I
have never read a book so incredibly eye-opening before Oryx and Crake, written
by Margaret Atwood and published in 2003 by Anchor Books in New York. The book
is a heavy 374 pages filled with college level vocabulary, but if you want a
truly freighting and gripping novel and could handle the vocabulary and strong adult
content this book is a must read. Although I can’t say the book keeps you on
the edge of your seat every page, the overall message being portrayed is so
important everyone needs to be aware of the truly frightening path humanity
could be heading down.
The
book takes you to both a futuristic and post-apocalyptic earth where the main
character Snowman recalls his memories of the past and also narrates his own
interactions with a group of genetically altered humans known as the Crakers in
this post-apocalyptic world. His flashbacks to the past depict a futuristic
human society run by the wealthiest genetic engineering companies and how
Snowman’s best-friend at the time “Crake”, was responsible for the near extinction
of the human race, leaving poor Snowman to watch over Crakes brain child, The
Crakers. Out of Crake’s own theories to pursue immortality and perfection in
the human race, he genetically altered every aspect of the human being from
adding several interesting physical attributes to how the human brain is wired,
until the end results were his beloved Crakers. An entire generation of humans
incapable of violence, jealousy, or lust, where wars and famine no longer exist
because Crake rooted the genetic causes for those fundamental problems out. The
apocalypse was merely intended to cleanse the earth and allow the Crakers to
repopulate our world with their perfected human species. Since Snowman is the
only surviving member of the past generation, he is left with the task of
passing on all the information gathered from all the past human generations;
how else will they know what food is poisonous or even what a bird is. Many of
the details in the book concerning Crake’s fate and what caused the human
species to go on the brink of extinction is how Atwood keeps her readers on the
edge of their seats; she definitely saves the good stuff for last.
This
book is detailing the chilling path humanity took in our insatiable pursuit
towards a utopia or perfect way of life and the lines we crossed to get there,
and that it only lead us to our impending
doom. The main ideas that Atwood wants the reader to take from this book is,
where would you draw the line between nature and science; and are we fully aware
of the consequences that would follow when that line gets crossed? In the book
our futuristic society uses genetic engineering technology to cross different species
together like baboons with pigs or spiders with goats; and as unrealistic as
that sounds, it is all too real. That same technology is already at our
fingertips and in use. The Pigoons and spider-goats discussed in the book
actually already exist today, and to me that is the most frightening aspect of
the whole novel, that it’s not science fiction it’s a reality. Today we are
pushing that line between science and nature and the companies behind it, are
all too concerned with making money that they don’t consider the detrimental consequences
that could carry catastrophic world ending consequences. It will always be a part
of our human nature to make every attempt to enhance our way of living, but if
we’re not careful with the technology or methods we use to do so, we could
already be heading down the same chilling path Atwood envisioned. This book is
a must read for all adults, people need to be aware of the consequences we
could potentially face if we aren’t careful with how we implement genetic engineering
technologies, that we already have at our disposal. Not only is this book
important in reaching out to readers and enlightening them on current topics,
but this has been one of the best books I’ve ever read. Towards the end of the
book the plot begins to unravel more and more and I just wanted to keep turning
the page, as the book had me on the edge of my seat dying to know “what happens
next?” I recommend this book to every adult who could comprehend it, especially
all the young adults out there particularly high school graduates and college
students because it is so easy to relate to the main characters problems and
make the book all the more enjoyable, as it did for me.
