MADDADDAM by Margaret Atwood (McClelland & Stewart), 390 pages, $32.95 cloth. See listing. Rating: NNN
Maybe it’s because the first two books in Margaret Atwood’s near-end-of-the-world speculative trilogy are so powerful, but there’s something missing from this last instalment.
The characters are full-bodied: Toby, a former follower of the peaceful MaddAddamite Gardeners Zeb, the man she loves, who broke from the near-cult the charming Crakers, the new gentle breed engineered by Zeb’s friend Crake.
As the book opens, these survivors of an environmental catastrophe are holed up in the Gardeners’ old cob house trying to fend off the Pigoons, strange porkers with some human qualities, and the baddie Painballers, vicious, soulless killers from whom they’ve rescued their friend Amanda.
The narrative for the most part takes the form of the story Toby tells the Crakers about Zeb’s brother, MaddAddam founder Adam, and Crake, whom Zeb met during his travels. You’ll laugh at Atwood’s wordplay and the savvy satire embedded in almost every line. This is a writer profoundly attuned to current science and technological developments. There isn’t an idea, invention or element of social reorganization that doesn’t have its basis in real life.
But there’s a strange absence of tension and conflict. Even the final battle is curiously underplayed. It’s not because Atwood doesn’t want to be exploitative – there’s a ton of shocking description elsewhere.
And the book lacks an emotional core. In the end, as Toby teaches one of the young Crakers to write, the message of MaddAddam turns out to be about the power of storytelling – ironic, given that this tale, as such, never really takes off.
Atwood talks at Indigo Manulife on September 15 (see listing) and appears at the International Festival Of Authors (IFOA.org).
susanc@nowtoronto.com | @susangcole
