The Handmaid's Tale (edit title)

• Rated 3 stars

“Haunting!”

• Rated 5 stars

“Abolutely a must. Brilliant. A post-apocalyptic world from a woman's point of view. ”

• Rated 5 stars

“double wow”

• Rated 0 stars

“Next book on my to read list ”

• Rated 5 stars

“This book, along with reading Azar Nafisi's Reading Lolita In Tehran right after was the catalyst that made me pace in my kitchen wondering what I should do next in terms of helping women and the world. Few books have changed my life in such a profound way and The Handmaid's Tale is one of them. ”

• Rated 0 stars

“it was actually pretty good
”

• Rated 5 stars

“This was hands-down the best book I've picked up in ages. I literally couldn't put it down even though I was supposed to be packing for a trip to Hawaii the next day!

It's downright scary as well! What Atwood paints here is not some dream world, but could very well be our own. Heed her well and watch your liberties!”

• Rated 2 stars

“Horrifying”

• Rated 5 stars

“"There is more than one kind of freedom said Aunt Lydia. Freedom to and Freedom From. In the days of anarchy, it was freedom to. Now you are being given freedom from." (pg 24). The days of anarchy refers to the United States when women were free to make choices such as pursuing careers, managing a bank account, reproductive rights, and marriage decisions. Then the President is assassinated, Congress is gunned down, and the Constitution is suspended. No one objects. Everything is going to be ok. It is for your own good. The United States is dismantled and the Republic of Gilead is established, where the worth of a woman is defined by her ability to conceive and the government has distorted the Bible to justify its policies. Couples in the ruling class who are childless are assigned Handmaid, whose role it is to provide a child. It is in this context we meet Offred. In the early days of the Reconstruction, Offred and her family attempted to escape to Canada. Unfortuantely, they were betrayed. Offred loses track of her husband, her child is placed with another family, and Offred begins her service to the Republic in the house of Commander and his televangelist turned domestic (forcibly of course) wife.

Atwood does an excellent job in her choice of the narrator's voice. In particular, I felt the use of flashback was extremely effective. It built suspense while unveiling the events leading up to Offred's current condition. I also thought the use of speech symposium at the conclusion to reveal Offred's fate was nicely done. ”

• Rated 5 stars

“Last night I completed Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, a dystopic vision of America’s near future as governed by the religious right. Some time in the 1980s, I suppose, “feminist” became a dirty word. It is an insult, spat with the same venom as “liberal.” It is no surprise that Atwood’s novel was published, then, in the 1980s, during the Reagan-era bashing of both feminists and liberals.

According to Webster’s, feminism is “the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes” and “organized activity on behalf of women’s rights and interests.” I am a feminist. I think a great many people today are misinformed about what feminism really means. They will say they believe in gender equality, but they are not feminists. What’s the difference? It’s a matter of connotation.

The Handmaid’s Tale centers around Offred, a handmaid in the near future after ecological disaster has decreased fertility among women and viability among infants. Offred has viable ovaries, so she, along with her fellow handmaids, have been given the task of producing children. In fact, their lives depend on it. Political disaster occurs when the president is assassinated and Congress is slaughtered in a rain of machine-gunfire. The Constitution is suspended. In a cashless society, it is easy to cut women off from their money. The way Offred tells the tale, it seems as though freedoms eroded bit by bit. One day, she turned around, and she was divested of all her rights. She no longer lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, but in the Republic of Gilead. And there is no balm in Gilead.

I find it very ironic that Atwood chose to set her story in Cambridge, a city known for its liberal views — so much so, in fact, that it is often known as the “People’s Republic of Cambridge.” Atwood seems to be saying that the events in her book could happen anywhere — even in one of the major strongholds of liberalism. In her novel, Harvard ceases to be a university and becomes the headquarters for the Eyes, the (of course) omnipresent force of spies that keep the citizens of Gilead in line… or else they wind up hanging from hooks on the wall by Harvard Yard. During my recent trip to Boston, I walked along Massachusetts Avenue, right by that wall. I didn’t go inside the campus, but one of my students did. She made a very interesting observation — moreso to me now that I’ve read this book. She said once you go behind that wall, it is quiet. You can’t hear the traffic flying by on the other side of the wall. What an ideal setting for Atwood’s Eyes.

The title of The Handmaid’s Tale hearkens back to Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales. I think that is appropriate. In some ways, Chaucer was attacking his own society’s views through humor, and Offred’s “gallows humor” contributes much to the book’s success. I found her to be a very human character. She does not always make admirable choices, but she makes believable ones. She is not an epic heroine, but rather a woman living under extraordinary circumstances.

If Atwood is not quite fair to the religious right in America, one cannot deny that there are women in this world who live very much like the characters in this novel. I do not think most people in the religious right, especially women, would like to live like Atwood’s characters. However, I think this novel serves as fair warning to the Phyllis Schlaflys of the world. Atwood does not limit her critique to the religious right. She also takes feminists to task for their staunch opposition to pornography. Atwood insinuates that it is dangerous to censor such material, regardless of our thoughts on the issue.

This novel was frightening. As I read, I was not so much scared that this will one day happen in America. What really scared me is that it is happening in many parts of the world, right now, as I write this. I don’t know what can be done to change that, but I think we need to try.”