Margaret Atwood's classic novel, The Handmaid's Tale, is about the future. Now, in Oryx and Crake, the future has changed. It's much worse and bleaker. And we're well on the road to it now. The narrator is Snowman (a man once known as Jimmy), self-named though not self-created. As the story begins, he's sleeping in a tree, wearing a dirty old bedsheet, mourning the loss of his beautiful and beloved Oryx and his best friend Crake, and slowly starving to death. Earlier, Snowman's life was one of comparative privilege. Crake ...
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Margaret Atwood's classic novel, The Handmaid's Tale, is about the future. Now, in Oryx and Crake, the future has changed. It's much worse and bleaker. And we're well on the road to it now. The narrator is Snowman (a man once known as Jimmy), self-named though not self-created. As the story begins, he's sleeping in a tree, wearing a dirty old bedsheet, mourning the loss of his beautiful and beloved Oryx and his best friend Crake, and slowly starving to death. Earlier, Snowman's life was one of comparative privilege. Crake and Jimmy live with all the other smart, rich people in the Compounds - gated company towns owned by biotech corporations. (Ordinary folks are kept outside the gates in the chaotic 'pleeblands'.) Meanwhile, beautiful Oryx, raised as a child prostitute in Southeast Asia, finds her way to the West and meets Crake and Jimmy, setting up an inevitable love triangle. How did everything fall apart so quickly? Was he himself in any way responsible? Why is he now left alone with his bizarre memories - except for the more-than-perfect, green-eyed Children of Crake, who think of him as a kind of monster? He explores the answers to these questions in the double journey he takes - into his own past, and back to Crake's high-tech bubble dome, where the Paradice Project unfolded and the world came to grief. With breathtaking command of her shocking material and with her customary sharp wit and dark humour, Atwood projects us into a less-than-brave new world, an outlandish yet wholly believable space populated by a cast of characters who will continue to inhabit your dreams long after the last chapter
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Seller's Description:
New. 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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Very good in very good dust jacket. ery good, green ills: boards & dark brown end papers, unclipped, green ribboned bookmark, tanned edges, bubble wrapped, mylar pro: 400 p. Audience: College/higher education; General/trade. Oryx and Crake is at once an unforgettable love story and a compelling vision of the future. Snowman, known as Jimmy before mankind was overwhelmed by a plague, is struggling to survive in a world
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Very Good. This book is in very good condition and will be shipped within 24 hours of ordering. The cover may have some limited signs of wear but the pages are clean, intact and the spine remains undamaged. This book has clearly been well maintained and looked after thus far. Money back guarantee if you are not satisfied. See all our books here, order more than 1 book and get discounted shipping.
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**Simply Brit** Shipped with Premium postal service within 24 hours from the UK with impressive delivery time. We have dispatched from our book depository; items of good condition to over ten million satisfied customers worldwide. We are committed to providing you with reliable and efficient service at all times.
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A slight tan to page edges Good condition is defined as: a copy that has been read but remains in clean condition. All of the pages are intact and the cover is intact and the spine may show signs of wear. The book may have minor markings which are not specifically mentioned. Most items will be dispatched the same or the next working day.
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A slight tan to page edges Very Good: a copy that has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged. Most items will be dispatched the same or the next working day.
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A few small marks to page edges Good condition is defined as: a copy that has been read but remains in clean condition. All of the pages are intact and the cover is intact and the spine may show signs of wear. The book may have minor markings which are not specifically mentioned. Most items will be dispatched the same or the next working day.
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A slight tan to page edges Very Good: a copy that has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged. Most items will be dispatched the same or the next working day.
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ninthchord
Oct 8, 2010
Thoroughly inundated with intertextuality: the Bible, Huxley, Orwell, etc. Similar to Huxley with the theme of a dystopian future and genetic engineering gone awry, or at least taken to its most extreme. I was surprised with many of Atwood's ideas and found them quite creative. I appreciate that she uses certain words in order to preserve them or save them from obscurity (brainfart, for example), but it would have been better to use them in context instead of listing them in Snowman's thoughts.
Also, the theme of genetic engineering taken to the extreme has been done before: Huxley's "Brave New World" and Brunner's "Stand on Zanzibar," for examples. The problem is that, even though Atwood attempts to update this trope by including technology since those books appeared (the Internet, chat rooms, etc.), she offers nothing new to the story and Brunner and Orwell told the story better.
lovelywilde
Aug 5, 2009
beautiful
Oryx and Crake is at once beautiful and unsettling, thoughtful and terrifying, imaginative and down-to-earth.
wordnerd
Nov 6, 2008
It is excellent IF you enjoy reading about possible future scenarios here on eart. A future that does not have aliens, but just of science gone out-of-control. One that makes you think about the way we are headed.
conso
Sep 28, 2008
A book worth reading!
This is the first book I read from Margaret Atwood. I found it very interesting and scarily realistic. We are living days of profound changes all around the world, both socially and environmentally oriented, and the author gives us a glimpse of a situation that could possibly become true in the future. The story is easy to read and follow, and it captures the reader's attention from the very first chapter. I will definitely purchase another book by this author.
