Sep 28 2009
The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood - a review
Ever since I read The Handmaid’s Tale in college , I have been a tremendous Margaret Atwood fan. I have read all of her books, multiple times and had the privilege and pleasure of meeting her at law school when she was promoting Oryx and Crake. When I heard that she had a new book coming out, I quickly put my name on the list for the book at the library and got the book first when it came in.
The Year of the Flood begins in year 25, which is the year that the flood happens. It is, in essence, a dry flood - we learn fairly quickly and early on that the flood is an epidemic that has spread quickly among humans and has wiped out most of them. Very few humans remain. The nature of the disease, aside from coughing, is undescribed. We don’t know anything about the disease at all. This book is a companion novel to Oryx and Crake and we see a lot of the same characters - the God’s Gardeners play a big role in this novel. They are a religious, vegetarian sect - a cult if you will - that lives on rooftops in the urban settings. They are contrasted quite sharply with the Corporations and the communities that surround them - they actually have taken control of the government and police functions that we are familiar with in our day. All technology and science is owned by the corporation for the sole purpose of making money, not for anything benevolent. For instance, one medical company secretly makes its own customers sick just so that they will have to continue to purchase medicine from them, creating a barbaric and disgusting cycle of violence. Genetic mutations and experiments abound, creating awful and toxic creations that serve absolutely no purpose at all.
The main characters are two women - Toby and Ren - who meet in one of the Gardener sects. Toby comes there from a fast food joint when she is saved from her sexually abusive boss. Ren is brought there by her mother and then removed back to the Corporation outpost that she was initially born in. The book takes place mostly in flashbacks held by Toby and Ren to the year Five when things were ok - they were bad but not as bad as the Year of the Flood. Toby’s boss never really stops pursuing her so she hides in a day spa after the flood. Ren defects and becomes a pole dancer.
This book tells about Ren and Toby’s life leading up to and during the Flood and is a searing critique of contemporary society and how we are ruining our world. However, it’s also a very poignant and strong celebration of the strength of women’s friendships because Ren and Toby demonstrate their loyalty to one another and to another women throughout the entire novel. Where one wouldn’t expect the relationship to survive it does, and surpasses all bounds with flying colors. I loved Atwood’s style of writing - it’s creative and witty and far from boring. This novel entertained me on my flight from Boston to California and the parable’s warnings were something that a mere six hours was unlikely to have me forget.
RUN to get this one.
