Margaret Atwood once again shows her storytelling genius in this darkly comic dystopian romp.
Stan and Charmaine are the ‘everyman’ couple who are forced to live in their car when the American economy takes a nose dive. They are tempted by a new scheme offering them a home and jobs in a enclosed society in return for being prison inmates every other month.
It all seems great to begin with, until they slowly come to understand that their situation is much more dangerous than they first assumed.
The setting is steeped in both retro nostalgia and menacing futuristic (or is it?) technology. I loved the mix of humour, pathos, tension and character development, and I liked the ending and found it satisfying. (I also like the narrators.)
Sarah Wray Writer 