Description:
Margaret Atwood follows up “I’m Starved for You” with another novella, to be part of her “Positron” series. The description and review may contain *spoilers.*
In this second, steamy episode of the new Byliner Serial “Positron,” the Booker Prize–winning Margaret Atwood picks up where she left off in her dystopian dark comedy, mining wholly deviant territory where a totalitarian state collides with the chaos of human desire.
“As seamless as a stocking, and shockingly believable” is how the “Globe and Mail” describes “I’m Starved for You,” the first installment of “Positron.” In this new episode, the stocking comes off, with husband and wife Stan and Charmaine facing more troubles in safe but carefully controlled Consilience, a social experiment in which the lawful are locked up and, beyond the gates, criminals roam the wasteland that is the America of Margaret Atwood’s creepily plausible near future.
Stan understands the Faustian deal he and his wife have made. What he doesn’t anticipate is the stupefying boredom. What wakes him? An illicit lover’s note written by a mysterious woman who also lives in Consilience. Breaking the rules, he stalks her and is delivered not into the arms of the nympho of his dreams but into a nightmare of mind games and some very kinky forced labor.
In the world of “Choke Collar,” when you surrender your civil liberties, you enter a funhouse of someone else’s making. Stay tuned as the episodes of Atwood’s futuristic thriller “Positron” are released, and discover if anyone can overcome the greatest treachery of all—human nature.
Review:
Yes! Another Atwood novella! I started noshing on this as soon as it came out. Here are my thoughts:
1. This book is actually better than the first book and chuck full of Atwood staples.
Perhaps Atwood was simply testing the waters with the first episode “I’m Starved for You.” Now her writing is honed. She masterfully ties together the threads from “Starved” into new themes in the second book. Atwood makes it seem effortless.
These themes include power in gender roles, the corruption of authority, sex as weapon, and the futility of being a good girl.
2. More books mean more twists.
Atwood builds upon the characters from “I’m Starved” by revealing new sides. She also builds upon the setting by adding new intrigue, new threats, and new challenges.
I didn’t forsee any of this. Especially not the kinky sex scenes, oh my! Poor Stan.
3. These novellas are potent and easy to read.
The Handmaid’s Tale is a short and sweet classic. Readers who loved it may have trouble finishing some of Margaret Atwood’s longer novels such as Cat’s Eye or Alias Grace.
The Positron Series would be an excellent follow up read to The Handmaid’s Tale. It’s very accessible.
Well, as long as you are ok with the aforementioned weird sex. You don’t have to like it– Stan didn’t.
4. Margaret Atwood is a genius to serialize short stories this way.
For the present, most people desire longer ebooks than shorter. But if great writers like Atwood use the form to showcase their page turning scenes, maybe readers will get hooked. I’m sure all writers would be grateful to wean readers off of full length books for .99 cents or less.
Personally I was happy to drop $2.99 the day “Choke Collar” came out, and will most certainly buy the next episode. If more of my favorite writers started to offer stories this way, I bet I would eat them up. And I’d feel fully satisfied. I’d pay more for frequent installments that I can easily read in my busy life. (George R R Martin? please? your books are so long and infrequent.)
