The Year Of The Flood

The Year Of The Flood
by Margaret Atwood

First published in Great Britain in 2009.

The Year Of The Flood is the second in the post-apocalyptic trilogy by Margaret Atwood which begins with Oryx And Crake and ends with MaddAddam.  The trilogy is set in the future, after a man-made plague has wiped out the majority of humans and left only a few survivors.  I generally enjoy post-apocalyptic books and films, and this was particularly good because it seemed like a realistic possibility.  The characters talk about how mankind was using up the Earth's resources without thinking of the consequences, and seemed fitting for today's 'global warming' society.  Thunderstorms are a daily occurrence and people have to be fully covered to protect from the fierce midday sun.

Oryx And Crake focuses on one of these men, who calls himself Snowman and looks after a group of man-made people called the Crakers.  The Year Of The Flood is set alongside the first book, but is about two woman called Ren and Toby who have both (seperately) survived the plague.

The story alternates chapters about each of the women and includes flashbacks to give us more detail about the so called 'Waterless Flood' and God's Gardeners - a group of humans who were self-sufficient and believed that one day mankind would ruin itself.  Both Ren and Toby were in the Gardeners and use a lot of their foraging and recycling skills to survive.

Ren is trapped in the upmarket sex club where she worked as a dancer and is slowly running out of food.  Whilst waiting for her friend Amanda to reach her, she tells us about her life with the Gardeners and how she ended up working in the club.  Toby is older and has managed to survive in the AnooYoo spa.  She reveals how she came to live with the Gardeners and her life before the 'Waterless Flood'.

I definitely preferred Toby to Ren, mainly because Toby is older and I could relate to her more.  Ren is quite needy, which is expected for her age, especially in the post-apocalyptic situation she finds herself in, but I just wanted to see her try to do more to ensure her survival.  When Amanda finds her they spend an evening drinking champagne and doing their nails.  This made me smile in a sad way because I could imagine two teenagers doing this and trying to hold on to their old lives.

Toby is very practical.  She doesn't show emotion and just gets on with what needs to be done.  She is a strong woman but clearly has thoughts about what might eventually happen to her.  I would find it difficult to carry on as she does, living alone and surviving day-to-day with just a belief that things will get better, but I found this true to her character and well written.

The writing is a bit difficult to get into and I had to keep track of which year I was reading about.  After getting into the book I felt that it worked well to have the long flashbacks as it gave a lot of detail and answers.

This book is great in that it made me think about how we live and how we don't always think too far into the future.  As much as the book is fictional and the plague is man-made, a lot of the smaller details seem possible, which is one of Atwood's great skills.

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Neither Here Not There - Travels In Europe

Neither Here Nor There - Travels In Europe
by Bill Bryson

First published in Great Britain in 1991.

Having just returned from a holiday I felt this was a fitting book to review.  I don't read many travel books, aside from a bit of a guidebook to wherever I'm going, but I think Bill Bryson is brilliant (oh I love alliteration).  His books are hilarious - I often laugh out loud while reading - but also interesting.  Bryson has written books about history, science and language plus a memoir.  I haven't read these but if they're anything like his travel writing they'll be excellent.

Neither Here Nor There is about Bryson's travels around Europe by train.  He went when he was a young man and fifteen years later decides to go again.  This book is written from Bryson's point of view and he compares his trips as he travels.

This book is great because of Bryson's chatty writing.  At times he goes on little rants, but includes interesting facts which keeps it relevant.  As I read it I can easily imagine him sat opposite me on a train, trundling through some fantastic European countryside, telling me his tales of adventure (being pick-pocketed in Florence is particularly well told).
Bryson travelled without the use of the internet and simply jumped off a train in a city and searched for a hotel on arrival, with varying results.  It makes me glad that I can research trips thoroughly in advance but does put that adventurous spark in my mind every time I read this book.

The book is split into chapters with one for each city.  These are listed at the front so you can dip in and out or read it all.  As the book was published twenty-three years ago it's not a particularly useful guidebook as a lot of the information isn't valid anymore (he visits Yugoslavia, for example), but to me this adds charm and interest to the stories; I love seeing how things have changed when I go to the places he went.  It also adds a sense of history and of a not-so-distant past that at times seems quite unimaginable now.

For me, the ending sums up exactly how I feel at the end of a holiday.  Bryson is in Istanbul and has the sudden urge to keep going and go to Asia.  Naturally, reality intervenes and he decides to go home instead, but I could really relate to wanting to never go back to your everyday life.  Ofcourse if you did this then 'holiday' would become your everyday life, but I digress (maybe this is why I like Bryson so much - the sometimes random tangents he goes off on).

Bryson has written about nearly every continent, and I would recommend that you all at least read the book that is about yours.  'Notes From A Small Island' and 'Down Under' are particularly good.  I warn you, he will make you want to jump on the next plane/train/boat and see the world.