by Nancy,
The Year Of The Flood isn’t a sequel or prequel in the Maddaddam series it actually runs in a parallel timespace with Oryx and Crake.
I have to confess I have avoided reading reviews of this story because I selfishly didn’t want to find any spoilers for myself.
I have found a couple of questions that I hope are appropriate for us to answer. I loved Oryx and Crake so much and am so looking forward to what is in store for us this time.
The Year of the Flood covers the same time period as Oryx and Crake, and contains a number of the same characters — how well can we remember them?(“Snowman,” a student at the Martha Graham Academy and “the last man on earth”) and Glenn (“Crake,” who studied at the Watson-Crick Institute), as well as Bernice, Jimmy’s hostile college room-mate, Amanda, a live-in artist girlfriend, Ren (“Brenda,”) whom he remembers briefly in Oryx and Crake as a high-school fling, Jimmy’s mother, who runs away to become an activist, and the God’s Gardeners, whom he mentions as a fringe green cult. Re-read the final pages of both books. What do we predict for the remaining characters?
Margaret Atwood’s fiction often displays “gallows humour.” Can a thing be dire and funny at the same time? Must we laugh or die?
Happy reading!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
-
Hello Ladies, How is the weather where you are? We have had the most gloriously clear autumn days here followed by a few days of soaking ...
-
by Katie, The brother of a dear friend of mine witnessed the suicide of a friend/classmate inside his school during normal school hours. ...
-
by Sue "All families have things to hide but few can match the horrors that come to light in Atkinson’s improbable, convoluted bu...
Hi Katie,
ReplyDeleteAs with every month we talk I am hoping you and your family are OK. I feel despair at where this will all end and what our new normal will be. What’s the latest with you?
Our covid cases are rising here again and our state borders are closing. So while that means I can’t physically see the kids again I am thankful their case numbers in Queensland are much lower than ours and they are safer this way. Gracie finally went back to work today after four months at home, thank goodness, I’m sure it will lift her spirits a lot.
Ivars and I are both well and trying to stay active and socially distant at the same time, we are so lucky we have lots of National Parks and places to escape to around here.
I have to say even though the subject matter in The Year Of The Flood was eerily familiar of our current situation and quite harrowing at times, I again as with Oryx and Crake, loved it.
Margaret Atwood’s imagination and amazing storytelling talent hooked me in from the beginning. I have to admit I was challenged at times to remember some of the details of the characters from Oryx and Crake. I don’t remember Ren at all and really feel I could re read the story to catch up on plenty of other things as well. When I find time I will do this, I am enjoying them so much.
A friend of mine lent me another Ms Atwood book called Hag Seed, with it storyline based on Shakespeare’s The Tempest, sadly it didn’t hold my interest. I guess I love the fantastical in the Maddaddam trilogy. I’m not sure Sue would agree with me, I remember she didn’t like fantasy very much, hehe, she definitely would have read the end first, but for me I loved not knowing what would happen next, who survived and why.
There seems to be so many threads to this novel, I very much enjoyed Toby and admired her courage, actually all the survivors are courageous, tenacious and resourceful. So good!
When I asked the question about gallows humour, I was actually trying to avoid researching and finding any spoilers, but I think it’s fair to say if we don’t laugh we die, as apposed to do we laugh or die. I believe there are constant examples of humour in dangerous and heartbreaking situations. We all do it. To be able to find laugh or smile brings connection. I’m sure you see this all the time with your patients.
It is wonderful Ms Atwood can bring that to a novel that without it would be just too sad and harrowing to read.
I am really looking forward to how this trilogy will play out, will we be introduced to new characters or will the story now continue on.
Again I am sending lots of love to you guys and thinking of you and hope you are coping with whatever is your normal and staying well.
Hugs, Nancy
HI Nancy,
ReplyDeleteThere is little excuse for my tardiness and I am sorry. I have been avoiding much because of stress. It is terrible to hear that you cannot visit the kids and about the rise of cases. I try to avoid the news as much as possible. Everything I have to do at work to handle Covid patients changes nearly weekly. I took some time off work to celebrate Benjamin’s 7th birthday. The original plan had been a few days at the beach but that got changed to a single day. He had fun though and the weather was particularly good.
I enjoyed The Year of the Flood more than Oryx and Crake. Oryx and Crake makes me think of a sterile, mechanical, robot atmosphere while Year of the Flood makes me think more earth and organic. I don’t know if you felt that way too. The compound world was so overly sanitized and meticulously controlled. Whereas the pleeblands had chaos and disorder that just felt more like real life. While both chaotic and sterilized worlds can have their benefits, I think I felt more trapped by compound life over pleebland life.
While not particularly religious, I found myself agreeing a great deal with the Gardner’s way of life. I appreciated their reverence to nature and their respect for lost species. I enjoyed their use of natural remedies and natural ways of living. I admit I skimmed through a lot Adam One’s sermons as he got a bit more “preachy” than my tastes. But I cannot say I disagreed with much of what he said.
It took me a while to remember that Crake’s real name was Glenn. And I didn’t remember Ren from before either. I loved the way Atwood wound characters between both books. I did not like the ending of O&C leaving us hanging about Jimmy. And I was happy that we got to see Jimmy toward the end of The Flood. When I read the summary of The Flood, Jimmy wasn’t mentioned at all so I feared that he had died of his infection. I am still terribly worried about whether Jimmy will survive. I also am completely at a loss as to how the MaddAdam series could possibly end.
I am a big believer in making light of situations. I think it is better to laugh than to cry and frequently try to make people laugh when they are sad. I make light of situations at work to keep my own sanity. I don’t remember doing a lot of laughing during The Flood. I don’t remember there being many funny moments but I enjoyed it very much and didn’t find myself as terrified as I was during O&C. Maybe it was just the fact that we had fewer descriptions of people dying horrid deaths in The Flood. Or maybe it was the fact that we already knew what was going to happen with the “waterless flood”.
I think our MaddAdam series is not too much a fantasy that Sue wouldn’t have enjoyed it. I think it actually rings a little too close to reality for comfort sometimes. Most of what occurred in the compounds seems to be things that the science community is actually trying to create. The possibility of such a world as in the MaddAdam series doesn’t seem too far-fetched. Sue would have totally flipped to the end but I don’t think she would have completely gotten all the information she would have hoped for as we are once again left not knowing whether Jimmy will survive nor what will happen to the children of Crake.
Excellent, excellent read. I am terribly curious for the outcome of MaddAdam. My library has finally re-opened (with many restrictions of course). So I am now waiting for Miracle Creek to come in.
Much Love to you and yours <3
Katie
Hi Katie,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you I felt more involved in this story as well. I found Adam One’s sermon’s a little tedious also but was delighted in the choice of some of the saint’s days. I believe they call this genre of fiction eco-fiction and hearing so many prominent feminists, conservationist and environmental crusaders turned into saints was perhaps an example of Ms Atwood’s wicked sense of humour.
This novel left me with so much to reflect on, just so good.
I’m glad you got to the beach for Benjamin’s birthday. Wow seven years old already, how wonderful.
Thinking of you all and hoping you’re safe.
Much love Nancy