The Heart Goes Last
Stan and Charmaine are a married couple trying to stay afloat in the midst of an economic and social collapse. Job loss has forced them to live in their car, leaving them vulnerable to roving gangs. They desperately need to turn their situation around - and fast. The Positron Project in the town of Consilience seems to be the answer to their prayers. No one is unemployed and everyone gets a comfortable, clean house to live in... for six months out of the year. On alternating months, residents of Consilience must leave their homes and function as inmates in the Positron prison system. Once their month of service in the prison is completed, they can return to their "civilian" homes.
At first, this doesn't seem like too much of a sacrifice to make in order to have a roof over one's head and food to eat. But when Charmaine becomes romantically involved with the man who lives in their house during the months when she and Stan are in the prison, a series of troubling events unfolds, putting Stan's life in danger. With each passing day, Positron looks less like a prayer answered and more like a chilling prophecy fulfilled.
Review: After an economic collapse, 30-something married couple Stan and Charmaine are forced to live out of their car, trying to avoid vandals and just survive. After seeing an ad on TV for a new community of Positron, they decide to sign up. In Positron, they'll get to live and work for a month in a nice home and on alternate months they got to stay in the Positron jails while another couple takes over their house for a month. Sure it's not ideal but they'll get to eat and have a safe place to sleep. But things become complicated when Charmaine has an affair with one of the alternate residents of her home. On the surface, Positron is reminiscent of a 1950s suburb but it has a dark underbelly of organ trading, sex doll manufacturing, and more.
Margaret Atwood is known for her speculative fiction. Fortunately this novel is far less dark than The Handmaid's Tale and more entertaining and light hearted. However, the novel still speaks to the acts that desperate people are driven to. Stan and Charmaine strike me as an odd couple. While claiming to love each other, they certainly don't act that way. They seem capable of forgiving each other for almost unforgivable acts but yet also holding grudges about small, unspoken grievances. They also largely seemed unrealized to me. Other than Stan's brother and references to Charmaine's grandmother, little is known about them before they wind up living in their car. They seem formless and without loyalty or attachments. Charmaine in particular seems morally fraught and sort of grating. Interestingly, it's not when most strained and living in a car that Charmaine acts out but when her life improves and she has access to more luxuries and abilities in Positron that she begins to make questionable choices. She seems lacking in any sort of empathy or moral code.
This novel was entertaining and an interesting exploration of life after economic collapse. The plot of this book is full of character, including everything from Elvis impersonators, sexual escapades, and hidden plots. However, it was far from my favorite of Atwood's novels and I found myself questioning the purpose of some plot points. Well written and thought provoking as ever, it was an entertaining while sometimes bizarre read.
Stars: 3
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