I have terribly mixed feelings about this one, though it tends to lean more towards sheer disappointment. I'd expected a lot more from a writer of AtwI have terribly mixed feelings about this one, though it tends to lean more towards sheer disappointment. I'd expected a lot more from a writer of Atwood's stature. She retains her trademark lyrical narrative, which is perhaps the only thing that makes this work bearable. Technically, I find too many flaws, and to put it simply, I found the whole work too long, often disinteresting, though sometimes, it was sheer brilliance. I'm sad to rate it thus, despite being perfectly aware of the sheer amount of research that has gone into the technical (rather, biological) part of the book.
Oryx and Crake is a near future dystopian work where we see the story through the eyes of Jimmy aka Snowman, the sole survivor of an apocalyptic event that wiped off, presumably, all of Earth's population, except himself. Through his ruminations into the past as he searches for other survivors, and a way to cope up with his past, while keeping himself busy with the Craker population, we see how this apocalypse came about, and how Oryx, Crake and Jimmy are embroiled in the catastrophe, led on by relentless biotech, bioterrorism and capitalism.
To my dismay, I found the characters flat - not only the three couldn't figure out each other, even the reader couldn't properly figure them out. Perhaps Jimmy alone, among the principal characters, and his defiant mother are the most comprehensible, credible characters. Jimmy is the eternally clueless, bumbling kid drowned in self-pity while Crake is the oh-so-smart whiz at genetics, super-cynical, planning the creation of a new world. Oryx is the most elusive, and most useless character in the whole story - does the plot really need her? Would her absence have any impact on the outcome of the story, or any other characters? No way - so I don't see what purpose she fulfills by being here.
The world-building is too haphazard - given the advanced biotechnology, does Atwood want to tell us we're still stuck with radios and cellphones and postcards, while people go around enhancing themselves with all kinds of biotech in a world where agriculture is extinct and food production is done in factories through bio-engineering. Really, is this the world she thinks we'll find credible?
The narrations was slow, tedious and leisurely. While in the beginning chapters, it almost had a pleasing, lyrical quality, especially in the chapters where we see Jimmy and Crake in their boyhood bonding over TV shows, virtual games and hacking, it slowly descends into boredom as the chapters progress, pages are flipped, and little worthwhile happens while our Snowman goes over insignificant events of his life, which neither reveal anything new about his character or the world around him, nor gives an inkling about the future. All we get are little revelations sprinkled through the haze of pensive account of an endlessly self-pitying preteen boy-turned-adult.
Even the intended satire falls flat – depiction of destruction of agri coupled with commercialization of bio-engineered food through brand names such as SoyOBoy Burgers or ChickieNobs… doesn’t do the trick.
Even when the story finally picks up speed in the last few chapters of the work, it is very haphazard, unbelievable and shoddy - how exactly Crake convinced the MaddAddam to join Paradice (yes, with a C) is so briefly explained, it comes across as humbug. Fine, his plan was nice, but well, it was so.... poorly conceived.
It was done far better by Brad Pitt as Jeffery Goines in 12 Monkeys - I find it easier to believe him than believe Crake as a cynical radical.
It is perhaps only Atwood's lyrical charm that lends this work readability - with a sturdy reputation as this, readers expect better plots, denser characters, more coherent, cohesive and convincing world-building with a measured brevity of narration from Atwood. That kind of style and language works well with Curious Pursuits, but not in SF dystopias.
And this was written just recently, barely a decade ago - even if the book had measure up on one count, it would have been great - it is neither a great dystopia, nor does it have good plot complexity. Neither are the characters believable or interesting, nor is there significant action. To put it simply, any work must have a focal point - a point around which other aspects revolve slowly to merge together into that point towards the end.
Like an invisible blackhole, slowly but surely swallowing the objects revolving around it - but this one, oh, there is no gravitation, no focal point, and planets and other cosmic stuff, big or small, come and go at their will.
Overall, I wish I hadn't taken up the book, or at least, I should have lemmed it.
And that said, I found her views about art very interesting and compelling. Loved that part....more
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