Oryx And Crake

Oryx and Crake is a dystopian novel that the author, Margaret Atwood, describes as speculative fiction. I think she means a story like this could happen in the future. The story is about a boy named Jimmy. As an adult he is known as Snowman. One day his mother disappears and for years government officials repeatedly question him about her whereabouts. Jimmy lives with his Dad who is a scientist. In this society, each company builds living quarters for their employees to keep them safe and isolated from the crumbling world elsewhere. Jimmy is an average student. One day a new student named Glenn starts at his high school. Jimmy and Glenn spend much time together playing video games and smoking weed. On his extinction video game Glenn uses the handle Crake and Jimmy uses Snowman.  Glenn is a top notch student. After high school Jimmy gets into an art school where he learns how to write advertising. Glenn becomes a genetic pharmaceutical engineer. Later, after they are working for a few years,, Glenn asks Jimmy to help him write advertising for the new humanoid he has designed called Crakers. Things go wrong at this job and Snowman is left starving and barely surviving out of the compound in some trees next to the sea with some Crakers. Two more stories follow this one but I am going to have to pace myself. Maybe I will read one a year. This is an incredibly possible and sad story.