52 in 52: The Year of the Flood, by Margaret Atwood
Jan 21, 2010 in 52 in 52, Books
52 in 52 is a personal challenge to read a book a week in 2010
Margaret Atwood just might be Canada’s best science-fiction author. She probably won’t like that label but this book and Oryx & Crake, the novel that closely dovetails with The Year of the Flood, is science-fiction at its best.
The novel tells the story of two women, Toby and Ren, and the God’s Gardeners, a survivalist eco-cult. They are all trying to survive in a dystopian world where the social fabric has been torn apart by rampant consumerism, environmental damage and bio-technology run amok. So basically, Las Vegas.
Atwood is grimly serious and if you don’t steel yourself, Year of the Flood can be a difficult read in many ways. Sometimes I found sections of the book a bit didactic and preachy. But the horrors that she writes about just have enough grounding in reality that to simply dismiss them would be wrong.
Further reading:
The Year of the Flood’s official site