The Handmaid’s Tale (The Handmaid's Tale, #1) in Crazy Challenge Connection

Jan 31, 2014 Megan rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2017, rlftci-17-000-in-2017, new-to-me-authors-2017, dystopian, borrow-or-need-to-buy, uno-2017, 2017-challenge-books, ammp-team-scottie-dog, minesweeper-2017, april-2017

I don't know why this book has such high ratings. It sounded like an interesting book, until I started to read it. I personally never got into it and if not that I had to finish it for a challenge I was doing I'm sure it would've made the short list of books on my dnf shelf. I don't believe that society would change so quickly and easily, it sounded as though everything happened within at most 10 years...and that's being generous. This just wasn't a book for me. ...more

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Dec 06, 2011 Jen • Just One More Page rated it it was amazing

Shelves: owned, banned-books, female-non-male-authors, adult, series-to-finish, favorites, dystopia, science-fiction, feminism, classics

This review is also posted on my blog.

(view spoiler) ...more

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Dec 17, 2012 Kaitlin rated it really liked it

This one sucked me in. The writing was so vivid and the narrator so believable that I just had to keep reading.

I hate the lecture slapped on at the end. HATE IT. It adds nothing to the book, and maybe even detracts from it ("Look - it's years later, and in case you weren't smart enough to figure it out, here's what happened in that pesky book you just read!").

Anyway, I really enjoyed this. I wish it were longer, but I loved the writing style, loved how broken it was, loved the dystopia...almost ...more

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Mar 28, 2017 Athena Macmillan rated it really liked it

Shelves: cultural-issues, apocalyptic-and-dystopia, thought-provoking, for-and-about-women, mature-language-and-themes, gut-wrencher, engaging-plot, exceeded-expectations, social-taboos, deeply-unsettling

I've read a few horrors in my time, and this book is scarier than any of them simply because of how easily our own world could turn into a situation such as the one described by Offred, a Handmaid who is placed within a family because of her capacity to breed. This or similar is the world we could live in, if we stop valuing people's diversity; something that seems to be happening at a staggering rate in a variety of contexts in our current political contexts.

In this book the details matter and I've read a few horrors in my time, and this book is scarier than any of them simply because of how easily our own world could turn into a situation such as the one described by Offred, a Handmaid who is placed within a family because of her capacity to breed. This or similar is the world we could live in, if we stop valuing people's diversity; something that seems to be happening at a staggering rate in a variety of contexts in our current political contexts.

In this book the details matter and there are a lot of them. This leads to some moments that are fairly explicit, both in terms of violence and sexuality. But it is because, not despite of this, that I feel this should be a necessary read to share with the mature young women in our lives, combined with in depth discussion of the things that somehow seem more possible in the world's current climate than less than they did twenty years ago. Things like religion, sex, conformity, education, authority, government intervention, feminism, patriarchies... the list goes on.

I recently read an article of Atwood's reflecting on this book and she said “Back in 1984 the main premise seemed—even to me—fairly outrageous. Would I be able to persuade readers that the United States had suffered a coup that had transformed an erstwhile liberal democracy into a literal-minded theocratic dictatorship?” In 2017, with a simple-minded, authoritarian President holding the reins of government in Washington, DC, and all manner of intolerant extremists in the wings, that premise no longer seems preposterous.

Atwood’s prose, is impeccable. She writes with urgency, purpose, and humanity—and delivers an ending more brilliant and deliberate than I thought was coming. Then finally in a post script, we zoom out to a place of academia, where the calm eye of history in review sees Offred story as a blip, or an inconvenience as "She could have told us much about the workings of the Gileadean empire, had she had the instincts of a reporter or a spy." Offred's tale of captivity is reduced to how much information she gave about her male captor. How often do we do this already? Looking at first hand accounts of atrocities that have happened in our own history with no empathy for the victim, but rather bemoaning the details we aren't able to glean in the name of research? How easy is it to forget the faces we even now see every night on the news, victims of atrocities being carried out in our own back yards?

This novel is too powerful and relevant to dismiss because of the more unpleasant aspects portrayed within its pages. Instead it is a startling prediction about the direction our lives could be taking. It challenged and startled me as I was reading it, and I suspect it will continue to do so in years to come. ...more

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Jan 20, 2017 Talyah rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: dnf, own, adult, classics, dystopia-post-apoc, read-in-2017

I have been looking forward to reading this ever since I finished The Blind Assassin years ago. Unfortunately, I don't care for what I've read/listened to so far. I own the paperback but the audio version was free on amazon unlimited so I figured I'd go ahead and start listening while driving to and from work. So I'm not sure if it's Clair Danes that ruins this for me or if it is the actual book.

Let me point out that I loved The Blind Assassin, and it made me fall in love with Atwood's writing. ...more

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