Worth returning from exile for... (Oryx and Crake - Margaret Atwood)

Member Name: chris105

Product:	Oryx and Crake - Margaret Atwood
Date:	13/08/03 (224 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: super super super, mind-blowing

Disadvantages: oh come on, none really

Those who haven't been around for long will not ahime' remember me... I used to spend quite some (considerable) time dooyoo-ing and reading and rating and posting...

Then this book came along, which seemed worth returning from (self-imposed) exile for - I must shout about this book to all dooyoo-ers if any who might still be interested in books. Every now and again a book comes along which is very good indeed. You recommend it to your like-minded friends. You try not to loan your copy lest it never returns.

...

Then, every once in a blue blue moon, a book comes along which is not merely very good but mind-blowingly brilliant (all those who are still in thrall of the decade-old 'Secret History' raise your hands here). One such is Margaret Atwood's (her of 'Blind Assassin') latest oeuvre 'Oryx and Crake'. Now I've read online and offline reviews that, like me, praised her to the high heavens, and others that poo-pooed it. Frankly, I couldn't care less: I L-O-V-E-D this (and those who remember me will know that I don't rave about books easily).

Basically we're looking at a 'Handmaid's Tale'-revisited - but then again not: although set in a hypothetical (or not?) future, and although this future is BAD, the sheer inventive force of this new novel is staggering. It isn't merely the genetic/scientific details thrown in (which could per se easily have come out of a thorough research), but it's the way these are blended.

Imagine a whodunnit, but very oh-so-very sophisticated, blended with a science fiction (but not too science fiction, if you know what I mean) theme, with a romantic sottofondo thrown in for good measure. Then sprinkle liberally with mythological throwbacks. And in a nutshell you have the spirit of 'Oryx and Crake'.

The protagonist, known initially as 'Snowman' but in another life also as Jimmy, is at the end of a jour
ney when we meet him next, and on the verge of embarking on a new one. All the novel progresses, he takes us back to his meeting with Crake, and to the whys and wherefores of when the world as we/they know it was altered forever.

dooyoo mores seem to have changed since I last visited - it doesn't seem fashionable any longer to write at infinite length (as was my wont, at times) - so I'll try to keep this short and sweet:

SHORT: "Go buy, read this book."

SWEET: "You'll l-o-v-e it!"

Ta
Chris

PS I'd love to hear from any "old" (no offence meant) dooyoo-ers, if any still survive.

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