Margaret Atwood's classic novel, THE HANDMAID'S TALE, is about the future. Now, in ORYX AND CRAKE, the future has changed. It's much worse. And we're well on the road to it now. The narrator of Margaret Atwood's riveting new novel is Snowman, self-named though not self-created. As the story begins, he's sleeping in a tree, wearing a dirty old bedsheet, mourning the loss of his beautiful and beloved Oryx and his best friend Crake, and slowly starving to death. Earlier, Snowman's life was one of comparative privilege. How did everything fall apart so quickly? Was he himself in any way responsible? Why is he now left alone with his bizarre memories - except for the more-than-perfect, green-eyed Children of Crake, who think of him as a kind of monster? He explores the answers to these questions in the double journey he takes - into his own past, and back to Crake's high-tech bubble dome, where the Paradice Project unfolded and the world came to grief.
With breathtaking command of her shocking material and with her customary sharp wit and dark humour, Atwood projects us into a less-than-brave new world, an outlandish yet wholly believable space populated by a cast of characters who will continue to inhabit your dreams long after the last chapter. This is Margaret Atwood at the absolute peak of her powers.
Once upon a time humanity didn't need be afraid. The race was thriving. Then came the sickness, then came the compounds. Finally came JUVE. Now it's just Snowman, but he has the whole story. Maybe the children of Crake can take over the planet. Certainly humans never will again.
Oryx and Crake begins Jimmy's memories of the man who called himself Crake - an intellectual genius without much of a moral compass. All the compounds wanted him, to use his intelligence to make themselves money, even if the things that he was willing to do did not take such care for human life. Human are flawed, after all.
Oryx and Crake is scary. Scary, but good. The book is written in the same cadence as The Handmaid's Tale, so popular, but how many people have delved into Margaret Atwood's other work? She's the Queen of Dystopia. Atwood finds the heartbeat of human fear and plays upon it - loss of trust, loss of freedom, loss of future. This book is no exception. It starts slowly, but builds into a careful crescendo that hooks the reader in completely.
Jimmy is an unlikable protagonist in a strange, changed world. But the story he has to tell is incredible. This one requires a little patience, but is definitely worth reading.
Reading updates
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Started reading
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29 October, 2018:
Finished reading
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29 October, 2018:
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