Well Read Wednesday: Oryx and Crake

Oryx and Crake is a remarkable novel by Margaret Atwood Published in 2003. I am ashamed to say that this has been on my ‘to be read’ list for many years but this wonderful Folio Society edition finally brought it to the top of the pile. I am not generally a fan of dystopian novels but the author has always described this as speculative fiction and adventure romance, rather than pure science fiction, because it does not deal with things "we can't yet do or begin to do". I found The Handmaids Tale darkly disturbing but this is in another league altogether, especially in our post Covid world.

The story takes place after a bioengineered apocalypse which appears to us now as sickeningly possible and as a direct consequence of short-term big pharma science snow-ploughing through any long-term responsibility. The mood is kept light by the almost buffoon like behaviour of the main character -Snowman and the created vocabulary which peppers the rext. For me however it remains deeply disturbing since the setting is a world and a society which appear only a few steps ahead of our own.

The story leaves us on a knife edge so of course I am now tempted to read the two books which continue the story, The Year of the Flood(2009) and MaddAddam(2013)

This is certainly one of the most powerful and disturbing books I’ve read this year.