The Secret Adversary

The Secret Adversary
by Agatha Christie
read: 2014
Guardian 1000 Novels

While The Mysterious Affair at Styles is a prototypical mystery novel, The Secret Adversary is really a spy story, with Bond-esque stakes involved. If amateur adventurers Tommy and Tuppence can't find a girl and a document, all of Western Civilization could collapse.

I suspected Julius early on because he used some British slang - "flat," "lift," etc. Is that how Americans talked in that time period, or was Christie taking some liberties?

MaddAddam

MaddAddam
by Margaret Atwood
read: 2014
MaddAddam Series, Book Three

There's a metatextual element to MaddAddam, where the story itself is being written as a conscious part of the story. Toby journals her experiences, even though it's unclear whether in the post-apocalyptic world of the novel that there's even going to be a notion of written history. And after teaching Blackbeard to write, she is unsure whether she should have just let writing and history disappear rather than preserving it.

In The Year of the Flood we learn Toby's backstory and that she's never really found love or happiness. MaddAddam is really Zeb's tale, and we learn that he too has experienced loneliness and heartbreak. In a world that's destroyed, and where the human species is practically on the verge of extinction, it's touching that they find happiness together.

The Mysterious Affair at Styles

The Mysterious Affair at Styles
by Agatha Christie
read: 2014
Guardian 1000 Novels

The Mysterious Affair at Styles was Agatha Christie's first novel, but I was surprised to see how much of the mystery novel template was already fully-formed. The structure - red herrings, twists, a genius investigator who keeps everyone in the dark until the eleventh hour - is pretty similar to mystery TV shows of today.

The Year of the Flood

The Year of the Flood
by Margaret Atwood
read: 2014
MaddAddam Series, Book Two

I enjoyed The Year of the Flood less than the other Atwood books I've read. I'm having a hard time understanding whether Atwood (or her narrative voice) is poking fun at the Gardeners or exalting their style of life. Probably her real stance (and the rational one) is somewhere in the middle, or both. Toby and Ren both claim to have doubts about Adam One's teachings, but they find strength and solace in them in times of need.

Random note: Ren's chapters are in first person while Toby's are in third person. I don't have a theory about why that is.