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Title: Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood ISBN: 0-385-50385-7 Publisher: Nan A. Talese Pub. Date: 06 May, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $26.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.94 (133 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: An Engaging Cautionary Tale
Comment: The book introduces us to Snowmanm, a futuristic Robinson Crusoe who lives in a tree on a beach brimming with civilization's debris. A plague decimated the earth's population and he is the last human being alive. He is also the surrogate parent to human prototypes called Crakers, creatures with green eyes who eat grass. In a hostile environment full of genetically spliced creatures, he attempts to survive; as he looks for food and supplies, he provides a disjointed narrative which unravels the past that brought him to his nightmarish present.
He used to be known as Jimmy, the son of scientists employed by a biotech company. A cataclysmic event killed off the world's food supply and most food forms were genetically engineered. Science and industry reigned supreme, and the world was divided into the Compounds--strictly controlled self-contained biospheres--and the Pleeblands, where everyone else lived. Abandoned by his mother, Jimmy befriended a new kid named Glenn who has lost his father. They played computer games like Extinctathon where Glenn is known as Crake; one time they entered a porn site and saw a young girl whom they would later know as Oryx. Jimmy languished in a low-level job after college until he was rescued by his genius friend Crake, who became project head for a big biotech company. It proved to be a fateful reunion which precipitated the tragic events that altered human existence.
Margaret Atwood is a prolific writer who has penned several literary works. Here she weaves a cautionary tale that is frightening for being so plausible and familiar. Although Jimmy is her first male protagonist, she is able to speak in his voice convincingly. Unfortunately, the other characters are not as well defined. Her prose is engaging but pales in comparison to the outstanding The Blind Assasin, which won her the Booker Prize. In spite of its flaws, I still enjoyed Oryx and Crake as the dystopian fantasy that succesfully makes you wonder whether we as a species are engineering our own demise.
Rating: 4
Summary: Not my favourite Atwood but still memorable
Comment: Well, I couldn't put this one down, but at the same time I can't really say that I enjoyed it. What a bleak, miserable and pessimistic future Atwood envisions. Scientifically complex and literally complex, Atwood is raising the all important question of "what if the scientific tools that we have today are misused, and how far down the road do we have to go before things start to go terribly wrong?" I'm a big fan of Atwood's work, but I have to say that this novel is not one of my favourites, although I DID read The Handmaid's Tale years ago and absolutely loved it. Those who say that Oryx and Crake is a science fiction novel are missing the mark; it's actually speculative fiction - taking a world that is familiar to us now and hypothesizing an incredible outcome. Atwood raised lots of issues in this book - genetics, and gene splicing, sexuality, popular culture, environmental destruction, the existence of god, STD's, diseases, globalization and the fate of human societies. This is not a "heavy" read but certainly a provocative one. I found the preamble with Snowman's encounter with the Crakers a little tedious, but the story really gets going when we start flashing back to Jimmy and Crake. I really liked the way Atwood keeps giving you hints throughout and keeps you wondering what actually happened to society, and how Snowman ends up in this situation. The scenes when Jimmy goes to work in the Compound are chilling in their realistic detail and it's the sort of story that gives you bad dreams at night!
This is a good read, but a very depressing vision of our future!
Michael
Rating: 5
Summary: fascinating, strange, and plausible
Comment: This is the first Atwood book that I have read, and I fully intend to read more from her. This is some of the best speculative fiction out there. The characters behave realistically, in ways that many people today behave, if we are only willing to look and open our eyes to both the good and the bad that people do.
The scientific "advancements" that Atwood uses are based entirely on current scientific reseach and development. Atwood also touches on current global trades and markets, including human slavery.
Want to know a dark outcome that could happen from where we are today? Ever wonder what Huxley or Orwell would predict if they were modern contemporaries? Then start reading Atwood, because these chilling and fascinating tales may be what saves us. If not, it will surely entertain us on our downfall.
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Title: Vernon God Little: A 21st Century Comedy in the Presence of Death by D. B. C. Pierre ISBN: 1841954608 Publisher: Canongate Books Pub. Date: October, 2003 List Price(USD): $23.00 |
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Title: The Blind Assassin : A Novel by Margaret Atwood ISBN: 0385720955 Publisher: Anchor Pub. Date: 28 August, 2001 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Middlesex : A Novel by Jeffrey Eugenides ISBN: 0312422156 Publisher: Picador USA Pub. Date: 16 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: Brick Lane: A Novel by Monica Ali ISBN: 0743243307 Publisher: Scribner Pub. Date: 09 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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Title: What Was She Thinking?: Notes on a Scandal: A Novel by Zoe Heller ISBN: 0805073337 Publisher: Henry Holt & Company, Inc. Pub. Date: 01 August, 2003 List Price(USD): $23.00 |
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