Blog Update and Margaret Atwood Novels

Blog Update

I've noticed a lot of blogger folk are giving a kind of "State of the Union Address" about the direction and progression of their blogs.   The end of a year and the beginning of the next is a good time for reflection.  When I started this blog last summer, I thought to focus only on cooking.  Since then I have branched out to other things such as crafts and book reviews.  So I guess the focus of my blog is a bit unfocused.  For now, I'm okay with that.  So expect more random entries in 2010.  Random/unfocused is sort of the theme of my life right now!

Margaret Atwood

I am adding Margaret Atwood to my ever growing list of favorite authors.  This year I read two of her books, The Handmaid's Tale and Oryx and Crake. Out of all the books I've read this year, these are the only two my mind continues to return to ponder. Both take place in the future and most people would label them science fiction. However, Atwood doesn't like this label and would prefer to call them speculative fiction.  I agree with this and would add that even people who would not typically enjoy science fiction would really like these books.

Oryx and Crake reveals a futuristic society that is divided between the elite science community who live in "safe" gated compounds and the pleebians who live outside these communities in an atmosphere of violence and disease. The science community focuses on using genetic engineering to make life better. Jimmy, who later is renamed Snowman, grows up in a compound where his father creates pigoons, pigs who have been genetically engineered to grow human body parts. Jimmy befriends Glenn, who later becomes Crake. They grow up together playing violent video games and watching internet porn. Both boys become fascinated with a young girl on the porn site, who they later meet and rename Oryx. 

The book begins with Snowman/Jimmy as a grown man. He seems to be the last man on Earth with Crakers, genetically engineered humanoids, as his only companions. In these scenes, Snowman is just trying to stay alive. He is hunted by the genetically engineered animals such as pigoons and wolvogs. Through his flashbacks, the reader learns how he (and the Earth) has ended up in this dire situation. It is an incredibly complex and interesting novel.

After reading Oryx and Crake, I wanted to reread The Handmaid's Tale, which presents an alternate future outcome of society.  The Handmaid's Tale is written from the perspective of a handmaid, a woman whose sole purpose is for breeding, much like Rachel used her servant in the Bible to bear her a son.  Her life depends on her ability to do this. 

This handmaid experienced the transition from a society much like ours to this one where she has been stripped of her rights. Everything has been taken away from her including her daughter and husband from her previous life.Women are not allowed to own property or to read. Some women become Wives through arranged marriages.  Others become household workers called Marthas. It is heartbreaking and amazing portrait of survival....and eventually escape.