Publisher : Chivers Audio Books
Publication Date : 1999 04
>> Lyrical Dark and Enthralling
Written in sharp not overly descriptive prose Atwood s tale of the plight of women following a titanous holocaust of sorts that renders the world compartmentalized even further than it is now into a series of brutal self contained city states is a must read for anyone even vaguely interested in either distopian fiction or women s rights The protagonist Offred has the grim charge of trying to get pregnant by a somewhat boyish Commander at a lonely estate and also must deal with the whims of the state that seems to see women only as sacred vessels and nothing further In fact they are conditioned to see themselves this way by groups of women referred to only as Aunts The Aunts show videos of gang rape and such atrocities to show the women that their lives are better now that they are protected by men subjugated in red cloaks like bloody ghosts of virtue The story takes a while to get going but once things start to escalate they don t escalate too far don t expect slam bang action this one is a slow burn we as readers are swept along with Offred hoping desperately that she won t end up on the WALL strung up with other enemy combatants abortionists and the like This is a chilling book kept away from being too moribund by Atwood s narrator s sharp wit and attempts to occasionally focus on the beauty of the world that remains for example flowers
There is an emotional core to the novel that cries immediately of Feminism Some critics have used this to dismiss the novel Really though this subtext and occasionally blatant textual references only helps to deepen the impact of an otherwise plainly Orwellian landscape The Horrors of the Totalitarian State is a trope very well explored in literature I for one applaud Atwood s different decidedly feminine take on it And the descriptions Amazing The author s total command of language is staggering Some of these sentences just take you off guard with their grace and human longing Rich multi layered bleak occasionally heart wrenching the Handmaid s Tale is a hit Good quality literature
>> Chilling especially if you are a woman
I ve been reading a lot of dystopia s lately and most of them have been environmental in nature but this one surrounded the evil that men can create all by themselves
Who needs a nuclear bomb or a meteorite strike when you can take our right wing whack o s and take it to the logical next step
Even though the books describes an Islamic uprising that kicked off these events I could see overzealous Tea Party members who have drank too much at the religious trough do the same thing
There was some reason for a drop in fertility which isn t really explained but it sure just seems like a great excuse to subjugate women
The characters are all well developed and the story drives on at a pace that won t release you
I ll be back for more and look forward to the Flood right up there on my reading list
>> A World of Nightmare
This novel is very compelling and unfathomably disturbing
I read it in high school a decade ago but missed much of the fertility and pagan symbolism then
