Oryx and Crake

So, while I should have been analyzing Max Weber or reading up on the fine points of perfectionism, I've been reading Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood. I approached this book with a degree of trepidation; I had tried to read The Blind Assassin, and found it unpalatable. Oryx and Crake has redeemed her...

"Sandcastles in the wind."

and

"There wasn't much else to do after school in the HelthWyzer Compound, or in any of the Compounds, not for kids their age, not in any sort of group way. It wasn't like the pleeblands. There, it was rumoured, the kids ran in packs and hordes. They'd wait until some parent was away, then get right down to business--they'd swarm the place, waste themselves with loud music and toking and boozing, fuck up everything including the family cat, trash the furniture, shoot up, overdose."