3 out of 5 stars
Another creative and suspenseful take on a dystopian future by Margaret Atwood. I found this to be...I dunno, a little less sophisticated than Atwood's usual work what with the somewhat caricature-ish players, stereotypical villain, and even Elvis impersonator hi-jinx (in Vegas even), but overall, this is a good read and definitely something different.
Set after a global economic meltdown, Stan and Charmaine are living in their car and struggling to survive, though Stan hasn't yet resorted to teaming up with his seemingly criminal brother, and Charmaine isn't yet turning tricks at the bar where she works. Then they see an ad about the Positron Project, where you're given pretty much everything you need from employment to housing with high thread-count sheets in a seemingly self-sustaining community as long as you "serve time" every other month in the town's prison. As a prisoner. Doing time for no actual crime, but it's the notion of the for-profit prison that fuels the local economy. During your prison months, another family/couple/person lives in your home. What could possibly go wrong?
Well, lots, of course, and that's the adventure/horror/humor of the story. In fact, sometimes it's hard to tell if this is a satire, a comedy, or a horror story. It kind of jumps back and forth a bit on the strings of your emotions, and much of what fuels the inevitable downfall is of course greed and a kind of sick sexual force that makes you feel a little ashamed to be of the same race as these bizarro characters.
In fact, I kind of wished I hadn't looked at Atwood's jacket photo before reading, because the juxtaposition of what looks kind of like a grandma's glamour shot gone wrong and the raunchy sex scenes (albeit non gratuitous -- they're an important part of the plot and include chicken rape, robot sex slaves, and brain "adjustments" that can make the object of your desire desire you right back) that she wrote was...unsettling. And now I feel like a jerk, because that was kind of mean but also ironic, I guess, given Atwood's ulterior feminist theme that runs through her books. So go me for irony. It just reminded me of the witch from Princess Bride who maybe got a makeover at Macy's and then had her picture taken. But I digress. The Heart Goes Last is really unique and, of course, as Atwood fans might expect, wonderfully written.
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