Oryx and Crake

Margaret Atwood

Mar 2004 · The MaddAddam Trilogy Book 1 · Sold by Anchor

About this ebook

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • The first volume in the internationally acclaimed MaddAddam trilogy is at once an unforgettable love story and a compelling vision of the future—from the bestselling author of The Handmaid's Tale and The Testaments

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.

Ratings and reviews

With Oryx and Crake, the first book of her MaddAddam series, Margaret Atwood delivers a dystopic (but not completely hopeless) depiction of Earth following a catastrophic mass extinction event. The novel opens with an introduction to Snowman, a survivor whose story will be revealed through flashbacks and real-time descriptions in a world that has become intolerably hostile to human life. The reader is marooned in an environment of disturbing alterations- left to ponder the series of events that have led to such a devastating future. Atwood’s narrator Snowman (aka Jimmy), is character that is ultimately unreliable and frequently despicable. His skewed depiction of events and his selective memory is all the reader has as a guide, yet it cannot hide Snowman’s complicity in the catalyzing events that ultimately lead to the downfall of civilization. Margaret Atwood is truly gifted at worldbuilding, and the immersive setting is visceral and raw. Oryx and Crake sets the stage for the one of the main themes of the trilogy: the dichotomy of man’s relentless quest for dominance over the natural world, and his undeniable dependence upon it. This is deservedly one of Atwood’s most lauded books in her long career of excellent works. Good for: Dystopic/Futuristic Science Fiction; highly rated award-winners; works addressing controversial environmental topics; genetic modification positives and negatives; Canadian authors; Science Fiction/Literary Fiction blends. You may like this book if you liked: Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale (or the Hulu series based on the book); Netflix’s Black Mirror Series; William Golding’s Lord of the Flies; and works by Octavia Butler, Colson Whitehead, Ursula Le Guin, and Suzanne Collins (Hunger Games trilogy).

Margaret Atwood’s novel, which was short-listed for the Booker Prize, portrays a future characterized by the massive expansion of human capabilities in genetic engineering and biotechnology. As such, it bears some resemblance to Neal Stephenson’s The Diamond Age, which ponders what massive advances in material science could do, and posits similar stratification by class. Of course, biotechnology is an area more likely to raise ethical hackles and engage with the intuitions people have about what constitutes the ethical use of science. Atwood does her best to provoke many such thoughts: bringing up food ethics, that of corporations, reproductive ethics, and survivor ethics (the last time period depicted is essentially post-apocalyptic). The degree to which this is brought about by a combination of simple greed, logic limited by one’s own circumstances, and unintended consequences certainly has a plausible feel to it. The book is well constructed and compelling, obviously the work of someone who is an experienced storyteller. From a technical angle, it is also more plausible than most science fiction. It is difficult to identify any element that is highly likely to be impossible for humanity to ever do, if desired. That, of course, contributes to the chilling effect, as the consequences for some such actions unfold. All in all, I don’t think the book has a straightforwardly anti-technological bent. It is more a cautionary tale about what can occur in the absence of moral consideration and concomitant regulation. Given how the regulation of biotechnology is such a contemporary issue (stem cells, hybrid embryos, genetic discrimination, etc), Atwood has written something that speaks to some of the more important ethical discussions occurring today. I recommend the book without reservation, with the warning that readers may find themselves disturbed by how possible it all seems.

This was a thoroughly engaging, thoughtful, and enjoyable book to read. The structure is somewhat reminiscent of a fugue in two parts. It has one contiguous story but it is told from two different frames of time jumping back and forth. It is sort of like reading a book and it sequel at the same time; reading s chapter out of the sequel and then a chapter from the original. Part of the draw of the book is to see how both ends match up. Characters are introduced in the same way. It is very engaging. The insight into bio-engineering are also interesting if a little bit superficial. Evolution and nanotechnology are ignored in her book. I think an well rounded treatment of the consequences of bio-engineering needs to at least acknowledge these two concepts. She also makes only a glancing reference to the inability to recreate modern technology because all the easily accessible resources are already gone. However she illustrates this on the basis of metals. My own opinion is that energy is far more problematic. I was also surprised at her insight into the mind of an adolescent male. A well recommended read overall.

About the author

Margaret Atwood is the author of more than fifty books of fiction, poetry and critical essays. Her novels include Cat’s Eye, The Robber Bride, Alias Grace, The Blind Assassin, and the MaddAddam trilogy. Her 1985 classic, The Handmaid’s Tale, was followed in 2019 by a sequel, The Testaments, which was a global number one bestseller and won the Booker Prize. In 2020 she published Dearly, her first collection of poetry for a decade.
 
Atwood has won numerous awards including the Arthur C. Clarke Award for Imagination in Service to Society, the Franz Kafka Prize, the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, the PEN USA Lifetime Achievement Award and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. In 2019 she was made a member of the Order of the Companions of Honour for services to literature. She has also worked as a cartoonist, illustrator, librettist, playwright and puppeteer. She lives in Toronto, Canada.