Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood (6 points)

After reading Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake, I described it as "the COVID-19 conspiracy theory that my grandpa sent me on crack." The shocking similarity to our current state, and the outcome of the book attributing itself to the worst parts of capitalism made it all the more hard for me to digest the novel. I personally did not enjoy it for mostly that reason, but looking at it from an objective standpoint has shown me that Oryx and Crake is a very well-written commentary on many things in our current society. Going in, I had a feeling that I would be reading something on the more literary side masked by a very specific type of genre writing; I was already familiar with Atwood's style due to having read The Handmaid's Tale.

When picking a novel, I usually go for something on the more genre fiction side. I enjoy escaping into tales of possible futures, odd worlds, adventures beyond my wildest dreams; it is just that, an escape from our current lives and a form of entertainment for myself. Literary fiction has bogged me down in past experiences, although intriguing enough to make me think for a good while after finishing it. It asks me to evaluate our real world and to compare it to what the author is trying to get across under the plot and the characters. For this reason, I do think it's good to differentiate between the two, but it is extremely common for them to overlap, as I feel Oryx and Crake does. Especially in this time, it's important to me to understand the context of what I am reading and how I should be digesting it. 

Reading Oryx and Crake under the impression that it is genre fiction makes it just a rather depressing story. In fact, I think it would make a pretty bad purely genre-fiction novel. However, understanding that it is literary fiction buried underneath this post-apocalyptic genre and actively making the connections between Atwood's writing and the real world elevate it to another level. I think Atwood did a great job of analyzing today's issues with capitalism, sex trafficking, and fears of the pharmaceutical industry and putting them in a context that's easier for a reader to digest. And therefore, Oryx and Crake is a great piece of literary fiction, with some genre thrown in to keep the reader hooked on the plot.