Jeff Brown

Review: Oryx and Crake (2004): Margaret Atwood



Posted: Tuesday, October 21, 2008

by
Inner Projection

OK, this one was pretty good. I'm not a reader of fiction, I'd rather be learning or earning, for what else is there? I've grown out of merely being entertained; therefore, I don't read much fiction. This one I acquired somehow: book club, examination copy (I get way too many of these). But for whatever reason (intriguing book cover, title--like, what the hell is an Oryx? A Crake?) I read it. I wasn't expecting anything, for soooooo much fiction is derived, trite, pointless. And I'm not a big dystopia fan, besides, Orwell, Huxley, Bradbury have already done it the best, besides, who needs to get depressed? For whatever reason, some people like dystopia, horror, the immoral, downtrodden, evil. No thanks. On other occasions, like when I was in the hospital someone bought me a book to pass the time, but it was a "modern" tale of murder, deception, lies, hate, hopelessness. Who needs it?

OK, enough rambling, onto the review.

So I read and it was pretty good. Even though there was a lot of morbid, perverse, underage sex, hopelessness, and "there's no point to life" degradation and downgrading, there were some strong points. The main character, Snowman, was an interesting, well-portrayed, my-parents-are-emotionally-absent (is this getting too cliche or what?) I-can't-connect-to-women, self-serving, end-of-the-world type of character. But we've seen much of this before--cliche. Kind of like Attwood's Handmaid's Tale--why read it if you've already read Fahrenheit 451, 1984, Animal Farm, et. al. Cliche. And even though I'm not into exploring the self-serving nature of man and belaboring the point (that's the easy path; how 'bout the uplifting? inspiring? Who said fiction needs to reside in the moral sewer all the time. Now THAT'S cliche) this was not overly morose.

It was certainly well-written, using the standardized end-past-end plot structure. And it was interesting to see how Snowman came about, Oryx, and Crake (not their real names), their relationships, the reason for their names, the cause of the apocalypse, and so on. The character development was certainly well-done. Characters were interesting, and so on. But some of the naming conventions I found a little too much: CorpsSeCorps, wolvogs, etc. A little too forced.

But if you're into depressing topics, uninspiring characters, hopelessness, et. al then this is a good one for you
Jeff is a Career, Life, & Mentor coach & CEO of  www.InnerProjection.com: working with students and parents using the proprietary Success, Design and Preparation system creating a plan to ensure his clients are of the 30% of college grads who don't waste 10 to 15 years or leave 100s of thousands of dollars on the table.

Prior to owning Inner Projection, Jeff worked as a computer programmer and in tech. support, but hated it enough to move from his home in Connecticut to do stand up comedy in Boston where he worked with such comics as Bill Burr, Dan Cook, and Billy Martin and wrote for people like Mz. Michigan who needed material for her ventriloquism act. He then moved to Los Angeles to do more stand up, but found being a coach & college instructor more rewarding. He's married with 3 children.
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