Freya's Nook: The Heart Goes Last

The Heart Goes Last is the second of Atwood's novels that I've read, the first being The Handmaid's Tale. As with the first, I read this one quickly, completely gripped by the story, and having just finished it now, I wanted to get my thoughts down fresh.

Another story built on a dystopian world, a little like George Orwell's 1984, I knew I was going to love it, as I find this style of writing, although haunting and chilling, also totally thrilling.

The premise of Atwood's book is that the world is somehow failing; unemployment is high, people are losing their homes and gang violence and rape are taking over. A new experimental project is starting up, called the Positron Project, where you can sign yourself into a community called Consilience (= cons + resilience), thereby cutting off all your connections to the 'outside world', with the promise of something much better; jobs and security. The idea is that within this community everybody lives alternate months in prison - one month of freedom, one month imprisonment, but life is good wherever you are and there is not much difference between your freedom and your imprisonment.

If you weren't already doubtful about the experiment, things certainly get more creepy when we read about the job of one of the main characters, that she is given in the project, known as The Procedure, in which she has to administer the lethal injection to other inhabitants. This is just the first bump on a very weird road.

Atwood explores many themes in this novel; sexual corruption is central throughout, and this can be difficult to read at times. There is also another important theme that crops up throughout the book; after the world we know has become uninhabitable, the Positron Project reverts back to a lifestyle that is almost reminiscent of 1950s in America - it's the idea that after all of our mistakes, the only solution is just to go back in time and start again.

A very poignant moment happens near the end of the book, when (without giving away spoilers) Atwood describes the full harshness of the experiment: all of the corruption and secret atrocities that go on and the question of how politicians could ever let this happen. I find it ironic that actually these feelings are very acute today in and about our world, which isn't made up or an experiment. Atwood brings into question our own politics and how we are dealing with our society, and I think this makes the book extremely current to read now.

Atwood also makes us question, who really are the bad guys here? What is right and what is wrong? Perhaps the reason a story like this is so haunting to read is because it really is very close to our reality, and an experiment like this is something that you could imagine happening - maybe the question is not even IF it will happen, but WHEN.

There is no doubt that here are some dark themes and questions, but in my opinion any book that makes you really think about and question things is a good one, one that is important to read and really worth reading.