This is a well written book, with a fun mixing of present and past with one storyteller throughout. The narrator is slightly unbelievable and unreliable, and becomes more so as he struggles with reality in the present of the story. His only friend (semblence is the best he has) is crake, who is a genius - and doesn't like what humans have done to the earth. So he experiments with what he knows to come up with something that pleases him.
Crake finds a way to splice genes in such as way as to create a sort of human with wonderful characteristics (he believes) from other species -- ritual mating at certain times due to females being obviously in heat, eating only vegitation, no ability to learn hard concepts so can't create violence etc., instant death at 30, quick growing up stage, no shame at being naked, temperature regulated bodies, -- all the things that Crake believes would make the perfect species. And the truth of how that came about is revealed slowly through memories, anecdotes, ponderings, wanderings of the mind. The present story takes maybe a couple of weeks, and the past story starts basically at the beginning and works its way up to the very recent past to mingle with the present in a unique and beautiful way. An enjoyable book. I didn't really like or agree with the ending -- it leaves the reader with many questions. Sometimes questions which can be healthy but didn't seem so in this case. I would probably still recommend to other readers, though.
| Title: | Oryx and Crake |
|---|---|
| Author: | Margaret Atwood |
| Date published: | 2003 |
| Genre: | Fiction |
| Number of pages: | 374 |
| Notes: |
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