Oryx and Crake, (Parts 1-4)

I have always enjoyed a good post-apocalypse story, or post-collapse-of-civilization story, having been a science fiction buff for many years before moving on to other genres.  Margaret Atwood manages to write in this vein without getting classified as a science fiction writer; witness her most famous novel, “The Handmaid’s Tale.”  She approaches fiction writing on her own terms, ignoring conventional classifications, which I greatly admire.  The term “speculative fiction” applies to her futuristic works better than most, and she speculates in her own unique way.  The opening of this story just picks up the pre-existing thread and runs with it, explaining the setting off-handedly as it goes, letting us figure out through such hints and clues what the premise of the story might be.  Love it! 

At least in the first quarter of the book, there is no mention of what might have happened to the Government.  It seems to have been replaced by the return of the city-state, this time in the form of “compounds” run by corporations, or perhaps corporate conglomerates.  Have corporations replaced government?  The original “Rollerball” movie, the one starring James Caan painted a fascinating portrait of what the world might be like if this were to happen.  Atwood’s book seems to (excuse me) take the “ball” and run with it.  But this is presented as the way things were in Snowman/Jimmy’s childhood.  Something has happened to disrupt the system and we’re left with a pretty bleak outcome.

Some authors design plot to revolve around a sequence of events or a premise, and some design it around the “life and times” of a character.  Atwood seems to favor the latter; so, for instance, in this book we get a lot of detail in the beginning about Jimmy’s childhood to describe not only him, but the plot/premise as well.  Kurt Vonnegut and Amy Tan are two other authors that come to mind who often used this approach.  There are probably some readers who only enjoy these “character-driven” types of novels.  In the hands of these great authors, I find it appealing enough, though it’s usually not my favorite style of writing. 

In the meantime, the exploration of Jimmy’s relationships with his parents is fascinating.  His father, after forgetting Jimmy’s birthday would “come up with a gift for him the day after, a gift that would not be a gift but some tool or intelligence-enhancing game or other hidden demand that he measure up.  But measure up to what?  There was never any standard; or there was one, but it was so cloudy and immense that nobody could see it, especially not Jimmy.”  Also, “Jimmy’s father had been apologetic towards him lately, as if he’d punished Jimmy for something Jimmy hadn’t done and was sorry about it.  He was saying Right, Jimmy? a bit too much.  Jimmy didn’t like that – he didn’t like being the one handing out the good marks.  There were a few other moves of his father’s that he could do without as well – the sucker punches, the ruffling of the hair, the way of pronouncing the word son, in a slightly deeper voice.  This hearty way of talking was getting worse, as if his father were auditioning for the role of Dad, but without much hope.”  Great characterization; we feel we know these people. 

After several sidebar mentions of both Oryx and Crake, we finally get to meet Crake, beginning as a childhood friend of Jimmy’s.  Jimmy, at this point, almost takes on the role of narrator, as the story focuses on Crake; actually Glenn, but we get to see how he acquires his nick name.  Another nicely developed and interesting character, adding impetus to an already captivating story.

 

 

 

 

Next week's chapters: 5-7.