Emily Belsey

I have just finished “reading” a book called Oryx and Crake. And really, it was quite awful. I think, nay, I know the only reason I finished it at all is because it was the only thing keeping me awake at work. You see, I listen to books at work on my iPod Mini (baby blue!) and I listened to this one all the way through, desperately waiting for it to get better. It never did.

What was wrong with it?  Well, for starters, the plot.  Actually, there was no plot, so I don’t know if there were any problems with the plot.  What else?  There was random, gratuitous language and sex talk (bad sex talk, not like learning about the birds and the bees).  It wasn’t really pornographic, but it definitely did not morally edify or uplift.  Then there was the narration.  It was random, jumped around, and was so non-linear I couldn’t even tell where things were going.

So if wading though all this crap wasn’t enough, THERE’S NO FREAKIN’ ENDING!!!!  Ya, just like that, she just ends the book.  Leaves it open-ended, forcing the reader to do all the work and divine and ending from “It’s zero hour, Jimmy.”  Maybe if this book had any sort of character development, we readers might be able to imagine some sort of future action by Jimmy/Snowman.  But because there is NO character development, all I could do was scowl my fiercest scowl and grumble about the laziness of the writer who didn’t give the reader an ending when they most deserved one.

But perhaps even more serious than my inability to devise an ending for Jimmy/Snowman was my complete lack of caring.  I simply didn’t care what the heck Jimmy/Snowman (really, a character with two names?!?) did.  Still don’t.

Basically, stay away from this book.  Had I heeded my own advice, I would not have wasted precious hours and brain cells reading this book.  I actually feel a bit stupid now, as if reading this book killed brain cells.

But don’t worry about me.  Luckily, there is an antidote for horrible literature and it is, obviously, great literature.  I have since moved on to a guaranteed classic, The Brothers Karamazov.  I just hope I can make it all the way through it this time.  Wish me luck!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 29th, 2006 at 10:45 pm and is filed under Updates. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.