The Heart Goes Last by Margaret Atwood

I was excited to read Margaret Atwood's latest novel because I have very fond memories of reading The Handmaid's Tale back in my high school days.  At the time, it was one of the first dystopian novels I had ever read and it definitely contained more feminist ideas than any other novel I had seen up to that point.  In a childhood spent reading countless books, that one still stands out in my mind.  When I saw that Atwood had another dystopian novel out this year, and that it rated highly in the Goodreads Choice Awards (science fiction category), I put it on my reading list for January.

The Heart Goes Last is set in an American dystopian future.  The economy has crashed and ruined any semblance of a normal life for all but the wealthy.  The story follows Stan and Charmaine, a married couple trying to live out of their car after losing their house.  Tired of living in such poor and dangerous conditions, they sign on to participate in the Positron Project.  The Positron Project is an experimental community located in a town called Consilience.  In this project, all participants are provided with a job and comfortable housing.  In exchange, they must spend every other month working in the Positron prison system.  At first, Stan and Charmaine enjoy the arrangement, but things start to deteriorate when Charmaine becomes romantically involved with her alternate - the man who lives in their house during the months she spends in the prison.  At the same time, cracks begin to show in the carefully constructed facade of Consilience.  Everything is not as perfect as it seems and Stan and Charmaine soon find themselves in increasingly bizarre situations that ultimately threaten their newfound happiness and their lives.

I have mixed feelings about this novel.  I really enjoyed the beginning of the story- digging into the weird setting and figuring out the rules of Stan and Charmaine's universe was interesting and addictive.  Atwood is a superior writer and I liked reading her prose.  However, as the plot moved forward, I became more and more confused about what was going on.  What started out as a fairly straightforward story about the dangers of voluntarily surrendering your person freedoms turned into a conspiracy involving sex robots, Elvis impersonators and lobotomies.  As the situations Stan and Charmaine found themselves in became more and more surreal, my interest started to wane.  I wanted something less silly and more thought-provoking, I guess.

In the last dozen or so pages in the novel, Atwood attempts to provide an ending that encourages the reader to think about the nature of love, freedom and forgiveness.  I actually did like the conclusion of the novel, but I couldn't help but feel like it didn't quite match up with the insanity of the events that came before it.  It was like Atwood suddenly said, "Okay, time to wrap up, let's get serious again."  It was too little, too late for me.  

As in most dystopian novels, The Heart Goes Last is supposed to provide a preview of a possible future and instruct us in how to avoid it coming true.  I feel that this novel raised some interesting points about personal liberties, human nature and the privatization of prisons.  Disappointingly though, the strength of these messages became muddled in a bizarre plot that I still don't completely understand and did not emotionally connect with.  Overall, I enjoyed this novel, but it's not a favorite.  I can't get over a feeling of lost potential, especially since The Handmaid's Tale made such a big impression on me as a teenager.  I still love Margaret Atwood, but for me, The Heart Goes Last isn't her strongest work.