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"Margaret Atwood puts the human heart to the ultimate test in an utterly brilliant new novel that is as visionary as The Handmaid's Tale and as richly imagined as The Blind Assassin. Stan and Charmaine are a married couple trying to stay afloat in the midst of an economic and social collapse. Job loss has forced them to live in their car, leaving them vulnerable to roving gangs. They desperately need to turn their situation around and fast. The Positron Project in the town of Consilience seems to be the answer to their prayers. No one is unemployed and everyone gets a comfortable, clean house to live in. for six months out of the year. On alternating months, residents of Consilience must leave their homes and function as inmates in the Positron prison system. Once their month of service in the prison is completed, they can return to their "civilian" homes. At first, this doesn't seem like too much of a sacrifice to make in order to have a roof over one's head and food to eat. But when Charmaine becomes romantically involved with the man who lives in their house during the months when she and Stan are in the prison, a series of troubling events unfolds, putting Stan's life in danger. With each passing day, Positron looks less like a prayer answered and more like a chilling prophecy fulfilled"--… (more)
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I settled in... I drank up the first few chapters. Dystopian world. Sure, it's been done SO MUCH lately, but Atwood is one of the original masters, and the world created for THE HEART GOES LAST seems so much more plausible than any others I've read recently. *Plus* it's Margaret-freaking-Atwood so the writing is just so good!
And then the book continues. And then I have to force myself to keep reading it. And I realize that I don't like any of the characters. That's not a deal-breaker for me. I don't have to like everyone if there's a great plot, good writing, and it's a book that makes me think. I slog on...
But then I STILL have to force myself to read it. The plot becomes transparent. I don't really think about anything in the book (although I'm sure there's a message there because it's Margaret-freaking-Atwood) because it's all so ridiculous. As I read, I just keep rolling my eyes and sighing like a teenager subjected to the company of undesirables.
Then the book ends in a completely predictable yet unsatisfying manner.
I'm so disappointed.
My thanks to NetGalley for an advance copy of the ebook in exchange for my unbiased review.
At the beginning of the novel they’re living out of their car, having lost their jobs and their home after yet another financial crisis. Life is bleak and frightening, but they are offered a chance of escape. A prison has long been seen as the saviour of a deprived community, bringing with it secure and well-paid jobs. Consilience is an innovation. If prisons needs communities and communities need prisons, why not have a place where people are both? One month inmate, the next citizen. The only catch, they have to sign up for life, and once in, there is no way out.
In Consilience, Stan and Charmaine get to live every other month in a pastel, idealised, 1950s kind of a world, drenched in the positive thinking of modern corporate life (‘Shout out for the Brussels Sprouts team!’). Stan and Charmaine are safe and well fed and happy to play by the rules. And yet –
This book is bright and fast and funny but behind the humour it’s bursting with ideas. And that title. What a great title.
Goodreads Teaser:Living in their car, surviving on tips, Charmaine and Stan are in a desperate
Margaret Atwood delivers another novel of deep interest and entertainment, which will leave the reader contemplating so many things long after they've put the book down. Stan and Charmaine are you're typical middle-class Americans. At least they used to be until everything fell apart. Watching how they each dealt with the daily pressure of finding themselves adrift in a world they no longer recognize is almost like staring into a mirror out of the corner of your eye. You can imagine yourself in their shoes and wonder how you'd be reacting to their situation.
I found Charmaine to be a slightly annoying ninny. She's constantly quoting her grandmother, and the quotes are all just ridiculous platitudes. She avoids anything dark or depressing, shoving all her bad memories into a place she never ventures. Her perpetually upbeat attitude in the face of extreme uncertainty annoyed me, and left me wondering about her husband Stan since he signed on for a life with this ray of blinding sunshine. Yet Stan was a more relatable character for me. He is more upfront and honest about his thoughts and feelings, even if only to himself. Yet sometimes he overloads and does lash out, which makes sense in the story and helped make him feel more realistic than Charmaine to me.
The pacing and arc of the story was smooth, attesting to Atwood's innate storytelling skills. While this book isn't as clearly dystopian as some of her other stories, it's heading that way, which makes it all the more frightening because what she created feels far to close to real for me. The messed up world she envisioned feels as if it's only a few steps away from where we stand now, and there are so many people ready to step in and create their own personal playground out of the entire world.
Although this tale reads as fiction, it certainly touches on highly charged current events, bringing things to light that engenders serious thought. Despite the fictional aspect of the story this is in many ways a very thought provoking novel, and one that will linger in my mind for some time to come. But then that has always been the case with books by the eminently talented Margaret Atwood.
The premise of the book seems to be that the world has descended into a state of turmoil; all hell has broken loose on the ground with joblessness, poverty, starvation, and lawlessness growing in many cities. However,
A town called Concilience (combining the word convict with resilience) is created by the Positron Project. The establishment of this controlled community will supposedly eliminate civil disobedience and create a better world by providing full employment and equal opportunity. The deterioration of society in certain parts of the country will no longer be an issue with the growth of these cooperative environments. Everyone will be taken care of fairly. In these new communities, residents will spend half their time in the Positron prison and half their time in a luxurious home. An alternate family will share the home and prison cell every other month. Their lives will be completely controlled and all needs will be provided for them. They will be given jobs, one of the three choices they select, and although they will be at the mercy of the administrators for all decisions, there should be no reason to complain. There is one problematic codicil, once they sign on, they may never leave. The environment of the 1950’s was determined to be the most peaceful and comfortable and so everything in this created community is in that style right down to the music and clothing, food and television shows. It seems like a “Leave It To Beaver” perfect world combined with “Father Knows Best”.
In the end, however, some of those who had previously not been tempted to do anything wrong or immoral, were soon tempted to be unfaithful, and they broke the rules, possibly because of the ho hum, boring existence they were forced to endure day after day. In addition, greed somehow reared its ugly head, once again, with some wanting more than they were entitled to and more than they already had. Perhaps a natural consequence of being human is stretching the envelope and tempting fate. This old saying was also in evidence, “absolute power corrupts absolutely”.
In truth, although the imagination of Atwood was still feverishly at work, and she created an unusual narrative, infused with humor, albeit obsessed with a world that wanted nothing more than satisfying sex, it was disappointing. It did make me wonder, though, with all of the stress today, on sex enhancing drugs, and drugs that induce pleasure, are we not, perhaps, going in that direction? Perhaps Margaret Atwood is a visionary once again, as she was in “The Handmaid’s Tale”, with the idea of surrogate mothers. (I hope my remark is tongue in cheek and not a foretelling of the future.) I stuck with the book because of my respect for the author, but the plot seemed implausible and the sexual preoccupation seemed ridiculous. It was hard to take seriously, a woman who falls madly in love with a teddy bear in a medical procedure gone wrong, and Elvis impersonators as spies and vigilantes, simply did not capture my interest.
On the positive side, the character development was very detailed and the narrators were excellent, getting into the character’s heads and playing their roles well. Also, I did not realize that this was part of a series of books, and I did not read the first three, (“I’m Starved For You”, “Choke Collar” and “Erase Me”), so perhaps if I had, I would have had a different reaction.
Every resident has a job both inside and outside of the prison. Stan works in a scooter repair shop in the community and as a chicken farmer inside the prison. Charmaine works in the community bakery on the outside and as Medication Administrator in the prison. Charmaine is so sweet and naive that the bad things she does both in both places were really surprising to me. Yet, I still liked her and even felt sorry for her. Stan, on the other hand, just rubbed me the wrong way even though truly he was mostly the victim in this story.
The atmosphere in this book is a cross between an Orwell novel and The Stepford Wives (which happens to be one of my all-time favorite books). Of course, being an Atwood novel, it reminded me somewhat of The Handmaid’s Tale but in atmosphere only. The Heart Goes On is definitely original and not a repeat of the Handmaid’s Tale. There is more dark humor and I love dark humor when it’s done right.
The last bit of the book involving Elvis impersonators – yes, Elvis impersonators – went a little off the rails for me and is what kept me from giving this book five stars. However, the very ending of the book stunned me. It was the kind of ending that left me thinking about the book for days afterward. This book would make an excellent book club selection for that reason.
I’m a huge Atwood fan and this book did not disappoint.
The Heart Goes Last is about a young couple named Stan and Charmaine. The pair are initially happy and wealthy but they are subsequently hit hard when a financial crisis takes place in their American town. They are forced to live in their car and fight off other people who are also desperately poor. Stan is told he is overqualified for jobs (even though he will accept almost anything, but he does draw the line at engaging in criminal activity with his brother, Conor) and Charmaine makes money as a barmaid. The pair share a grim existence until they happen upon an ad for Consilience.
The term Consilience comes from the combination of “cons” and “resilience”. The pair sign up and think everything will be hunky dory. In exchange for a house and jobs in a tranquil setting reminiscent of some starry-eyed retro period like the 1950s, the pair are forced to give up their freedoms every second month. On the alternate months they – like countless others – will be imprisoned in a gaol while another couple with live in their house. It’s a strange set-up but it’s also a social experiment that is engaging in some more sinister elements.
The novel is a cautionary tale attempting to warn readers to be careful what they wish for. It’s also an excellent social commentary that uses aspects of satire and comedy to riff on an almost real-life existence. In many ways this book is reminiscent of Ben Elton’s “Dead Famous” in its pithy observations of modern life. Atwood is also very clever, witty and unique as she weaves together her beautiful and well-constructed prose.
For many readers, their enjoyment of The Heart Goes Last will hinge upon how much they relate to the main characters and how far they can suspend their disbelief. I sympathised with the characters so much that when things did veer off on some weird tangents in the final act I was still sold and remained along for the ride. In all, Margaret Atwood’s novel is a sharp, fresh and witty look at a very human and insatiable desire for utopia and how this can lead to dystopia, dissatisfaction and an acute sense of modern life being rubbish. This is an utterly original and clever look at all of these things and so much more. Excellent.
Blackest of black humor that had me laughing out loud at points. Atwood pillories men’s objectification of women, commercialization, corporate malfeasance – and average
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Hard to give more than three stars to a farce with literally no likable characters...but worth reading.
The Heart Goes Last opens in a strange new United States, a country whose economic system has so completely collapsed that people consider themselves lucky to have even an old car to find shelter within. Stan and Charmaine, a married couple, are doing exactly that while Stan desperately searches for work and Charmaine brings home a few dollars every day from her dead end job. They are fast running out of money, though, and it is becoming more and more difficult to find a place safe enough to park their car for even a few hours rest because, as little as they have, others want to take it from them.
So when Stan and Charmaine hear that a neighboring town called Consilience is running something called The Positron Project, they eagerly apply for acceptance into the program. And why wouldn’t they? There is a comfortable, clean house for everyone in Consilience and, more importantly, the unemployment rate is zero. Everyone has a job, a warm place to sleep, and plenty of nourishing food. What could be the catch? Well hang on a second.
But even when told that the home and jobs will be theirs only on alternating months of the year, and that when not living in the home they will be prisoners inside Positron Prison, Stan and Charmaine jump at the deal. After all, one month a prisoner, one month a prison administrator, really doesn’t sound that bad to two people in constant danger of being killed in their sleep.
This is the premise of The Heart Goes Last and, as the novel begins, Atwood presents it all in a very serious manner. But about midway through, her story is consumed by infidelity, rather kinky sex that includes lifelike robots to fulfill every sexual fantasy imaginable (think Elvis and Marilyn), and near farcical escapes from the prison. While it is all very amusing and entertaining (as I will be the first to admit), I find myself wishing that Atwood had maintained throughout the novel the more serious tone with which she began it. The result would, I think, have been a much more satisfying novel than the comic satire this one morphed into.
This post-apocalyptic novel is a bit different than the MaddAdam series. This time, the apocalypse is economic. The great recession has turned into full-scale depression, with much of the northeast seeming more like Detroit at its worst. There are few jobs, and a lot
Given this environment, their stinky car (gas provided by Charmaine's part-time bar job), stress, and fear--she and tan pot top move to Positron, a planned walled community. They are given jobs, a house, and take their every-other-month turn as prison inmates. But what is really going on?
Great premise, but gets a little loopy in the end. Buy Atwood even makes loopy seem plausible.