Why did I love this book?
This is a fabulously wild ride into a dystopian world that carries all of humanity’s worst habits to their logical conclusions.
Atwood uses science, specifically unrestricted and unregulated genetic engineering, to demonstrate how a technology that was developed with a noble goal (in this case, creating pigs that can grow human organs for transplant) can spiral out of control.
There is a lot more to this twisted tale but I’d rather not spoil it, the slow reveal of what has carried the protagonist from bad to worse is what makes him a sympathetic character, who despite all his flaws we can’t help but root for.
The writing is impeccably full of a dark humor that makes the narrative exquisitely pessimistic because, in the end, humor may be all we have left.
11 authors picked Oryx and Crake as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.
By the author of THE HANDMAID'S TALE and ALIAS GRACE
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Pigs might not fly but they are strangely altered. So, for that matter, are wolves and racoons. A man, once named Jimmy, lives in a tree, wrapped in old bedsheets, now calls himself Snowman. The voice of Oryx, the woman he loved, teasingly haunts him. And the green-eyed Children of Crake are, for some reason, his responsibility.
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Praise for Oryx and Crake:
'In Jimmy, Atwood has created a great character: a tragic-comic artist of the future, part buffoon, part Orpheus. An adman who's a sad man; a jealous…