Since I’ve started blogging and paying attention to the adult lit world I have heard a lot about Margaret Atwood. She’s mostly known for her feminist writing and disturbing dystopic features. And while this book feature some of this, it’ just so ….bizarre. I really had to do some research to see what others were saying to make sure I understood it. The book editor of the Washington Post called it a “silly mess”… and it kind of was this for me. I have no idea how to really review this, since I don’t have much to compare it to, but here goes.
In an economic collapse in the Northeast, married couple Stan and Charmaine have lost everything. They live in their car, fearful of looters and the next day to come. When they have the opportunity to be apart of an economic experiment that requires them to move into the town of Consilience , an idyllic 50’s style town where everyone is given housing and work.. The only catch is they have to alternate a month being prisoners inside Positron prison and a month being a citizen in Consilience, leaving their home for their Alternates.
As you may suspect all is not what it seems and Stan and Charmiane get involved in a bizarre plot that include sex robots, a house of Elvis impersonators and adultery. So much adultery. The thriller-esque plot they get involved in just didn’t make sense. I’m not sure if this novel is satire or something. I feel like if I didn’t know who wrote this I’d be like, this is kind of misogynstic but because it’s Atwood it’s maybe satire. It just seemed like all these strong capable women had this plan and then they leave it to a bumbling man as their linchpin.
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I picked up these audio CDs at the library at random to listen to in the car and ended up really enjoying this story. 15-year-old D.J Schwenk, has been pulling the weight of her family’s dairy farm while her father is sick and the last thing she needs is more work. Then she gets asked to help train the rival team’s lazy quarterback and show him the value of hard work. Not really a traditional sprorts story, but a story about family, loyalty and growing up. D.J is this wonderfully full developed and faceted protagonist as she tries to figure out how to be both a teenager and a caregiver for her family. This novel has a lot energy as we explore football life in this small Wisconsin town.The audiobook narrator does a midwest accent that fits the story, but can be grating until you get used to it. This book is great for fans of Miranda Kenneally’s Catching Jordan–incidentally she is the first person I heard about this book from. I learned this is the first in a 3 part series, and will pick up the others when I need a good read. –
