecting woman needs on her bookshelf. It makes you think. I even made my mother read it.