In Maddaddam, Margaret Atwood masterfully
concludes her post-apocalyptic trilogy that began with Oryx and Crake.
The
book follows a group of survivors from the bioengineered disease that decimated
the human population, as they contend with other humans, other species—some
natural and some engineered—and the elements, adjusting to a life without the
technologies that had made their pre-disease world so much easier to navigate.
Luckily, many of the survivors were once members of the Gods Gardeners, a group
that was eventually disbanded by the government, but that once promoted clean
living, recycling, and harmony with nature in the pre-apocalyptic world. The
Gardeners had learned how to cultivate land, survive in the wilderness, and,
more importantly, they avoided the products being created and peddled by the
Corps (large, often corrupt, corporate conglomerates that had sold anything
from healthcare products to bioengineered food products), which had saved them
from ingesting the carefully planted and disseminated pills that had carried
the cataclysmic disease.
Joining
them are the Crakers, semi-human species that were bioengineered by the
disease’s creator to replace the human species after his disease had wiped it
out. The Crakers are engineered to lead a simple life: they can only subsist on
a plant based diet; they are devoid of any propensity for violence; and all
tendencies of jealousy have been removed from them, as has the desire to create
a culture. Anything that their creator, Crake, thought had led to human
conflict and the disfigurement of the planet by humans has been stamped out the
Crakers genetically.
Crake,
however, could not stamp out everything, though he may have thought his
creation was perfect. The Crakers do possess some society-building tendencies
and they are a highly curious species. The Crakers take to writing and
storytelling. Undoubtedly, Atwood intended her portrayal of the Crakers, their
slow development, their acute culture-building tendencies, and their need for a
god and mythology, to represent a vision of humanities own development.
Perhaps, in tens of thousands of years, the Crakers, will have created nations
and begun to carryout experiments similar to those the human species had
conducted, experiments that had slowly destroyed the earth. But, in asserting
this last, I am overstepping the boundaries of Atwood’s work.
The
book, and the series as a whole encourages reflection. It makes its readers
think about their own responsibilities, and it forces them to see that
everything has consequences, many of which are largely unforeseeable. No
creation is perfect.
As a
story, the novel is intriguing and enticing. Characters introduced in the other
two books of the series are given greater prominence here, and their backstories
are slowly flushed out, though not completely. There are many questions that
are left unanswered; Atwood intends to leave these questions unanswered. The
only downside to the narrative is its ending. I found myself intrigued for the
whole book, but when the ending came, it was not what I expected. While the
ending was neither bad, nor was it unfitting to the book or Atwood’s project as
a whole in the series, it was simply a little bit of a letdown. Nonetheless, I
recommend the series highly. Start with Oryx
and Crake, then read The Year of the
Flood, before starting on Maddaddam.
As a
side note to all of this. I realize that in my last post I had said I would be
reading the Mighty Walzer by Howard
Jacobson next. I did begin reading the novel, but found it both appalling and
boring. It’s not worth picking up, and certainly not worth reading. I chose to
abandon that novel in pursuit of other interests.
JCM
2 October 2013
