Oryx and Crake

Today’s read was … not my (as they say) cup of tea...  though I have liked the author’s other works.  Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood is a futuristic novel set in a post-apocalyptic time.  The protagonist named Snowman, in the present setting of the novel, and known as Jimmy in the flashback scenes, lives among various types of “people” and animals – some appear to be “man made via chemicals/scientific advances” and others developed with cross-breading.  We learn of Jimmy’s upbringing, a father and mother who worked in some multi-national type companies, seemingly trying to identify food sources and vaccinations of animals and humans.  The demise of his family – both mom’s death after the divorce from his father and the strange love attraction of Jimmy’s father and his assistant - is intermingled throughout the book in flashbacks trying to capture Jimmy’s feelings and connections to the Crakers, as they are so affectionately known.  They use Jimmy for his knowledge (unbeknownst to him) through his old high school friend and computer pal, Glen, now known as Crake. On line “traveling” through games brings them to child pornography experience among other adventures, where Jimmy finds a young child who is hurt through the pornography world whom he calls Oryx.  Throughout the story Crake is trying to help his people by creating a “safe zone” of peace though Crake has some chemicals that will kill off those who want to hurt the society, except Jimmy, whom he has immunized.  In the end of the story, Crake starts a pandemic, kills Jimmy’s  love Oryx, and then in turn Jimmy kills Crake.  Jimmy is left to contemplate his next steps as all around him is solitude.  He is faced with a few new Crakes and has to determine what he should do?  Kill them? Work with them?  Like all good books that end in the unknown what happens next?  Probably a next book right???  I hope not, but am told yes.  Well, I probably will never know as I just did NOT get into this future sci-fi of sorts.  Between the flashbacks and never really knowing if I was with Snowman or Jimmy and Crake or Glen and why did Jimmy’s parents work on the bio “farm.”  Give me The Handmaid’s Tale ANYDAY.  I take a complete pass on this one.  Maybe a movie in the making?  Reminds me of those sci-fi matrix type of books.  I’m sure there are others whom loved this one, not me…. 

The Number Devil

Imagine having a real hatred of your math class?  Your teacher, Mr. Bockel, scares the living daylights out of you.  It’s time to learn the story of Robert Wilson in The Number Devil by Hans Magnus Enzensberger.  Robert is a boy who does not perform well in his class and constantly fears how he will do in the midst of the pressure in class. Robert’s daytime fears begin to get addressed when he goes to sleep and meets the “Number Devil” for the next twelve nights!  The Number Devil appears each evening taking Robert on travels into solving the problems of math rules from arithmetic progression, multiplication, fractions, decimals, Bonacci’s numbers, triangular numbers, the importance of zero, Fibonancci’s numbers, hopping sequence, imaginary numbers, irrational numbers, Pascal’s triangle, Pie, principles of math, and square roots.  (Yes I’m missing some of the other rules, but you get the idea).  Every night was a new lesson.  Over the course of time Robert learns he actually likes math, and so will the reader as they understand the background of many of the rules.  Why not have a book on math that is creative and inviting just as young Robert does.  I really loved the brief stories, colors/drawings in the book, and of course, the energy that a child shows when they achieve a little success.  How creative this book is at showing math is a fun subject to study in school.  This is a keeper and for those who are around the age of 10 or even 45 studying for the GRE!  It’s a really good read.

The Outsiders

Another good read.  A young adult book called The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton.  This is one of those books you read and immediately know there is a lesson to be shared that is important for all young adults.  Clearly the themes of bullying, fitting into a peer group, and knowing what lines to cross are all issues that teens face every day. The setting for the outsiders is Oklahoma circa mid-1960s where two main groups of youth exist – the Greasers and the Socs (the rich kids).  The two groups had a long history of disagreements, always leading to blood baths of sorts.   Enter greaser Ponyboy (what a great name) and his two brothers, SodaPop and Darrell or affectionately known as Darry!  The three brothers live home alone after the death of their parents who die in a car accident.  20-year-old Darry is raising his two brothers.  A battle occurs when Ponyboy and his friend  Johnny are jumped by the Socs.  Unfortunately on this night the Socs didn’t realize that Johnny had a switch blade and in an effort to assist Ponyboy from being beaten to death, defends his friend, and stabs a Soc, who then dies.  The two boys go on the run but as luck would have it go to a church house that later burns, but allows the two boys to become heroes by pulling out a few local children from the blaze.  There are a number of important points that the author attempts (and does well) throughout the story, the main one being how does one lift themselves out of their “social structure in society” and also how do teens cope with the challenges of negative peer pressure?   There are some “teary” moments in the story.  In the end the author does a good job making the reader think deeply about difference and how to begin to accept those from different socio-economic backgrounds and how to do the right thing.  A great read for young adults, especially BEFORE that awkward moment of choosing how to be cool.  I had not read this one before, so glad I was able to read something I could have used as a youth.

Blindness

When I say, “I loved this book,” it means there is a pretty good shot you will like it.  This is a keeper!  While it is disturbing and intense, the story is griping and you will be enthralled throughout.  Imagine a new “illness,” one that hits without notice, has started to erupt throughout our communities.  Imagine you are one who doesn’t get it, yet people think you do have it…  you have entered the world of Blindness by Jose Saramago.  Saramago is a Portuguese author and penned this book in 1995. An unexpected mass epidemic has hit the community where people go blind for no known reason.  The story focuses on a few characters, a doctor – who is treating the first patient to go blind, the patient, the doctor’s wife, and a few other patients.  The response by the government is to place the “blind” people together in a quarantined area and then the blindness grows quickly with more and more of the affected being placed in the warehouse of sick people.  The first group of the infected have to learn to live together under less than ideal conditions, with limited food and lack of regularized hygiene conditions.  It is interesting to see how the group interacts and fights for comfort, support, and learning how to get along.  The doctor’s wife is the only member of the community who is not actually affected by blindness, which serves as a critical point of survival for the group later in the story.  The next part of the story involves how the initial community survives when mass infected people move into the warehouse and power struggle to control food sources and other material goods become less and less.  Finally the story moves into life outside the warehouse when the doctor and his wife (and their small group) escape the warehouse and struggle to survive in the “real world.”    How will the group find solace in a world overrun by famine, fighting, and betrayal?  I won’t give out the ending, but it is a nice twist and brings home the message we learned long ago through King Lear… when are we really blind? And when came we really see?  Such great questions, especially when reading this book.  I think this is one of the new classics!  Read it.  Scary, but with a strong deep message.

Picture Perfect

The drama theme continues, but this time it is a current day story written by Jodi Picoult, boy do the RAs seem to like her stories!  If you have ever read any of my blog entries on her books, you know that I usually find her stories “over-packed” with drama.  With Picture Perfect,  Picoult was much more focused with one social issue, domestic violence.   There were no surprise endings or twists and turns as the author normally does.  The story begins when Cassie Barrett is found by a newly minted LA cop who happens to be a Native American (right off the reservation), Will Flying Horse, as she has no idea who or where she is (amnesia).  Over time her memory returns and she learns that she is the spouse of Alex Rivers, a hot trotting LA Hollywood actor, who happens to be regularly beating her.  Cassie and Alex reunite when she is brought to the police and her identity discovered.  Over the next few days she remembers the beatings and after a last beating she runs away, this time back to Will Flying Horse who brings her to his family’s home on the Lakota reservation in South Dakota.  Cassie takes the steps to leave when she learns she is pregnant by Alex and she doesn’t think that she could keep the child alive during her pregnancy.  Her disappearance makes Alex look like a potential murder as he and others have no idea where she had gone.  Cassie grows very close to Will Flying Horse and his family, learning the challenges Will has faced in his life. But, Cassie, the ever obedient wife, finally reaches out to Alex, thinking he will change when he sees he has a son.  Guess what happens?  After the child’s birth, yes of course, a son!, she reunites once again with Alex – who promises to go to rehab, counseling etc., so that she will forgive him.  One can only guess what happens with the super-ego driven husband who was emotionally abused as a child himself when the two reunite…..  Will Cassie survive another beating?  Will she actually take steps on her own?  To me, based on all of Picoult’s other works, this was a surprise ending!!!  Good finally outlasts bad.  Picoult does a nice job of developing characters and the realization that things need to change, though somewhat abruptly.  I appreciated the depth of her characters rather than a ton of issues all thrown into one story.  While she isn’t my favorite author, this one is better than the unrealistic stories I have read in the past.