The Handmaid’s Tale (The Handmaid's Tale, #1) in Our Shared Shelf

Mar 16, 2011 Brian rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. (4.0) I loved how Atwood allows this dystopia to unfold for us

My main reason for enjoying this novel so much was the storytelling, how we learn what's going on, piece by piece, much like it must have been for Offred. If we knew too much too early, this would've been a lot more disappointing. So if you haven't read this and are considering it, do yourself a favor and stop reading this review (though it's been out for a while, so I'm probably on the tail end of readers among my peers).

One example (4.0) I loved how Atwood allows this dystopia to unfold for us

My main reason for enjoying this novel so much was the storytelling, how we learn what's going on, piece by piece, much like it must have been for Offred. If we knew too much too early, this would've been a lot more disappointing. So if you haven't read this and are considering it, do yourself a favor and stop reading this review (though it's been out for a while, so I'm probably on the tail end of readers among my peers).

One example was how we learned the naming system for the handmaids. I didn't catch on at first with Offred (that sounds like a plausible futuristic name), but did wonder about it. Later we enter into a discussion about Ofwarren and Warren (her commander) is mentioned and it clicked. Just a minor example of almost everything that is unexplained but feels relevant early eventually does get explained (I had the very opposite experience with Neuromancer, for example--I couldn't tell what was unknown but relevant, and often things that were relevant weren't ever really explained...but I digress).

I was also trying to pin down the core of this novel, what the motivation was. I've also read Oryx and Crake, which felt like a cautionary tale: don't mess with genetic engineering. I feel there's a little bit here as well (we're killing the environment, we're going to poison ourselves with chemistry and nuclear waste and threaten the propagation of the species, we're destroying the world's fisheries), though the way I interpreted it was that these events were just a pretext for the Moral Majority (making some serious inferences here, but this was written in the 80s) to be taken to the logical conclusion, establishing a (more) paternalistic theocracy. Jews, Catholics and Quakers were called out as being nonbelievers and needing 'conversion' (or in the case of Jews, the opportunity to emigrate to Israel, which many took). Abortion and adultery are among the greatest sins to be committed. It felt a bit political in this right, but perhaps that was entirely her intent.

I've heard that researchers have determined that the number one way to bring birth rates down in developing countries is to educate their girls. But in a world in which most women are sterile (because of pollution, radiation etc.), I suppose the opposite may be true. Is that why girls and women are barred from ever reading (the markets they go to to buy groceries are all in pictures, for example)? Horrible, but this world is at least consistent. Which reminds me that there is a tiny bit of humor: in a discussion of not letting women read, one of the "Aunts" is said to have claimed, "Pen Is Envy!". Not sure what role she things penis envy plays in this world, but it is one example of many in which this nation has completely misinterpreted or redefined words, phrases, parables from the past. (Another funny for me was the use of "compu-" as a futuristic/technical prefix. Sounds very dated now. Ah, well.)

Another touch I liked was Soul Scrolls: pay to have machines print and 'read' prayers for you...sounds like Catholic indulgences or a Douglas Adams invention).

Nolite te bastardes carborundorum (Don't let the bastards grind you down) ...more

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