By Megan Thomas
What about NB Magazine? It was such a privilege to review Margaret Atwood’s novel for the latest issue of NB and I’ve loved reading the reviews from fellow contributors.
Here are a few snippets from my review but I highly recommend you get either a copy of nb or go the Full Monty (… and get a subscription to the magazine):
“As one might come to expect with an Atwood novel, particularly when we look at how poignant The Handmaid’s Tale is today despite its 1985 publication date, The Heart Goes Last achieves a picture of both dystopian hell and a slice of modern life. […] Enter Stan and Charmaine. Life for them was once ordinary […]. Yet, when we meet them, they’re living in their car, scared for their lives, living hand-to-mouth. […] And so, an advertisement for applications to the Positron Project in the town of Consilience is very appealing.”
The system appears to be simple at Consilience – successful applicants are given a house and a life they could never have achieved on the outside. In exchange, they spend a month-on/month-off in Positron Prison. In the alternate months, Alternates leave the prison and enter the home. Half the housing, free prison labour, suburban utopia? As if…
Funny and thought-provoking, I devoured this novel over a weekend. I think the speed of absorbing a (frankly quite ambitious) density of information only added to the reading experience. I’ll be reading every Atwood featured in the magazine’s spotlight, and then the rest once I’m done.
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