Week 20 ~ Oryx and Crake

Week 20 ~ May 14-20

Oryx and Crake
by Margaret Atwood
(science-fiction)

Oryx and Crake was recommended to me by a co-worker, and so I picked it up with some hesitation. I never know how a rec is going to be coming from someone who barely knows me.

I was quite pleasantly surprised. It is a good book, well written with good character depth. The issues in the book are relevant and creepy in their possibilities. Some parts are definitely sci-fi in their reach, but other aspects are quite possible in the not-so-far future. Which, of course, is what makes the book so creepy. No one *really* is comfortable reading an apocalypse novel about a future that could actually happen.

Snowman/Jimmy is the main character in the book. His is the only POV voice, and he delivers the story of the End Of The World As We Know It in a series of flashbacks interspersed with clips of the "present" day. The timeline is a little confusing at first, as we struggle to figure out exactly what happened to the rest of the world, but it emerges piece by piece into a rather complex and developed plot.