The Heart Goes Last

The narrators' energetic performances are perfect for this outlandish tale. Cassandra Campbell and Mark Deakins portray Charmaine and Stan, a married couple who have fallen on hard times who join a social experiment called the Positron Project. They're given a home and full-time jobs, but in exchange they must spend half the year in prison. Campbell's character voices are playful, and she gives Charmaine a high-pitched coquettishness. Deakins has broad tones and a booming voice; his characters often sound buffoonish, which is fitting because they are. His Elvis imitation is spot-on, though. Listening to this audiobook is like hearing two people tell you about the terrible things they've done, and their bad choices just continue to snowball. G.D. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine

Starred review from June 29, 2015
In the dystopian landscape of the unflappable Atwood’s (Stone Mattress) latest novel, there are “not enough jobs, and too many people,” which drives married couple Stan and Charmaine to become interested in the Positron Project, a community that purports to have achieved
harmony. There is a catch, as Positron leader Ed explains: citizens are required to share their home with other couples, alternating each month between time in prison and time at home. It’s an odd arrangement, but one that temporarily satisfies Charmaine and Stan—until they each fall in love with the alternates they’re supposed to never see; their infatuations put the entire Positron arrangement into question. Atwood is fond of intricate plot work, and the novel takes a long time to set up the action, but once it hits the last third, it gains an unstoppable momentum. The novel is full of sly moments of peripeteia and lots of sex, which play alongside larger ideas about the hidden monsters lurking in facile totalitarianism, and, as implied by the title, the ability of the heart to keep fighting despite long odds.