The Year of the Flood (1-156)

Anyone miss me? Well I’m back with some more blog posts for a new book, The Year of the Flood. Set in a dystopian world where corruption, rape and murder is everywhere, we learn of this world through the eyes of our two protagonists, Toby and Ren. So far, I have found this book extremely entertaining. I don’t think I’ve quite read anything like it so far and would definitely recommend it to anyone interested.

Although I am finding the concepts presented in this book very interesting, I doubt I’m the only one who found it very confusing at first. Anyone remember The Other Side of the Bridge and how it kept switching between the perspective of two characters? Now imagine that, but with two characters that jump between the past and present as well. It did, however, start making much more sense when I realized this is what was happening.

Death. If there was one main, recurring event throughout the first section of the book, it had to be death. Honestly, this first part of the Right off the bat, we learn that almost everyone in the world has died from an unknown virus called the “waterless flood”. “There still is life, however. Birds chirp; sparrows, they must be. Their small voices are clear and sharp, nails on glass: there’s no longer any sound of traffic to drown them out” (Atwood 1). Not just this, death continues to repeat itself throughout the novel. We learn that Toby’s mother had been poisoned by a large pharmaceutical company, causing her father to commit suicide. The idea of death leads me to the another huge part of the novel, the “SecretBurgers”.

The SecretBurgers are a fast-food chain that truly symbolizes this dystopian world. “The Secret of the SecretBurgers was that no one knew what sort of animal protein was actually in them” (Atwood 33). There’s no surprise when we later learn that humans are in fact used in these burgers. Specifically, people from the slums are hunted down where others would not notice if they disappeared. The CorpSeCorps (basically the police in this world) turn a blind eye to the questionable acts of the SecretBurgers employees. Even more questionably, people still eat these burgers either way. It's like this messed up world's equivalent of McDonald's...

Up until now, Toby’s life had just been a huge mess. Everything was fine until her parents both passed away, leaving her to fend for herself. When she finally finds a job at SecretBurgers, her manager Blanco is a sociopath. With his large physique earned from working as a bouncer, Blanco sexually and physically assaults many of his female employees, where Toby is no exception. You can’t help but feel bad for Toby. Despite being a good person herself, there’s nothing going well for her, nothing to look forward to. However, this changes when Adam One arrives.

Adam One is the leader of a cult-like religious group known as God’s Gardeners. This group follows religious beliefs similar to Christianity, yet also pursues other ideologies such as veganism and preserving the environment. Essentially, the God’s Gardeners combine religion with science to form a new belief. Adam One saves Toby from Blanco and takes her under his wing. In my opinion, this group is very interesting. Although I’m not religious myself, the combination of scripture and nature to pursue a new ideology is surely fascinating.

An interview with Margaret Atwood and her reasoning behind the God's Gardeners.

One contrasting difference between Christianity and this new cult’s beliefs demonstrated is sex. When Mugi sexually attacks and violates Toby, Pilar says the following. “The ancient Australopithecus can come out in all of us. You must forgive him in your heart. He won’t do it again, you’ll see” (Atwood 104). Whereas sex is traditionally strictly forbidden in Christianity (until marriage at least), the God’s Gardeners acknowledge that sex is a primal instinct. I found it very interesting that although this new religion follows traditional beliefs, they still acknowledge human flaws and that nobody is perfect.

Even in such a gruesome, apocalyptic setting, Atwood really throws in a lot of elements from our modern lives as well, although perhaps maybe exaggerated... a lot. Overall, I can't wait to see what new ideas she throws in to this already great book. What do you guys think?

Works Cited

Tojo, Catarina Fialho. “Up Above The World.” Up Above The World, 14 Jan. 2015, upabovetheworldtoday.blogspot.ca/.

Mary Lawson (Author). “The Other Side of the Bridge: Mary Lawson: 9780676977479: Books.” The Other Side of the Bridge: Mary Lawson: 9780676977479: Books - Amazon.Ca, www.amazon.ca/Other-Side-Bridge-Mary-Lawson/dp/0676977472.

“Platform Capitalism.” Novara Media, 20 Jan. 2017, novaramedia.com/2017/01/20/platform-capitalism/.

Giphy. “I Give Up GIF.” GIPHY, GIPHY, 9 Nov. 2017, giphy.com/gifs/depression-i-give-up-drugs-CjnbPJFhro9lS.

“HOMÍNIDOS timeline.” Timetoast, www.timetoast.com/timelines/hominidos-5d84d47d-91ee-41f2-bf5a-5425bf0b92f5.