This book is downright bizarro-funny! It takes place in the future, but it is not the stately, lit-quality of THE HANDMAIDEN’S TALE, a classic in Freshman College Anthologies. Think Elvis impersonators in Las Vegas, sexbots, and The Green Men Group, an ecologically-correct parody of The Blue Men Group. Put all these in a nursing home, a casino, and in the middle of a rescue-kindapping, and you have a furiously fast-paced, laugh-out-loud (even if you shouldn’t!) read.
Charmaine and Stan, her husband are living out of their car when they hear of the too-good-to-be-true offer from the gigantic Positron conglomerate/company to give people a better life. What the offer involves is living in a wonderful, idyllic, retro-fifties home and lifestyle for six months of the year, then living in prison for the next six. A couple is not to have any contact with the “other couple” who occupies their home the six months they are in prison…and there’s where the fun begins.
This is Margaret Atwood having fun, yet making points about conformity, corruption of money and/or power on individuals, and the evils of mega-corporations who strive to take over the world.
It was a quick read and made me want to go back and see if Atwood had any short stories in my (paper) back issues of The New Yorker, tucked into my book closet with magic marker notations on the cover, “Have read all but the Fiction section.”