The Handmaid's Tale

Hardcover, 350 pages

English language

Published March 25, 1986 by Jonathan Cape.

ISBN:
9780224023481

View on OpenLibrary

3 stars (2 reviews)

Offred is a national resource. She is a handmaid; viable ovaries make her a precious commodity in the Republic of Gilead, where the birthrate has plummeted to dangerous levels. Assigned to a Commander whose wife cannot produce, Offred's purpose is onefold: to breed.

Dressed in red from veil to shoes, apart from the white wings which cover her face, Offred walks in silence each day past the Guardians of the Faith, who man each barrier. She exchanges tokens for food. She visits the Wall, where gender traitors and war criminals hang for atrocities, once legal, committed in the time before.

At night in the bare room, Offred remembers: quaint, outdated customs such as gossiping, using paper money, jogging. Illegal thing: women having jobs, reading, her real name, love. Love used to be central to everything. Now it is irrelevant.

Margaret Atwood, who has shown her formidable insights into the complexities …

46 editions

Meh

2 stars

I read the Handmaid's Tale yesterday, finally. I'm disappointed. I did not like the writing style at all, there was no real story, just descriptions. And then it just ended. No conclusion or anything.

My best guess it's because the TV show was so intense and well made (at least the earlier seasons), and the book was... Not? Episodes would stay with me for days, but I'm struggling to recall the book.

Maybe the book is supposed to be unsatisfying to go with the theme. Nothing much happened after Gilead was created, every day just kinda goes by. Sure there was some torture and death, but... Eh.

Maybe I was expecting too much after all the praise it got. It's my first Atwood book, and way way outside of my usual genre (fantasy, scifi, horror).

Review of "The Handmaid's Tale" on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

I liked it.
I like what the book is aiming for.
While clever, I didn't love the writing style simply because it's not the kind of style that draws you in so you basically experience the events along with the MC, mainly because it is a recounting on events and jumps around all over the show occasionally. This is not a comment on the quality of the writing, or talent. Simply my enjoyment.
That being said, I was constantly reading when I got a moment to find out how things played out.
Interesting re-reading it now and seeing the similarities in the events that led to the regime in the book and what's happening in our own world. While there are technological differences that might affect how such a thing played out, it's still scarily possible.