The MaddAddam Trilogy - By Margaret Atwood

The MaddAddam Trilogy consists of three separate novels done over the course of a decade by the world famous Canadian author Margaret Atwood of The Handmaid’s Tale fame. It’s kind of metal.

I heard about it through twitter when it was announced that HBO and Darren Aronofsky of the recent Noah film and the classic 90’s drug epic Requiem For a Dream had signed an agreement for a new show inspired by and adapted from the trilogy. Immediately I had to get up on this.
As you can imagine it did not let me down and I was able to burn through all three books in about two weeks. I have high hopes of course for the show as this material is insanely rich.

Think Walking Dead mixed with Bladerunner and a dash of Splice and you’ll have some idea of how badass this is. Plus she deftly serves helping after helping of thick satire and parody; not only for feminism, sexism, politics, and environmentalism, but through a deep and painful commentary on the human condition she pokes fun at our modern society and its obsessions. It cuts like a knife. I really hope HBO doesn’t fuck this up.

All three novels take place in a future that is clearly a direct fictionalized trajectory of our modern world 50 or so years from now. It is not precisely dated but it’s obvious with 20^th century references and technological advances in transportation, weaponry, and genetic research being clearly depicted as common place.

The world’s population is divided into plebes and an elite working class (irony). The elites live in corporate compounds that have their own security forces and are completely self-contained and typically highly luxurious. These highly guarded and militarized compounds are the entire sociocultural reality for the corporate workers and their families and include homes, amenities, schools, transportation, restaurants etc.

The plebes live in the “plebelands” which is basically everywhere else that’s both live able and that’s not a corporate compound. Primarily these are Northern east coast and Midwest regions as most of the west coast is underwater and the south is scorched from global warming.

Most industry is driven by genetic science that works to prolong life, splice animals for products and food, and enhance the power of the corporations over the populace. As a result there are strange splices like Pigoons (human and pig), Rakunks (raccoon and skunk), and Wolvogs (wolves that look like domestic dogs). These have various uses like organ harvesting (Pigoons), and defense (cute wolvogs that act like feral wolves). Most of the combinations are hilarious, and at the same time disgustingly realistic.

Generally speaking this is a post-apocalyptic story that jumps around from before, during, and after what comes to be known as the Waterless Flood. By using flashbacks and interrelated character arcs we learn across the three novels how each character effected and experienced the pandemic that has destroyed most of humanity.

The first book is called Oryx and Crake and tells the story of Jimmy (Snowman the Jimmy) as he rummages around the aftermath of the collapse of civilization. His only companions are a strange naked genetically engineered people known as “Crakers” who are non-violent and have been engineered to replace Homo sapiens. They are so very funny and childlike, as the novels roll on that you are at once reviled by them and rooting for them.

Opening post “flood” with Jimmy naked and destitute trying to forage for booze, you learn that humanity is completely destroyed

by a virus created and unleashed by Crake that leaves Jimmy as the only person alive besides the “Crakers” or “Children of Crake. Jimmy has become a “god” to them and he loyally (but somewhat schizophrenically) creates a mythology for them to frame their “innocent” reality tunnel. All for a bit of fish.

He fights for survival to find food and weaponry and the novel ends with us discovering other people have survived.

The second book is called The Year of the Flood and centers on the recollections of key members of the cult called God’s Gardeners. This cult is simply nature based and eats no meat – relying upon old world survival knowledge of herbs and honey cultivation. They live an acetic life and learn combat and survival techniques as life in the plebelands is dangerous and crime ridden.

We learn that Crake was an evil genius that worked the Gardeners to learn more about his father’s death which ultimately resulted in his nihilism and his release of the pandemic known as the “waterless flood.” This group survives the pandemic and is found by Snowman the Jimmy and meets the Crakers.

In the last and final book titled MaddAddam (an obvious palindrome on the name Adam) it becomes clear why the God’s Gardeners held their anarchist philosophy and also how they knew of the coming of the flood.

The characters are so endearing that by the end they seem real. The pacing is touchy and a little academic for some tastes, but it can’t be denied that Atwood is at the top of her game and that the issues she’s raising are luridly strong stuff even for the modern stomach.

I’d definitely give this one a Fresh and we’ll see what HBO can do with it.

Matt Cowart