Oryx And Crake Audio Book

Oryx and Crake « Ardent Reader

, Which I read this past May and enjoyed, and upon mentioning this fact, she instructed me to read Atwood’s finalist for the 2003 Booker Prize and the 2003 Governor General’s Award. Since she listened the audio book, her plan was that I would read it and upon finishing it, we’d compare notes. I’m interested in what she’ll have to say about her experience listening because my experience reading certainly does not match up to her previous statements. Needless to say, I struggled to enjoy Atwood’s science fiction novel.

Snowman, the main character and perceivably the only human left living, is the caretaker of the Crakers, or the Children of Crake, the mad scientist of this tale. Complicating this story, though, are the friendship between Snowman (also known as Jimmy) and Crake – formulated in their youth, this friendship struggles to last through college after Crake heads to the prestigious Watson-Crick Institute and Snowman to the arts-based Martha Graham Academy – and each boy’s relationship with Oryx, the character we’re given the least insight into. Originally, Oryx’s mother sells her to a man who blackmails others for trying to have s*x with her; later, she’s passed along to a child p*rnographer and the video she “stars” in is the first time Snowman and Crake see her. The video haunts Snowman; it’s barely a blimp on Crake’s screen. After landing a job at a biotech corporation, Crake creates both the Crakers – innocent and peaceful, these genetically engineered humans are herbivores whose, um, turn blue during their limited breeding seasons – and a genetic pandemic that, apparently, kills all humans except for Snowman. His final product, though, provides the climax of this tale.

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