**18th book of 2021: How the world ends. **
It’s not difficult to envision childhood trauma and sexual frustration as the shaper of global catastrophe. After all, men with childhood trauma and issues with women are the ones who already nearly ended the world. (see: One Minute to Midnight ) Once the wrong fires are lit, * “[t]he whole world now, one vast uncontrolled experiment . . . and the doctrine of unintended consequences is in full spate” *
Atwood’s telling of the fall of man starts and ends intertwined trauma and violence. Snowman both participates in and is outraged by the exploits of fellow men, but ends as a pawn of his own desires. Crake’s new humans serve as a foil to the evil resulting from humanity’s sexual desires, but also demonstrate the ultimate cost to erase such bugs in our programming.
Parts of the plot were creaky, such as the unidimensional corporatists vs. environmentalists and a doomsday scheme more worthy of the next Kingsman movie than a book, but the human element resonated in an uncomfortable way.
Similar to: Wool, Windup Girl