During a typical Christmas discussion of post-apocalyptic worlds, my friend Terry suggested I check out “Oryx and Crake” by Margaret Atwood.  I ordered a used hardback copy on line from some sketchy outfit in Nevada.  For $2 plus $4 shipping, how could one go wrong?  The book was probably OK before it shipped, but arrived warped with diagonal creases on both the front and back covers.  Clearly it was crushed at the bottom of some container.  Still readable, but it won’t make it into my permanent collection. 

The story takes place in the aftermath of a world rife with genetic modifications.  Lots of mixing of animal and human traits.  For example Pigoons, which are pigs with human mental enhancements.  (In the weeks since I finished the book, Yale announced it was raising pig brain cells from the dead.  Not exactly the same thing, but it makes the book seem more possible).  The people performing and generating these modification are part of an elite class, isolated from the rest of society.  That’s continuing to happen with or without genetic modification.

Oryx and Crake is the kind of book that starts at the end and beginning of a tale, alternating until it converges in the last few chapters.  You’ll spend a long time confused about what happened, being introduced to characters that seem to have no connection, all waiting for some unifying arc of events.  It all makes sense in the end, just be prepared to wait out uncertainty.  I am not a fan of playing with time, I think it would have been a better book written in linear order.  Then the author is forced to explain why characters make their decisions rather than just re-capping them.