The Handmaid’s Tale (The Handmaid's Tale, #1) in Overdue Podcast

Sep 01, 2012 Sonia rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: contemporary-fiction, own

I sit in my room, at the window, waiting. In my lap is a handful of crumpled stars.
The Handmaid’s Tale is a construction of a dystopian world. The protagonist is the Handmaid named Offred; this is not her real name. It is now illegal to use her real name which she now considers as an “amulet, some charm that’s survived from an unimaginable past“. It is also illegal for her to be outside on her own, to use a pen, to read a magazine, to read anything. Offred is seen purely as a body, no longer a b I sit in my room, at the window, waiting. In my lap is a handful of crumpled stars.
The Handmaid’s Tale is a construction of a dystopian world. The protagonist is the Handmaid named Offred; this is not her real name. It is now illegal to use her real name which she now considers as an “amulet, some charm that’s survived from an unimaginable past“. It is also illegal for her to be outside on her own, to use a pen, to read a magazine, to read anything. Offred is seen purely as a body, no longer a being. She has been reduced to a function: to breed. Dressed in red, with ‘wings’ that sound more like blinkers, Handmaids are passed from household to household, offered to a Commander and his Wife, to be impregnated, to populate a world in a breeding crisis. They are ‘trained’ to be good Handmaids, to be convinced that this is a better world:

"Now we walk along the same street, in red pairs, and no man shouts obscenities at us, speaks to us, touches us. No one whistles. 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."

Offred has known a different world, a world where she had a mother, a family, a life of wasteful pleasures, trivial conversations and careless acts. The fact that Offred had this life taken from her adds a film of melancholy to the story, a desperate yearn for what was:

"You can wet the rim of a glass and run your finger around the rim and it will make a sound. This is what I feel like: this sound of glass. I feel like the world shatter. I want to be with someone."

"I feel like cotton candy: sugar and air. Squeeze me and I’d turn into a small sickly damp wad of weeping pinky-red."

The Handmaid’s Tale was published in 1986 and soon became a bestseller. This novel is viewed by some as a social commentary of the time. The ‘social revolution’ of the 1960s and 70s made way for a conservative backlash in the 1980s. Some consider this novel a ‘response’ to that backlash, a ‘what if’ scenario played out in a totalitarian society; a society where women have been stripped of their right to feel and think and love, where sexuality has been reduced to its rawest function.

I found this wonderfully entertaining. I am not so much drawn to where this novel sits in the world of politics, sexual and otherwise. I viewed this book like I view all my reads: on its own merits. Atwood is a beautiful writer. She spends a lot of time describing this dystopian world, sometimes to the detriment of the novel’s pace but the structure works well, dipping into flashbacks along the way. It speaks to me about love, love lost and human connection that we often take for granted. Until it’s taken away. ...more

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Oct 12, 2012 Amber rated it it was amazing

OK, WOW. Seriously that's what my response was to this. The layers of meaning, the messages, the utter repulsion I felt trying to imagine it actually happening and realizing it wasn't hard to at all. It was all superb.

This, I am embarrassed to say is my first Atwood book. I found her writing to be like my dream prose. It's poetic and descriptive, while not being long-winded or confusing. The pages seemed to fly by and I got to the end and felt desperate for more book. I liked that she didn't fee ...more

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Jun 23, 2012 Anita rated it it was amazing

Shelves: audio

Dystopian is one of my top favorite genres, and I am a raging feminist so it is pretty embarrassing that I haven't read this book before now. It did not disappoint. It is a wonderful example of dystopia. I liked it even better than George Orwell and Aldous Huxley, but not for the reasons that you'd expect. What I think this story does best is that the "new" society is still in living memory of the old one. So through flashbacks it documents the turnover. How through a combination of fear mongeri Dystopian is one of my top favorite genres, and I am a raging feminist so it is pretty embarrassing that I haven't read this book before now. It did not disappoint. It is a wonderful example of dystopia. I liked it even better than George Orwell and Aldous Huxley, but not for the reasons that you'd expect. What I think this story does best is that the "new" society is still in living memory of the old one. So through flashbacks it documents the turnover. How through a combination of fear mongering and power grabs at the right time as well as the complacency of a nation's citizens focused purely on their own daily lives this group of basically domestic terrorists were able to take over the country.

If you ever read a review or hear a teacher say that The Handmaid's Tale "could happen now" I really do not think that they mean the horrendous policies against women and their "proper place" that is the bulk of the novel. I really think they mean how through fear mongering a group in power could basically persuade a nation to hand over all their freedoms in order to feel safe and protected and they would not see the end game until it's too late to stop it because they're already too powerless.

Unlike 1984, a society that has no intention of ever relaxing the dictatorship, the book shows the mentality that I think is a very real one in that a bunch of rules are put in place with extremely harsh punishments with the promise that "it won't always be this way." We just have to govern the evil impulses out of you, but our children, who won't have known any other way, will be better and can reap the benefits of our new society in peace.

Yeah nope. It never works out that way, does it? I think that same concept is why dystopia exploded in YA, telling the stories in the perspective of those children who never knew the before. And of course the dictatorship is always alive and well, hundreds of years later.

I loved how 10 years later (or whatever) even the ones at the very top, who should be living large, were completely miserable in the brave new world. It also reminded me of how in Prohibition, so many groups, especially the ones in power never stopped drinking, never even intended to quit, because to literally everyone who supported Prohibition it was to deny access to some other group. ...more

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Jul 10, 2013 R rated it really liked it

Shelves: fantasy-reads

I read Margaret Atwood's The Blind Assassin and I have to say that I enjoyed this book so much more than I thought I would.

On one hand, I was biased from the last book of hers I read. However, I find that I was more prepared for her writing style, so I was not as thrown off by the back and forth time changes and the ambiguity of the whole story. I tend to avoid dystopian literature because in my personal opinion, I find that the themes of modern and contemporary as cliche, there's no original th I read Margaret Atwood's The Blind Assassin and I have to say that I enjoyed this book so much more than I thought I would.

On one hand, I was biased from the last book of hers I read. However, I find that I was more prepared for her writing style, so I was not as thrown off by the back and forth time changes and the ambiguity of the whole story. I tend to avoid dystopian literature because in my personal opinion, I find that the themes of modern and contemporary as cliche, there's no original thought and in my mind dystopian literature is not merely a world where everything is totalitarian and ruled by a tyrant, rather, dystopias that I consider to have more impact are criticisms of the present time, of events that could possibly happen if anything were to go amiss or differently.

I have to say, that despite this book being fictional, I was almost believing that this was an autobiography, I almost believed this was written by an oppressed women in the futuristic United States of America, or Gilead. I could almost believe the radical group that killed the President and overthrew Congress. I almost believed the horrors of this period because of the possibilities that this world displayed. In fact, it is entirely possible that all of this can come true, and that is what I find to be good dystopian literature.

Of course, this is all a personal opinion because I just don't find much enjoyment in YA novels of late. However, I found this novel to be an exception because of how realistic it was. Particularly in the last pages, the reports and the conference made it seem as though this Gilead Period was in fact, in the past, a dark time of history for Northern Americans.

Offred, I found was an interesting character. She was a woman on the brink of being broken, despite trying her hardest to remain sane and above all, strong for herself and for any sort of hope in the future. However I know there are questionable aspects to her overall self, but then it brings this question forth: if you were in her position, what would you do? I realized that after attempting to answer this question that I would not be so different from her, that her choices were made so she could live and possibly see a better day. In a sense, Offred is the woman in all of us and the one who does what is innate: survive.

Similarly, the whole concept of this entire period being very recent came as a pleasant surprise to me. Often in novels, the characters that are introduced are ones who have grown up in this dystopian society, and so they know little to nothing of the past. Offred however mentions how she can recall the time spent with her husband and their daughter, the life she had before the group took over and how different it is now. This type of internal criticism is not found in many dystopian novels, so this comparison made it seem all the more real and graphic to me, because here was a woman who can remember what it feels like to have a job!

Overall, I really enjoyed this book far more than I thought I would. Margaret Atwood, you've waved a magic spell over me once again. ...more

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