A few recent reads - a quick summary

Oryx and Crake - Margaret Atwood
I loved loved loved this book. Oryx andCrake is set in the future, after the collapse of civilization, and follows what might be the only human survivor as he goes about his daily routines, attempts to survive, and reminises about his life and loves before civilization collapsed. This novel explores scientific developments such as genetic engineering,particularly the creation of transgenic animals such as the friendly "Rakunk" and the vicious "Wolvog". It also covers such issues as the break down of morality and ethics in the publicized executions, assisted suicides and commodification of sexuality, particularly online child pornography. The gap between rich and poor is another issue covered in the book, with the rich living in safe, germ free environments where they have access to the best schools, malls, and food, while the poor - or pleebs - live in squallor.
I liked the book because it wasn't too far fetched - this could happen in the future and is happening already. We are already developing new, germ resistant plants and I'm sure that'll extend in to animals (if it isn't already). We already have a taste for the grotesque in the movies we watch (like the Saw movies), so how long will it be until we are watching the real thing - real beheadings and real torture? And the child pornography and sex industry is already thriving.
As we follow "Snowman" - the last remaining human - we learn about this dystopian society, about the scientific developments that got so carried away that they resulted in humanity's collapse, about Snowman's love interest Oryx and his friend Crake (here we have a religious theme which seems to liken Oryx and Crake to Adam and Eve), and about Snowman's quest for survival in a world without other humans.
The reviews that I read for the book were critical. Many people said they were disappointed with this book, that Margaret Atwood shouldn't write science fiction etc etc but I feel the complete opposite. This book was great. It was very readable and gripping. Unlike many of the books I have read, I didn't just finish it and move on with my life without a second thought, it was a book that made me think and want to talk. I highly recommend Oryx and Crake!

Two other recent reads:

The Spanish Bow - Andromeda Romano Lax A slow moving story which follows the life of underpriviledged child prodigy Feliu Delargo as he develops his cello skills, bringing him in to contact with kings and queens and political leaders during World War I and World War II. I didn't like this book, I found it boring and I wasn't interested in any of the characters. It was a torture to read it.

The Visible World - Mark Slouka This is the story of a child of Czech refugees after World War II trying to find out about his history - a history which shaped him but which he doesn't know much about. His parents' past remains a mystery to him, understood in fragments of conversation, stories and whispers but never really revealed. The one big mystery is his mother's unhappiness, brought on by the fact that she never ended up with the man she truely loved. The book is divided in to three parts and I enjoyed the way it was written. The first part of the book describes the narrator's childhood spent in the States in immigrant communities. The second part is about his travels to the Czech Republic in search of information about his parents, where he meets people who remember the difficult times during World War II, who quarrel amongst themselves about events, yet can't shed light on what the narrator is looking for: information about his mother and the man she truely loved. The third part is the narrator's fictional version of the events surrounding his mother and her lover, and the fictional truth about the relationship between his mother and his father. I thought this part was a bit of a stereotypical love story and didn't add much to the book. I did enjoy the book however, and I particularly enjoyed the historical references to life in Prague/Czech Republic during World War II.