Margaret Atwood - at the outer edge of the work of a wide-ranging author

Recently I read Alias- Grace by Margaret Atwood followed by the novel Oryx and Crake.
I rate both books highly but the second one is the more gripping and stimulating of the pair. The two are very different in style and pace. Also the first one is set in the past and the second in the future.

Jimmy, also known as Snowman (named after the elusive Abominable Snowman), is the most interesting and developed character in Oryx and Crake as opposed to the flatter characters of Crake and Oryx.

The story is suspenseful although I haven't decided if the climax makes complete sense to me or not; it appears to be result of mutual misjudgements by the three main character or a suicidal impulse on the part of Crake (which is hinted at but does not quite jive with how I read his character). It has a touch of the deus ex machina plot device to me.

Nonetheless it is a rewarding book well-worth the read. I find it a conceivable extrapolation, however exaggerated, of the way things are going.

Jimmy especially rings true as a product of the modern times who as a word person ends up in advertising or Problematics or Applied Rhetoric as it's known in this book. It seems that in this world expressive writing for it's own sake (as Ms Atwood does so well)is not an option. How does the author portray his love of words? She does this by having him remember lists of unusual words perhaps as his own self-diagnostic test as he notices his mind deteriorating. Some of these words:

pullulate pistic trull grutch woad laryngeal