Play Book Tag discussion

The Heart Goes Last – Margaret Atwood
Digital audiobook performed by Cassandra Campbell and Mark Deakins.
4****

In a country facing economic and social collapse, Stan and Charmaine struggle to hold onto their love and their marriage. Having lost their jobs, they wind up living in their car, where they are preyed upon by gangs of roving thugs. Stan’s about to turn to his brother Conor, who’s some sort of underworld criminal, when Charmaine happens to see an ad on the TV at the bar where she’s a parttime cocktail waitress. The Positron Project promises jobs, clean living conditions, an idyllic environment. Oh, what she wouldn’t give to have a neat little house again, clean clothes, good food, a job where she could actually contribute! The catch? The couples who sign up live in the tidy bungalows only half the year; the other half they switch with another couple who have been in prison. It’s a win-win situation, the ad promises. But, of course, promises are cheap, reality costly.

Damn but Atwood is a fine writer! I love how she shows us this young couple , their dreams and ambitions revealed through their actions. They make mistakes, as we all do, and they become desperate to change their circumstances. Can they find the strength to pull together? They trusted the Positron promise, and look where THAT got them! Dare they trust that there is a way out? Will their love survive?

And what IS love? Is it passion and excitement? Is it devotion and sacrifice without thought to self? Can we choose whom and how to love, or is it an emotion so powerful that we are helpless in its grasp, destined to follow the path laid out before us?

At times the scenarios are quite humorous (the Last Vegas Elvis impersonators are a hoot), and other times I cringed with embarrassment at Charmaine’s naivete or wanted to warn Stan that “No! that’s not a good idea!” I was as unsure about whom to trust as they were.

Two very talented voice artists perform the audio version. The change in narrator helps to clearly show the changes in point of view.



LINK to my review

Some people thought this book was too weird, but I thought it was fun, the way things get crazier and crazier. I think Atwood must have had fun writing it. The dystopian elements are unfortunately not that unrealistic!