 "Brilliant, Haunting Book -- a review of Oryx and Crake" | 2009-09-14 |
| - Reviewed By momof2marchbabes |
I only recently discovered Ms. Atwood and I must say that I'd like to flog myself in regret. While her writing is certainly good, it is not nearly as fabulous as her imaginings which border on genius. (All right. They are genius.) In both "Oryx and Crake" and her upcoming "Year of the Flood" she presents a dystopia that is a brilliant straight-line extrapolation of current trends.
The story unfolds in a world where corporate-sponsored gated communities are the norm. The principal character lives at the bottom of the corporate system where he/we are given insight into all the various echelons of this alien-and-yet-familiar system through his connections: his family and friends. It is absolutely fascinating to see how Atwood fleshes out this society.
The story is told by a character who churns through life, being at one time "Jimmy", "Jim" and finally "Snowman". It's as Snowman that he gives us his history. A story that flashes back and forward through time.
At first I was going to give this book a 4 or 4.5 rating. But as time passed I realized how strongly it had affected me, and given that, I can't reasonably give Orxy and Crake anything less than 5 Stars.
Not everything is ultimately resolved at the end. And the way the book is structured it would be poorer for the effort to tie everything together. Instead it is haunting and memorable.
Note: I read "Year of the Flood" first, before "Oryx and Crake". And though not in chronological order, publishing-wise, I would suggest to you to do the same. O&C explains so much that I think the surprise and novelty of "Flood" would be diminished if it was read beforehand. |
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| "Satire and humor galore" | 2009-08-19 |
| - Reviewed By User: A3SRP5UY1VQWOB |
This book has been well reviewed by now, so I won't re-invent the wheel. I just finished reading a copy from my local library, and I liked it so much I'm going to buy a copy. It's a "keeper" in my collection of books. I read some of the 1-star reviews of the book and I guess it just goes to show that we all have conflicting tastes. I am not familiar with other novels of Ms. Atwood, with the exception of The Handmaid's Tale. I have read some of her short stories, however, and enjoyed them immensely more than I did any from the vaunted Raymond Carver, whose characters were always depressingly reaching for a drink and talking in banalities. This book is a literary novel, not a formulaic genre work, so it's useless to berate the author for not adhering to a science-fiction formula.
I enjoyed it. I know some people read books just to detect mistakes or errors and pontificate from Olympian heights about them. While I might differ with the author about the premise of a supposed demise of civilization, I didn't find any glaring errors, and I got a lot of laughs out of the satire, the playing with words that the author obviously enjoyed and is very good at. In fact, I would like to see a sequel, but I know it will never happen.
Jimmy, or the Snowman, is the protagonist, and is not an heroic figure, yet somehow believable. I wonder how the people who blast this work as boring would review The Road, by Cormac McCarthy. Now there's a boring book, in my opinion, and thoroughly depressing, and I forced myself to finish it primarily because of the advance publicity about it and the fact that I kept hoping the author would bring the book to some kind of conclusion. Oryx and Crake was a work I didn't have to force myself to read, and I think others obviously agree with me. I became a big fan of this book, for no other reason than I enjoyed it. Wouldn't it be terrible if we all had the same tastes and ideas? Might be like having a conversation with the Children of Crake. Lighten up, 1-star critics. Readers are an endangered species in our world, so don't get up-tight about a work you somehow had unrealistic expectations for. I like the way Ms. Atwood's mind works, and frankly, I was impressed that she could, as a woman author, write from the POV of a male protagonist and pull it off as well as she did. No, the Snowman is not perfect, or as active as he might have been, but as I say, he is believable. Enjoy the telling of the tale and laugh along with the author! |
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 "Chillingly thought-provoking" | 2009-07-19 |
| - Reviewed By User: A1707MCAM40PEE |
While Oryx and Crake does not belong in the same category as the "classic" dystopian novels, 1984, We, and Brave New World, or even on the same level as Atwood's earlier dystopian novel The Handmaid's Tale, Atwood raises important questions about unregulated scientific advancement, the existence of a corporate state, and the potential for class struggle caused by an ever-widening income gap.
Oryx and Crake is set some time in the near future, and follows two friends, Snowman/Jimmy and Crake/Glenn, as they meet, pursue separate careers, fall in love, and finally, contribute to the elimination of humanity and the progress of a new race of humanoid beings. Protagonist Jimmy is raised as a member of the society's cognitive elite, but shows little aptitude for science, engineering, or mathematics and instead pursues a career in the much devalued humanities. His friend Crake is a super-genius with social and emotional deficiencies who is fast-tracked to become a top researcher at a prestigious corporation. Researchers and their families live in giant compounds guarded by private security forces and separated from the great mass of "pleebs," whose only function appears to be as consumers of genetically engineered foods or happiness enhancing products.
The book explores questions related to technological development, including the possibility of genetically engineered diseases, the formation of a cognitive elite, and the devaluing of the arts in a technocratic society. While The Handmaid's Tale portrays a society obsessed with moral puritanism and resistance to change, Oryx and Crake shows us the opposite extreme, where every pleasure is for sale and capitalism produces scientific discoveries that elicit constant social upheaval. The message is not anti-science or reason, but anti-corporate exploitation of science for purely profit-making motives, to the detriment of all other avenues of human progress.
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 "You don't like biotech? I got it after the 31st repetition" | 2009-07-11 |
| - Reviewed By jluc_ |
I must confess that I approached this, my first Margaret Atwood novel, with mixed feelings. I had watched bits of Handmaid's Tale and found it to be an alarmist and not very credible extrapolation of social trends. I had also seen an interview about Oryx and Crake and it seemed like the author had a big axe to grind.
On the other hand, Ms. Atwood has quite a reputation as a writer and the subject matter has potential.
A potential which remains unrealized here.
The first 350 pages consist mostly of listing all the bad things in modern society and technology. Biotech is bad? Check. Pharmaceutical companies are ruthless? Check. Gated communities? Check. Ditto capitalism, uneducated plebes (her words), stupid marketing slogans, global warming, species extinction, child pornography, absentee parents, S&M websites...
None of this is particularly original or insightful, but it makes up for it in stridency and repetition.
The main character, Snowman, is uninteresting, rather than unlikeable. As he is the last man on Earth, we are stuck with him.
The plot thickens, finally, in the last 80 pages, but doesn't deliver very much in the end. What little suspense there is is only due to the sequence imposed on Snowman's recollections and someone more motivated than me would have had little trouble guessing at the ending.
This reminds of a story about Picasso where he allegedly knows that not all his paintings are great and that his name sells them. Without Ms. Atwood's name on it, Oryx and Crake would rightly languish in the dustbin. |
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| "Entertaining, contemplative, realistic, frightening?" | 2009-05-23 |
| - Reviewed By User: A2BOROAG1OIE68 |
My favorite genre of fiction in any form is post-apocalyptic, so going in this hit right home. I also like realistic speculative future views, and that part of the story forms the other half of this tale.
At times it was intensely creative, while others it featured hard looks at being alone among people versus being truly alone. I liked the dichotomy of the storytelling there.
In the end, I very much enjoyed the novel but it also fell just a bit short for me when I compared my earliest expectations of where I felt like the story was leading with where it eventually led. The groundwork was great, but in a way it did too good of a job because Atwood ended up drawing a world where, while the outcome was indeed a horrible side of humanity to even think about, it just seemed inevitable in the circumstances. As a warning for a place we might be heading, I guess it did its job that way. |
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| "Frighteningly Possible Dystopia" | 2009-05-17 |
| - Reviewed By User: A3RTNA9THAU2OP |
Oryx and Crake is told from the point of view of Snowman. All we know in the beginning is that Snowman is the last known human alive and he's watching over a group he calls "The Children of Crake". Snowman tells us the story of what happened to the rest of humanity and how The Children of Crake came to be through flashbacks starting in his childhood.
I am a fan of dystopian literature. Brave New World by Huxley and The Stand by Stephen King are two of my favorites. Although this novel starts out a bit slow, it does turn into a very interesting, eye opening story. The best dystopian novels are the ones that you can actually imagine happening and Atwood managed that with Oryx and Crake. I look forward to reading more of her work. |
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