Oryx and Crake

Title: Oryx and Crake

Author: Margaret Atwood

Publisher: Anchor

Publication Date: March 30,2004

ISBN: 9780385721677

Pages: 374

How I Got It: Personal Copy

Back Cover: 

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 where he may be the last human, and mourning the loss of his best friend, Crake, and the beautiful and elusive Oryx whom they both loved. In search of answers, Snowman embarks on a journey–with the help of the green-eyed Children of Crake–through the lush wilderness that was so recently a great city, until powerful corporations took mankind on an uncontrolled genetic engineering ride. Margaret Atwood projects us into a near future that is both all too familiar and beyond our imagining.

My Review:

This is the first book in the Maddaddam trilogy. I reread it (and plan on rereading The Year of the Flood)  to refresh my memory before reading the third installment, Maddaddam.  As the title states, the story centers around Oryx and Crake, but is told by Jimmy / Snowman.  Atwood overlaps details of her imagination with the cutting edge of science. It is just as believable to read about pigoons and Chicky Nobs as to read about skin grafts and genetic manipulations. Oryx and Crake spans topics such as online gaming, computer hacking, food politics, medicine,sex trafficking, plagues and the ultimate example of post colonialism.  Every example provided is a tongue in cheek nod to current events but just outlandish enough to expose the absurdity of the situation. As the blurb from the New Yorker states on the back of the book, Oryx and Crake is "towering and intrepid...Atwood does Orwell one better."  I could dissect this book line by line and never get tired of talking about it.

Here are a few Margaret Atwood links I've collected recently:
Telegraph Interview
The Star Interview
Maclean's Interview
Why I Wrote Maddaddam essay on Wattpad
Reveals her genre kryptonite on BookRiot
Article in Ottawa Citizen
Posters
and a great source of info on Twitter @AtwoodSociety