The Heart Goes Last, Margaret Atwood
The Heart Goes Last, Margaret Atwood
10 Rating(s)
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The Heart Goes Last

Author: Margaret Atwood

Narrator: Cassandra Campbell, Mark Deakins

Unabridged: 12 hr 11 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 09/29/2015


Synopsis

Margaret Atwood puts the human heart to the ultimate test in an utterly brilliant new novel that is as visionary as The Handmaid's Tale and as richly imagined as The Blind Assassin.

     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.

About Margaret Atwood

It seems as though some people carry out their interests in many ways. Such has been the life of Canadian born Margaret Atwood. For someone who did not begin school until the age of 12, Atwood became an avid reader, which probably encouraged her development of varied interests. She identifies as a poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, inventor, teacher, and environmental activist. I doubt that spare time is in her agenda.

Beginning in 1961, Atwood has published 18 poetry collections, 18 novels, 11 non-fiction books, short fiction writings, two graphic novels, and various other smaller writings, both fiction and non-fiction. She has received several awards for her writings, with some of her works having been adapted for television and film. Those works increased her public exposure even more.

Atwood was married twice, divorced from one husband, and lost her second husband in 2019, after his unfortunate struggle with dimentia. The family, Atwood and her daughter, Eleanor Jess Atwood Gibson, had moved to a farm near Alliston, Ontario. Atwood has sister, Ruth, and a brother, Harold.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Snotchocheez on October 11, 2015

1.5 stars There's not much more depressing from a reader's standpoint than watching one of your favorite authors tank spectacularly. I was cautiously optimistic that the uneven, rocky start of Margaret Atwood's The Heart Goes Last was just a momentary hiccup, that she'd figure out what kind of kind......more

Goodreads review by Glenn on October 19, 2015

Margaret Atwood’s new novel depicts another dystopia, but this one has a lighter tone than The Handmaid’s Tale or the MaddAddam Trilogy. After all, it features life-size sex dolls and groups of Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley impersonators. Plus: it’s partly set in Las Vegas! But there’s definitely......more

Goodreads review by Baba on April 13, 2022

Just about still a functioning couple (and alive) Charmaine and Stan, victims of an economic crash, currently living in their car, come across what maybe the answer to all their prayers, Positron, a self-contained community with guaranteed homes and jobs. The catch, you sign up for life! The communi......more

Goodreads review by Trudi on December 08, 2015

Hey look! It's Margaret Atwood does the Stepford Wives! Hilarity and perversity ensues! But with an underbelly of nastiness that will make you examine your darkest desires! Your commitment to your significant other(s)! Your notions of free will and (ugh!) what it means to be happy! Happy at last! Sm......more

Goodreads review by Fabian on September 09, 2020

What starts off as inspired dystopic horror, a parable or metaphor for the ages, heartbreakingly bleak, soon after delves into bleh. The title tells all: the taut & pretty perfect prose of Atwood (sorry lame musicians & beadyeyed actors, THIS is Canada's BEST export) has heart until it just doesn't.......more


Quotes

“Thrilling, sometimes comic, often absurd and entirely engaging, spinning sins into the territory of Elvis-themed escorts, stuffed-animal carnality and customizable sexbots … What keeps The Heart Goes Last fresh, as with the rest of Atwood’s recent work, is that while it revisits earlier themes of her oeuvre, it never replicates. Rather, it reads like an exploration continued, with new surprises, both narratively and thematically, to be discovered … Margaret Atwood has become something nearly as fantastical as one of her storytelling subjects: a living legend who continues to remain fresh and innovative on the page.”
—Mat Johnson, New York Times Book Review

"[The Heart Goes Last] affords an arresting perspective on the confluence of information, freedom, and security in the modern age."
The New Yorker

"This is quintessential Atwood territory, a bleak dystopian landscape littered with shady types who engage in twisted sexual manipulation and scientific engineering reminiscent of The Handmaid’s Tale and Oryx and Crake ... The writing here is so persuasive, so crisp, that it seeps under your skin ... [This] fast-paced novel is hard to put down when it comes screaming to its clever and terrifying conclusion."
Boston Globe

"The Heart Goes Last rides a wave of dark energy. It’s rare apocalyptic entertainment ... Not only does Atwood sketch out an all-too-possible future but she also looks to the past, tapping into archetypes from fairy tales and myth, giving the novel a resonance beyond satire. Meanwhile, she ratchets up the tension and gleefully knocks down the fictive world she created."
Miami Herald

"A gripping, psychologically acute portrayal of our own future gone totally wrong, and the eternal constant of flawed humanity."
Huffington Post

"Another Atwood classic."
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

“At first a classic Atwood dystopia, rationally imagined and developed, [The Heart Goes Last] relaxes suddenly into a kind of surrealist adventure. The satirical impulse foregrounds itself. Narrative drive ramps up … Atwood allows her sense of the absurd its full elbow room; her cheerfully caustic contempt–bestowed even-handedly on contemporary economics, retro culture, and the social and neurological determination of identity–goes unrestrained … Jubilant comedy of errors, bizarre bedroom farce, SF prison-break thriller, psychedelic 60s crime caper: The Heart Goes Last scampers in and out of all of these genres, pausing only to quote Milton on the loss of Eden or Shakespeare on weddings. Meanwhile, it performs a hard-eyed autopsy on themes of impersonation and self-impersonation, revealing so many layers of contemporary deception and self-deception that we don’t know whether to laugh or cry.”
The Guardian

“[The Heart Goes Last] opens with an evocation of sub-prime poverty so hopeless, so crushing, and yet so engrossing that within 10 pages you don’t know whether to weep or applaud … You never lose the eerie feeling that each feature of this world could rematerialise in our own. It’s what makes her fiction the opposite of the escapism of the geek genres. It’s the lack of an escape route that shapes the predicaments of Atwood’s characters. That and an imagination without equal.”
London Evening Standard

"Ever-inventive, astutely observant, and drolly ironic, Atwood unfurls a riotous plot of corporate rule, erotic mayhem, sexbots, brain-washing, murder, and Elvis and Marilyn impersonators. Her bristling characters range from right-on caricatures to unpredictably complicated individuals, especially the unnerving Charmaine. Atwood’s ribald carnival of crazy deftly examines fear and the temptation to trade the confusion of choice and freedom for security, whatever the cost. This laser-sharp, hilariously campy, and swiftly flowing satire delves deeply into our desires, vices, biases, and contradictions, bringing fresh, incisive comedy to the rising tide of postapocalyptic fiction in which Atwood has long been a clarion voice."
Booklist, starred review