Is it just me or is Margaret Atwood bang on with her latest novel 'Year of the Flood'? As one Times reviewer so eloquently put it, she really does have, "her finger on the pulse of the future".
In terms of style and artistry, Atwood's writing comes across as bold and articulate. It is not immediately apparent that the ideas in the book are daring, however, as one becomes immersed in the plot, it soon becomes obvious that Atwood's novel is critiquing society at large. It becomes frightening how close to our own reality the majority of the themes in the book are. Atwood's insight on pharmaceuticals, religion, agriculture, food production, the cosmetic industry, and technology are projected into the future and amplified to create a monstrous reality for our future. Year of the Flood is yet another tale with which Atwood is begging us to look introspectively at our way of doing things in order to counteract the atrocious reality of the world created in this book.
Atwood's Gardeners are beacons of hope in the bleak reality of the novel and, I imagine, were characters difficult to surmise knowing the materialistic tendencies of today's status quo.
We can only hope that Atwood's Gardener's and their moving psalms were found in the elements of our society that work to sustain our environment and counteract consumerism.
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