Full disclosure right from the beginning: I didn't finish this one and I'm ashamed. I haven't not finished a book in years. Usually, if a book sounds good enough for me to start reading, I finish it. This was not one of those books. I tried to finish it because I've heard good things about this book, about the author, and it seemed right up my alley. However, it just wasn't working out.
Oryx and Crake is a dystopian fiction set after the fall of civilization. It opens on a boy called Snowman who is living in the woods like Tom Hanks in Castaway. No real shelter, scrounging around for scraps of food, hasn't bathed in ages, that kind of stuff. The story of this fall of civilization is told through the flashbacks of Snowman, in which Oryx and Crake both play significant roles. Snowman's father works at some sort of bio-engineering lab where they are trying to grow human organs inside pigs for easy harvesting and transplant options. Snowman and his family live in the lab's compound area in order to keep out impurities (of what kind, I'm not exactly sure). Eventually, his dad gets a new job, they move to a new compound, and that is where I stopped reading.
I've been trying to read this book for the past month, a few pages here, a few pages there, but it just wasn't able to hold my attention. I didn't find anything endearing about Snowman or the fall of this society. I think the flashbacks are what killed the book for me. I generally don't like stories told like that unless there is action in both times. However, most of the flashbacks started when Snowman was thinking about something and when the flashback scene was over, nothing is different about Snowman. And in the scenes when we're with him, he doesn't do much except wander around his little camp area. After this going on for a third of the book, I was done. It took me a month to read about 100 pages and I just couldn't force myself to read any more.
On the upside of things, I think that Margaret Atwood is a terrific writer. She has great descriptions and the world that she created in this book was very detailed and well thought out. I think I really would have liked this book if it was told either as the civilization fell, or if we just got the aftermath part with Snowman trying to survive. But the back and forth wasn't working for me.
Oryx and Crake - Margaret AtwoodGive it a try, it didn't work for me, but I know lots of people who liked it.
376 pages
N/A rating for not finishing
