Sunday, May 25, 2014

Maddaddam

I recently read Maddaddam, the third book in this dystopic trilogy, by Margaret Atwood. I'm sort of proud of my three books in the series, because the first two, Oryx and Crake and The Year of the Flood, are signed by the author. I'm hoping I one day have the opportunity to get the third one signed, making a complete set of signed Maggie-Books.
I found it really helpful that Maddaddam, released in 2013, begins with a synopsis of what went on in the previous two books, especially since eight years have passed since Oryx and Crake came out, and my memory has seemed to age several decades in the same time frame. Maddaddam really brings it all together, and I think it is the finest of all three books.
Atwood's future world is one in which technological genetic alteration has run amok.  A new breed of emotionless vegetarian human-beings [The Crakers] roam about, and the vicious Painballers are in the woods, hunting to rape and kill anyone that is normal. Intelligent giant pigs called "Pigoons" [the frontal lobes of their brains are of human origin] are also on the loose. At first, the Pigoons are at war with the humans that have escaped the pandemic sweeping the earth -- and only much later in the book do they take the initiative to combine forces with a remnant of these normal humans [the Maddaddamites] to defeat a common enemy, the Painballers.
Think of it this way -- the world as we know it is OVER… and the reason is not climate change, or even nuclear annihilation -- but rather, a form of biological terrorism brought about by humans. 
It's a crazy as hell book. There is even romance involved, as Toby's love for Zeb is a major part of the story. Heroine and hero. Meanwhile, other normal women are being willfully impregnated by the huge-penised male Crakers. Hmmm… what kind of babies will this produce? 

Only Maggie knows.
She has really pulled out all the potty-mouth stops when it comes to dropping the f-bomb in this book. On one page alone I counted twelve "fucks". I'm sure if you averaged it out, you would end up with at least one or two on each and every page -- something to maybe consider before you drop Maddaddam into grandma's Christmas stocking, unless you're OK with her involuntarily swallowing her own false teeth halfway through the thing. 
It's an engaging read, and never boring. Even if one has not read the previous two books. Ultimately, I think it best to read all three in their order of publication, but given the aforementioned synopsis, I think Maddaddam can be read as a stand-alone book, and enjoyed.

*****

1 comment:

Stefanie said...

Yay! I loved the book too. I thought it a perfect non-concluding conclusion. The humor was top-notch and I really enjoyed the myth-making aspect of it. Lucky you to have two of the three books signed! I hope you do eventually get the third one signed too!