The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood is her most recent, brilliant novel. Ms. Atwood continues the journey she began with Oryx and Crake by giving us an alternative view of the events that took place that we learn is referred to as the "Waterless Flood" by a cult called God's Gardeners.
We are introduced to two survivors of the plague, Toby and Ren. Toby is living her days after the Flood in a popular spa called AnooYoo. After having to go into hiding and losing her identity when she was young, Toby is rescued at a fast food joint in the pleebands (areas of the city) called SecretBurgers by the Gardeners. She has been a victim of sexual abuse by the manager, Blanco the Bloat, by whose own proclamation he never lets a woman live. Toby joins the Gardeners with their strange rooftop gardens, basement mushroom growing and refusal to eat any sort of animal product with a face. They are a back-to-nature cult who teach their followers about God's love of animals and humans and their respect to their surroundings. Toby begins teaching an herb class and eventually becomes the bee keeper. However, Blanco's obsession with finding Toby never wains, bringing terror to the Gardeners. Toby gets an identity change, complete with new hair and plastic surgery and begins managing the AnooYoo Spa until the plague begins to spread quickly across the world. Per the Gardener's teaching of the "Waterless Flood" that God has planned for them, she has a storage of food and supplies hidden away that she lives upon after sending all the Spa girls to their families and locking herself inside.
Ren is a trapeze dancer at the local sex joint, Scales and Tails. Her BioFilm suit that she wears while "performing" is torn and she is locked into an isolation room, escaping the terror of the plague. She spent her earlier life among the Gardeners, when her mother brought her there. She left in her early teen years, when her mother went back to her father in the Compound. Through a series of unfortunate events, she ends up at Scales and Tails as a high end prostitute and truly enjoys her job.
The story follows Ren and Toby's narrative, painting a brilliant picture of their pasts and how it lead up to their present situations. I believe the most intriguing part of this novel is where the overlapping of characters occur. Jimmy and Glenn, from Oryx and Crake, appear repeatedly in the novel, cleverly entwined with our current characters and others from their past, whom we wonder if they are alive or dead.
Ms. Atwood introduced us to many new concepts in Oryx and Crake that she refers to as "speculative fiction" versus science fiction. The world is full of genetically engineered animals, foods and diseases. Everything is based off of the scientific progressions occuring within the Compounds with the pharmaceutical companies. In Oryx and Crake, Ms. Atwood introduces to the scientific side of the plague. In The Year of the Flood, she introduces us to the more human side.
I can't write much about this novel without giving anything away, not that it's a great secret! Read Oryx and Crake to get a little background and understand what the words "liobams", "pleeblands" and "Crakers" actually mean. Read Oryx and Crake to wonder what the world would be like if we were completely wiped out by a plague and there were few human survivors, if any Then read The Year of the Flood and figure out what could happen next if there were survivors of the plague.
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