Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood - 2003 - 468 Pages
Margaret Atwood Month- hosted by Buried in Print. November 2021
I am happy to once again participate in Margaret Atwood Month.
Some might find this book a little much. Some might find it a little silly. Some people are going to stop reading this book well before midpoint. I think you have to enjoy post apocalyptic fiction and be happy to read a book and enjoy the beauty of the language without stressing too much over whether or not you have clear cognitive understanding of the plot action. I really enjoyed the book for the skill with which Atwood constructed an alternative future earth. The language of the book is very creative and imaginative. There are lots of new earth creatures running around, lots of dangers and maybe a delight or two. If Vienna sausages made of soy beans that have been in the can twenty years after the expiration date sound like a great treat to you then you will be at home in the world of this novel. One advice I would give new entrants into this world is to forget about having a pet dog!.
Oryx and Crake is part one of a planned trilogy. The Year of the Flood (2009) is part two and part three has yet, as far as I know, to be written. There is no sense of a cliff-hanger at the end of Oryz and Crake. What the books have in common is that they are set in the same alternative future. I have a copy of The Year of the Flood and hope to read it soon. If you are looking for a first Atwood, then I would say read The Handmaid's Tale. If you like that a lot and you like speculative fiction (meaning fiction set in a world based on Earth but altered somehow) then give Oryx and Crake a shot.
4 comments:
From Wikipedia: "Oryx and Crake ... the first novel in a series that also includes The Year of the Flood (2009) and MaddAddam (2013), which would collectively come to be known as the MaddAddam Trilogy. The apocalyptic vision in the MaddAddam Trilogy engages themes of genetic modification, pharmaceutical and corporate control, and man-made disaster. As a work of speculative fiction, Atwood notes of the technology in Oryx and Crake, 'I think, for the first time in human history, we see where we might go. We can see far enough into the future to know that we can't go on the way we've been going forever without inventing, possibly, a lot of new and different things." She later cautions in the acknowledgements to MaddAddam, "Although MaddAddam is a work of fiction, it does not include any technologies or bio-beings that do not already exist, are not under construction or are not possible in theory.'"
Oh, interesting. I didn't know there was a Margaret Atwood month. I have read several of her books (which you can all find on my link), including Oryx and Crake. I like dystopian novels. They show us our fears and what we should do to avoid such a future.
She is a great author. Will have to see that I read another one of her novels soon.
What a great selection for November! And I completely agree: it's something of an undertaking. I'm sure of two things, that you'll enjoy the next two volumes more, and that, if you were to choose to reread this first volume, after having read the companions, that you would enjoy/appreciate this first one even more. (You might even get a hint of this by reading the next two in close proximity. She was up to a lot of things in the first volume that didn't resonate for me until I had finished all three.) Thank you for posting and for sharing your link!
That sounds great. I've read it a while ago but I usually remember my books quite well. So, I'll definitely have to get "The Year of the Flood" and "MaddAddam". Thanks.
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