June 2003 - The editor of January Magazine and the author of several books writes a review on Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake.
October 2010 - Ms. Romyn's 4U English student writes an abridgment to Linda L. Richard's critical analysis on Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake.
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Linda L. Richards explains that there are those who love Atwood's writing and those who despise it. Linda often finds herself pausing mid-paragraph in awe and wonder. She picks the work apart. Her reviews would often get one of two responses. Either: "Oh, wonderful! I love her work!" Or: "Oh, Atwood! I couldn't even get through Handmaid's Tale or Surfacing or The Blind Assassin or insert the title of any one of her books here.". Linda says that Oryx and Crake may not persuade you to love cilantro since it is Atwood at her most speculative, unapologetic nature. Atwood invites comparisons to 1985's The Handmaid's Tale, an earlier dystopic novel set in the uncertain future. However Oryx and Crake is a different novel altogether. In Oryx and Crake we are dealing with such impieties as genetic manipulation and a technology that has gone so wrong that it looks very much like the end of the world. Margaret Atwood has created a piece of art that is almost threatening. We meet Snowman whom was previously known as Jimmy. Snowman has had a difficult life scrambling for food and away from potential predators. Ever so often he is confronted by flashes of serenity.
A caterpillar is letting itself down on a thread, twirling slowly like a rope artist, spiralling towards his chest. It's a luscious, unreal green, like a gumdrop, and covered with tiny bright hairs. Watching it, he feels a sudden, inexplicable surge of tenderness and joy. Unique, he thinks. There will never be another such moment of time, another such conjunction.
These things sneak up on him for no reason, these flashes of irrational happiness. It's probably a vitamin deficiency.
Nothing may ever be what it seems after it is brought forth by Atwood. This may be what readers of Atwood's novel find so deterring. There are often layers upon layers of a deeper meaning the require much unraveling. It is beautiful and uncomfortable. What if... The plot hinges on possibility and speculation.
"the worst you can imagine doesn't even touch it." *Maybe*
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Words used to describe Margaret Atwood:
Wonderful, unabashed, unstinting, unapologetic, vivid, irritating and imaginative.
Oryx and Crake:
Breathtaking, different, skillfully distant, brilliantly dark, startlingly cold, fully realized, convincing, threatening, beautiful, scratchy and uncomfortable.
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Comparisons:
"the worst you can imagine", Handmaid's Tale, Surfacing, The Blind Assassin, any of her other books, cyberpunk and cilantro.
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