by Margaret Atwood
This is the third book in Marget Atwood's futuristic trilogy. It ties together all the stories and moves the story forward.
In this story most of the remaining humans have gathered together and have the Crakers with them for their protection. They are hiding from the two remaining paintballers who were accidentally released by the innocent Crakers. They found Jimmy the Snowman and nursed him back to health. Some of the humans are pregnant, they fear the babies might be progeny of the paintballers.
We find out that Zeb, the brother of Adam One, killed their father, the crooked Reverend, with the dangerous capsules that they had taken from the labs. We learn a bit more about Crake's life and how he got others working on his plans for new creatures and a disease that would wipe out humans to cleanse the world of bad people.
When the babies are born all are relieved that they appear to be Craker/human.
Toby has become a storyteller to the Crakes, she starts making a diary and also teaches one of the Crakers (Blackbeard) to write and read.
The humans make a pact with the pigoons (not to kill each other) and they set off to find the painballers. They locate them in the egg (where the Crakers were created) and shoot them but one of the pigoons, Jimmy and Adam are killed in the battle.
As the story ends Zeb has gone off to check on smoke that looks like a fire. He does not return. Toby grieves for his loss and goes off into the forest never to return. At the end of the story Blackbeard is now telling the story, and it sounds like they will manage okay.
This was a good conclusion to the series, but I did find it was a bit slow with the amount of time spent on the life and exploits of Zeb. It seems that the two races, the human and craker will be able to live/mate and they will now have the ability to read and write. Will they gain the ability to invent? make things? And, what about the smoke on the horizon?
Sunday, 27 October 2013
Sunday, 20 October 2013
Unexploded
by Alison Macleod
This book was one of the books on the Mann Booker list for 2013. I tried to read the Luminaries by Catton, which won the prize but hated it and couldn't finish it -- 800 pages, way to many characters...Never can figure out the judges in these awards.
Anyway, after that rant I will get back to this book. It is set in Brighton during the second world war. Brighton is on high alert as it is so close to Europe and likely to be the site for a German invasion. A young married woman, with a young son, is upset by all the tension in the war. However, she is more upset and despondent when her husband says he may have to leave her for a time to escort some money to London. He has also buried a box in their garden with some money and, cyanide pills. He doesn't tell her about the pills. She discoveers then when she digs up the box She feels devastated by her husband's potential abandonment of her and her son.
She starts to visit a local camp where Germans and Jews are being held, on the outskirts of town. She starts reading to an old man who is very ill. There is another man in the infirmary, a painter, possibly a counterfitter.
As the woman draws away from her husband he has a performance issue once when they try to have sex. He decides to test his mettle by going to a prostitute. But his experiment turns into an affair. His wife evenutally finds out but he assures her he is done with the lover.
The old prisoner dies, the woman then goes to read to the other prisoner but he is soon removed from the infirmary. The woman urges her husband to get him employment and he arranges for the man to paint a mural in a local church. She finds him living in the cold church and gives him a key to a neighbour's house that is not occupied so that he will have a warmer place to stay,
Her son stumbles on the man and befriends him until he sees the man comforting his mother. He and his friends had found the "pills" and leave them with candy in the man's house. The women enjoys the work of Virginia Woolf and is devastated when she learns that Woolf has committed suicide. She seeks comfort with the painter rather than her husband. Her husband stumbles upon them when he is looking for her.
The husband wants their relationship to be repaired, he even seems to think he can accept her love for the painter as long as she loves him too.
The woman had urged her husband to get the man more employment so he is hired by the military to help clear bombs. The man is clearing bombs on his first day of work, he also has the candy/pills in his pocket
All we learn is that a bomb went off and the man was buried by rubble from the cliff. Did he take a pill and did that affect him, or was it a tragic misjudgement with an armament. The book ends with the woman feeling alone, having lost the painter but it appears she is pregnant.
I found this story very engaging. The author did a great job of portaying what life would likely be like during the war, how people were acting/reacting to all the tension --- frightened, perhaps reckless.
The boys play war games, they include one of the boy's war damaged brothers. Some of their actions upset him but they don't seem to realize they are likely bringing painful memories back to him. I think she has likely captured the bravado, passion and insensitivity of youth.
I thought it was a great novel, a very compelling story, well written, thought provoking.... All the things Luminaries was NOT.
This book was one of the books on the Mann Booker list for 2013. I tried to read the Luminaries by Catton, which won the prize but hated it and couldn't finish it -- 800 pages, way to many characters...Never can figure out the judges in these awards.
Anyway, after that rant I will get back to this book. It is set in Brighton during the second world war. Brighton is on high alert as it is so close to Europe and likely to be the site for a German invasion. A young married woman, with a young son, is upset by all the tension in the war. However, she is more upset and despondent when her husband says he may have to leave her for a time to escort some money to London. He has also buried a box in their garden with some money and, cyanide pills. He doesn't tell her about the pills. She discoveers then when she digs up the box She feels devastated by her husband's potential abandonment of her and her son.
She starts to visit a local camp where Germans and Jews are being held, on the outskirts of town. She starts reading to an old man who is very ill. There is another man in the infirmary, a painter, possibly a counterfitter.
As the woman draws away from her husband he has a performance issue once when they try to have sex. He decides to test his mettle by going to a prostitute. But his experiment turns into an affair. His wife evenutally finds out but he assures her he is done with the lover.
The old prisoner dies, the woman then goes to read to the other prisoner but he is soon removed from the infirmary. The woman urges her husband to get him employment and he arranges for the man to paint a mural in a local church. She finds him living in the cold church and gives him a key to a neighbour's house that is not occupied so that he will have a warmer place to stay,
Her son stumbles on the man and befriends him until he sees the man comforting his mother. He and his friends had found the "pills" and leave them with candy in the man's house. The women enjoys the work of Virginia Woolf and is devastated when she learns that Woolf has committed suicide. She seeks comfort with the painter rather than her husband. Her husband stumbles upon them when he is looking for her.
The husband wants their relationship to be repaired, he even seems to think he can accept her love for the painter as long as she loves him too.
The woman had urged her husband to get the man more employment so he is hired by the military to help clear bombs. The man is clearing bombs on his first day of work, he also has the candy/pills in his pocket
All we learn is that a bomb went off and the man was buried by rubble from the cliff. Did he take a pill and did that affect him, or was it a tragic misjudgement with an armament. The book ends with the woman feeling alone, having lost the painter but it appears she is pregnant.
I found this story very engaging. The author did a great job of portaying what life would likely be like during the war, how people were acting/reacting to all the tension --- frightened, perhaps reckless.
The boys play war games, they include one of the boy's war damaged brothers. Some of their actions upset him but they don't seem to realize they are likely bringing painful memories back to him. I think she has likely captured the bravado, passion and insensitivity of youth.
I thought it was a great novel, a very compelling story, well written, thought provoking.... All the things Luminaries was NOT.
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