The Heart Goes Last by Margaret Atwood

I think I had the wrong idea of Margaret Atwood. Until recently, I'd only read The Handmaid's Tale. I read it because it was on a list of modern classics and I don't really remember much about it because I don't think I was sleeping much at the time. So, I've had this vague impression of her as somewhat staid literary author. A good writer but in the "fussy art" category.

I've since read the Penelopiad and, just now, The Heart Goes Last. Atwood is not "staid." In fact, she's part of a group of literary genre fiction writers. The Heart Goes Last is a sort of speculative/vaguely sci fi novel set in an immediate future. Despite the dystopian backdrop of total economic collapse, this story plays heavily with utopian ideals when the two main characters, Charmaine and Stan, sign on to be part of utopian experiment. The live in an isolated community with it's own money system and production systems. Everyone has a job and everyone has a home in Consilience. Sounds ideal. The trick is that every other month they become willing inmates at the prison, Positron, where they are inmates and do prison work. The idea is that the town supports the prison and the prison supports the town. It's a kind of odd twist on a commune.

From there things get pretty twisted pretty fast. There's a heavy dose of Elmore Leonard type intrigue and things are not as they seem. Atwood plays with character expectations in an interesting way and it all wraps up like one of the good Guy Richie movies. I'm not sure that I'm a big fan of the ending, but I suspect that it is a result of how Atwood, without fail, subverts each of her characters. It's hard to predict and difficult to really like any of them.

This would make a fantastic film.