From the Bookshelf of Reading List Completists…

The Handmaid’s Tale (The Handmaid's Tale, #1)

Margaret Atwood

Start date: January 1, 2017

Finish date: January 31, 2017

Discussion: Group Reads

Why we're reading this: Winner of the January 2017 Thug Notes Poll
[close] Winner of the January 2017 Thug Notes Poll

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What Members Thought

Jan 18, 2017 Simone rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Amazing book. This was such a surprise, because I had read a bad review of it in the Politically Incorrect Guide to English and American Literature. I now understand why a more conservative person would have serious issues with the themes in the novel. It is a breathtaking exercise that imagines the most ultimate reactions to women's liberation and the breakdown of traditional social values. This book portrays and discusses in various ways what it means to be a woman, the psychology of a person ...more

14 likes · Like · see review

May 05, 2017 Gaby rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, dystopian, feminist-books, politics, 2017

The Handmaid's tale is the perfect definition of a dystopian reality that is scary enough to look like it could become true in the near future.
Clearly inspired by 1984 and with some parallelism that resembles Winston's journey, Margaret Atwood's portrayal of this narrative achieves to make us feel uncomfortable enough to question ourselves what would we do if we were to be in Offred's place?

Update:

Six months have passed since I read this book and I cannot stop thinking about this. My love for ...more

12 likes · Like · see review

Jul 16, 2017 Nico marked it as dnf-and-never-will · review of another edition

Not really in the frame of mind right now to read about white-on-white slavery. The story is presented as speculative and dystopian, when it should really read as historical because this already happened to a large number of women during the good old slavery centuries.

A novel where slavery is white-washed, where this white lady wondered, "But wait, could they turn on US?!?!?!?!?? "

That kind of story really isn't powerful or engaging or even interesting if you're not part of the "us".

I'm re ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Jan 28, 2020 Chuck rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 1001

It lives up to the hype. Handmaid orbited through my awareness as one of the great ones since it came out. I batted away the urge to look, deflecting with judgments like, oh it's probably too hyper-dystopic, hyper-feminist, or just plain preachy. More than 30 years later, living in the closest thing to a dystopia yet with women's rights threatened and lots of angry white men banding together into militias (or at least voting blocks), it now seems that Atwood's novel was just as prescient as Brad ...more

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Mar 14, 2015 AGB rated it really liked it

Started out slow. Really built momentum as it progressed. The writing was fantastic. Good for a book group. I am somewhat surprised that it is being read in high school due to the mature themes and sexual references.

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