Payback: Debt As Mental Construct and the Shadow Side of Wealth

Novelist Margaret Atwood delivered the prestigious Massey Lectures in 2008 on the subject of debt. Collected here, they make for a scintillating read, as Atwood taps into the topical (our indebtedness to nature, the global market crisis), but also investigates the historical and literary components of debt--it has been frequently tied to sin, religious beliefs, revenge, and sexuality. From the ancient Greeks to the Bible, from Shakespeare to credit cards, Atwood plunges into the changing and unchanging perceptions of debt, creating a philosophical feast with all the flourishes of fine storytelling that characterize her work as a novelist.

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