Review: The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood

There are a few authors whose new books I read no matter what—Margaret Atwood is one of them. So I picked up The Year of the Flood without reading any descriptions or reviews. I didn’t even read the inside flap before I read the book.

There seem to be a lot of post-apocalyptic movies and books coming out now, and Atwood’s version was pretty timely with the h1n1 scare. Her “flood” was a waterless flood—a pandemic that wipes out most of the human race. She follows the stories of two survivors and the events that led to their isolation when the sickness broke out and killed almost everyone else in the world.

Based on its title, The Year of the Flood, I was surprised at how little of the book was actually spent on the year of the flood. The flood was in year twenty-five by someone’s reckoning and much of the book was spent on the years leading up to it. The back story was interesting and much of it was needed to understand the characters during the year of the flood, but I expected more flood.

I often wonder if an established author’s later books would have been published if they were an unknown writer. I loved Vonnegut’s last book, even though it was the rantings of a cranky old man, because I loved Vonnegut himself. I wonder if I would have even finished Atwood’s latest book if it wasn’t Margaret Atwood.

My official opinion on The Year of the Flood: it was weird. Honestly, I don’t know what happened in the end. It just stopped. I wasn’t sure if Atwood meant for it to be hopeful or despairing. Maybe she was leaving it up to her readers to decide, but I wanted to know what she and her characters thought. If you’ve never read Margaret Atwood, don’t read this book. Start with The Handmaid’s Tale. And if you’re a Margaret Atwood fan, I guess you’re like me and you have to read The Year of the Flood. No matter how baffled it leaves you.

The Year of the Flood
By Margaret Atwood
Doubleday, 2009
$26.95

My List

When Johnny Cash’s daughter, Rosanne Cash, told him that she wanted to be a country singer, he gave her a list of 100 essential songs to listen to as she began her career. An NPR article about her new album called “The List” asked readers to post a list of essential songs they would leave to their children.

I love music, but only in the way that everyone loves music. I am by no means a musician and have no great attachments to a list of songs. Some people I know would be appalled at this, but I listen to music for the words more than the tune. (Which is why I love Tori Amos, Dar Williams, and Ben Harper. Their songs tell stories.)

But I do have a list of literature that I want to pass down to my children. I could make my own top 100 list if I took the time, but that would really be self-indulgent. So here’s a list of the first few books that came to mind:

Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson
Holy the Firm by Annie Dillard
Long Day’s Journey Into Night by Eugene O’Neill
Complete Poems by Emily Dickinson
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
Proof by David Auburn
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Matilda by Roald Dahl
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy
The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
Ariel by Sylvia Plath
A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf
Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak

I feel that these are all great works of literature. But more than that, I read them at a time when they deeply touched me and have stayed with me. It’s like a song that brings you back to a certain time or experience. I remember what was happening in my life when I read each of these books for the first time and how they carried me through the difficult times. Maybe I’ll take the time to write about my experiences with some of these books.

But for now, what interests me is: What’s on your “list”? Is it made up of books or songs or something completely different?