"When the Waterless Waters rise, Adam One used to say, the people will try to save themselves from drowning. They will clutch at any straw. Be sure you are not that straw, my Friends, for if you are clutched or even touched, you too will drown."
After a difficult start in although with an already detailed universe Oryx and Crake, The Year of The Flood establishes itself as the best novel in the MaddAddam trilogy and one of the most compelling works from Margaret Atwood. This book goes beyond genetics and science. It's a book about human kind, beliefs and religion.
PLOT
This book focuses on the fates of those inhabiting the pleeblands (places not protected by big corporations, the general population, working class people), specifically, it focuses on Toby and Ren.
Toby is trapped in the AnooYoo facility (a sort of beauty shop) while Ren is locked up in Scales and Tails (a brothel). Their stories are slowly unfolded as they do their best to survive the catastrophe originated in Oryx and Crake.
Toby strives to survive in the pleeblands after her parents' decease (tacitly insinuating that it was the fault of a pharmaceutical company), she is hired in the restaurant Secret Burgers, and her boss, Blanco, starts to harass her. She knows other girls have been killed by this psychotic man. She joins the God's Gardeners, a cult that technically saves her life.
She has always considered the God's gardener as weird because of their clothing and strange customs. They anticipate a big catastrophe that will take place in the near future, The Waterless Flood, a moment of crisis where mother nature will finally unleash its rage against human kind. Toby must pretend to share their beliefs but she also realizes that no matter how crazy or deranged they might act or seem, they are truly kind-hearted, and they are the only ones who speak against the big corporations that are polluting the environment and slowly killing people with their beauty products and medicine. Toby learns through them not to trust any pill but to rely on natural medicine to cure illnesses.
When Blanco finds her, she must run away. With the help of Adam One (the leader of the God's Gardeners) and Zeb (her love interest), she changes her identity and works at AnooYoo (A New You?). The chaos hits and thanks to the practices she learnt throughout the years, she survives with her supply of plants and her own ararat.
Ren did not live in the pleeblands. Her mother, Lucerne, had an affair with Zeb and they left the compound where they used to live. She was raised among the God's Gardeners, but when the group separates, she goes to Scales and Tails to work as an exotic dancer/ prostitute. She gets caught in a biohazard containment chamber that fortunately had enough food to help her survive. The problem is that as the novel opens, Ren realizes she must get out: food is running out, but the chamber is locked up and there is no way for her to escape.
Ren and Toby finally meet. They get help from Oryx and Crake's protagonist, Jimmy, who approaches the group with his gun just as Blanco and his gang had kidnapped Amanda, Ren's best friend.
STRUCTURE
The novel has one of the most complex and daring structures. The titles are based on the holidays that people from this unorthodox cult have created such as Creation Day, April Fish, Pollination Day, etc. The narrative has the following format:
1. A chant from The God's Gardener Oral Hymnbook (poetry at its finest by Mrs. Atwood).
2. Toby's perspective (third person narrator)
3. Ren's perspective (first person narrator)
4. Gospel by Adam One.
Toby and Ren's narratives use constant flashback to explain their current situation and their narratives converge when they meet once again.
THEMES
The influence of religion, oral tradition and solidarity are the main topics of the book. Religion is the topic that is developed on this wonderful tale through the chants and Adam One's gospel which is excessively witty and deserves consideration on what we are doing to our nature.
Several famous and not so famous figures that fought for human peace or ecology are also mentioned throughout the book. It's an excellent homage for their contributions to the world.
ABOUT THE ENDING:
It was a glorious ending considering the hopeless ending of Oryx and Crake. This book helped redeem the trilogy and provides us with one of the best characters ever created: Toby.
CHARACTER: 7/10 (I loved Toby's character but I disliked Ren)
PLOT DEVELOPMENT: 8/10
THEMES: 10/10
GRADE: Good
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