The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin

On a hot summer day in 1969, the four Gold children, Varya, Daniel, Klara, and Simon, sneak out of their NYC apartment to have their fortunes told. But this isn't just any fortune teller, this woman claims she knows the day they will each die. The story follows each of the children through specific moments in their lives, their search to hide from their dates, to prove they matter in the world. If you knew when you were going to die, would you live your life differently?

The Immortalists is a beautiful and moving magical realism tale that shows how familial bonds can never really be broken. The story is elegantly written and so true to each character that I could feel them in their joys and pains.

 

Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood

Oryx and Crake is the first book in the MaddAddam Trilogy, a story about the apocalypse. In usual Atwood fashion, we're dropped in the middle of the story as she takes us back in time to see how mankind was virtually wiped out, while also following the current timeline. Snowman used to to Jimmy, before the world ended. His best friend was Crake, who had another name as well. Crake is a brilliant, nihilistic scientist and Jimmy is an average guy who's pretty good with words. Oryx is an obsession, an imaginary person made real through the adolescent sexual escapades of Crake and Jimmy. When the world finally comes crashing down around them, Jimmy is the only one left alive, other than the Crakers, a new breed of humans created just before the end. With their help, Snowman must not just survive, but find something to live for.

Margaret Atwood brings her futuristic society to life brilliantly, but I feel she may overdo it a bit. She imagines a world where teenagers watch kiddie porn on a regular basis and barely flinch at snuff films of violent executions in foreign countries. As much as we'd like to deny it, we know girls like Oryx exist, with early childhood sexual trauma, but we don't expect it to be normalized. I really enjoyed Snowman's interactions with the Crakers, especially the mythologies he creates for them. I'm looking forward to reading the next book, but knowing Atwood it will be totally different than this one.

Note: This is my second reading of Oryx and Crake. I couldn't remember enough details to continue the series, so I thought I read the book when it was first published. It turns out I read it in January 2014, when I had a two-month-old frying my brain! (Thanks Goodreads for tracking my reading!)

Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood

Alias Grace is the semi-fictionalized story of Grace Marks, Canada's most notorious murderess of the 19^th Century. Her story was sensationalized at the time, and Atwood takes this sensationalism to explore a supernatural explanation to Grace Marks' loss of memory during the murders of her master Thomas Kinnear and his housekeeper Nancy Montgomery. Atwood digs into her fictional Grace through a psychologist, Dr. Simon Jordan, after Grace has been in prison for fifteen years. She tells her story while we see how she lives in prison while working the Prison's Governor's home. Dr. Jordan's story is also told, and we see how desperately he wants to believe that he can figure her out and fix her so that he can legitimize his work. The key to unlocking Grace's memory is Mary Whitney, an old friend who died too young. But how can a dead girl answer questions? In ways you couldn't imagine.

I'm still new to Margaret Atwood, but I was pretty disappointed in her storytelling here. Maybe it's because this wasn't the usual dystopian I'm used to from her, or maybe it's because I was expecting a bigger, better explanation. It took forever to get through the first 100 pages, but after that the story moved quickly. Without adding any spoilers, I'd just like to stay there was a specific (and obvious) scene where I feel like I figured it all out. I know why Grace did what she did, even if she couldn't remember. And while I don't have a problem with that type of storytelling, I tend to see Atwood as wanting to keep her readers in the dark as much as possible, or at least as much as her characters.

I loved the story and I'm looking forward to watching the mini-series on Netflix, which was my main motivation for reading this. I will post a link to my review of the mini-series once I watch it.