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The first Margaret Atwood book I ever read was “Cat’s Eye.” I was a senior in high school, a huge reader, and yet I hated being forced to read books for school. “Cat’s Eye” was one of the first required reading books that I fully embraced and adored.
I previously caught snippets of “The Handmaid’s Tale” movie on TV, but had no idea that it was based on a book written by Atwood. Years later, I picked up the radical dystopian novel about a future America run by religious fundamentalists. Thus began my love for Atwood.
Atwood writes dystopian novels, and among her best, “The MaddAddam” trilogy (coming soon to HBO) is one of the strangest, most compelling series I’ve ever read. When Atwood began releasing a new series as E-books, I was immediately intrigued.
However, I never ended up reading the new books. They were released in four parts, as short novellas from 2012-13 and for whatever reason, I never got into it, until I learned that Atwood reworked the shorts into a cohesive novel which was published this fall.
“The Heart Goes Last” is the reworked novel. Its themes are familiar to anyone who has read Atwood’s dystopian work previously: destruction of society, a new social order, technology run rampant, etc. However, compared to the bleaker “Handmaid’s Tale” and “MaddAddam,” “The Heart Goes Last” is more darkly comic.
The story follows Stan and Charmaine, a married couple down on their luck. After a financial crash in the Northeast, Stan is out of a job and Charmaine is struggling to make ends meet as a waitress. They are living out of their car, fearful every night for their lives as scavengers and vandals roam the landscape.
Charmaine learns about a new town called Consilience, which is welcoming applicants. Safely barricaded from the ravaged outside world, the town promises residents a chance to restart their lives in safety. While we never see Charmaine convince Stan to try their luck in Consilience, the couple ends up on a bus there, despite warnings from Stan’s neerdowell brother, Conor.
At first, the town is everything they hoped it would be. Secure behind the high walls, the couple is moved into a lovely home (everything is modeled after a 1950’s town from the houses to entertainment – Doris Day’s music is regularly played). So what’s the catch? Sure, they can never leave, but why would they want to?
They learn they are part of a new social experiment. The town contains a large prison called Positron. Every other month, residents give up their homes and move into the prison where they undertake new jobs. Meanwhile, prisoners are moved into their houses as alternates. And yet, even this is tolerable, because the hardcore criminals have disappeared and regular citizens become the alternates. The idea is that everyone has a job: whether they’re on the inside or the outside.
Charmaine’s job on the outside is innocent: she works in the town’s bakery. On the inside she is charged with administering lethal injections to men for committing crimes of which she knows nothing. She doesn’t balk at her responsibility; she faces each job with a sunny disposition and comforting manner.
Stan, on the outside, repairs scooters, the town’s main mode of transportation. Inside, he cares for the town’s chicken population (and sometimes acts as a pimp to men who are desperate enough to seek “comfort” in the livestock).
The couple starts to grow apart. Breaking the town’s rules, Charmaine falls into an intense love affair with Max, her alternate, the man who lives in her house with his wife when she is in prison. They are only able to meet on “switchover” days, which she longs for.
Stan knows nothing of the affair, but when he finds a note reading “I’m starved for you” that is marked with a fuchsia lipstick kiss, he too begins to stray from his marital bonds.
The affair launches both Stan and Charmaine into the real inner workings of the town. Stan gets drafted into working for a group who wants to bring Consilience down, while Charmaine attracts the dangerous attention of the town’s leader.
Both characters find themselves doing things they never would have in their quest to reunite with each other. Sex fetishes and obsessions play more of a role in this novel than in Atwood’s previous works. This focus makes the book seem light on plot, but also makes for a quick read.
Fans of Atwood will enjoy this novel, though they may wish for the emotional depth of her previous books. I enjoyed it, but it cannot compare to the “MaddAddam” trilogy or “The Handmaid’s Tale.”
