It was fairly nifty that a few days after I finished reading-slash-listening to The Year of the Flood, Margret Atwood was interviewed on CBC Radio promoting the book. Sometimes when you listen to those interviews you then it back and think that you’d like to read the book soon. Having just finished it was a whole new perspective, and something along the lines of “ohhhhhhh… so that’s what that was supposed to mean!” It’s not to imply it was an obscure read, but there were plenty of nuances to be decoded throughout.

I should add that I’m adjusting the format of these reviews. So see below…

The Mini Review

Following up on Oryx and Crake, Atwood drags us back into the twisted narrative of a world haunted by the self-inflicted extermination of humanity by engineered virus. One need not have read the original, but the re-introduction and overlap of characters between the two adds to the richness of the story. We spend most of this story tracing the adventures of two girls/women in the years leading up to the ‘waterless flood’ — the plague that will eventually wipe out humanity — their narratives intertwined and mixed together with that of a quasi-environmental, sciency-religious-cult kind of group, and of course, all that goes with. The characters are strong, female, — typical of Atwood’s style, I think — and inherently likeable (despite their flaws and fumbles.) And, we are never certain their fate even as the book draws to a close. I enjoyed the book, dystopic and dark as it is, but I don’t think I’d call it a must-read.

Best enjoyed…

…quarantined in your house, dressed in your pajamas, with the doors locked… eating a steak.

This work tells the world…

…that if you are a picky eater, you should get ready for a relatively short life after the apocalypse starts. Expand your horizons and learn a few recipes that use ingredients folks don’t normally consider food.

Borrow, Buy, or Avoid?

Unless you are a huge Atwood fan, this is a story you’ll likely read once and say you did. Borrow.