Oryx and Crake

He doesn't know which is worse, a past he can't regain or a present that will destroy him if he looks at it too clearly. Then there's the future. Sheer vertigo.

When news broke that HBO was developing an adaptation Margaret Atwood's MaddAddam trilogy, I began seeing it everywhere. And it being written by Margaret Atwood, I decided to pick up the first book, Oryx and Crake.

Oryx and Crake is narrated by a man who calls himself Snowman. He is, for all he knows, the last human left alive. He acts as a prophet to strange, human-like beings called the Children of Crake, in between finding food, getting drunk on what little alcohol remains, and reminiscing about his former life, when he was known as Jimmy, he had a best friend named Crake, and he was in love with a woman named Oryx.

The book alternates between the present and past. Though Jimmy is hardly in a state to think about things linearly, so it all occasionally gets mixed together. As the novel progresses a dystopian society comes into view. One in which scientists are playing with genes, trying to grow new organs, create more plentiful food, or cure diseases. They're barricaded themselves off from the rest of society, where disease and poverty run rampant.

This vision of the future is the most compelling and painful part of the book. Art is on it's way out as reality shows take over and people seek more and more sensationalized entertainment. Illegal and immoral sex acts, executions, assisted suicides. The scientists, and Crake in particular, are seeking to make a better world, though they also aren't above seeking profit. Jimmy finds himself adrift, wondering where things went so wrong.

Oryx and Crake would have been a lot better if any of the characters had been sympathetic. As it is, Crake is self-absorbed and far too exacting. He is too far removed from humanity and has far too much power (bestowed on him because of his incredible brain). But Jimmy isn't much better. He's addicted to sex, hardly bothering to differentiate between the various women who flit through his life. They're bodies to him, and Oryx is little more than an idea he falls in love with. I'm hoping for more from the next book, which reportedly follows an entirely different group of people. It'd be nice to care about the characters in this horrific world.