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A review by cala_p
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
4.0
This is one "classically acclaimed" novels I always avoided because honestly, I think I never read the synopsis. I had to read this for one of my classes, and WOW I was addicted. When I started it I did not want to stop reading. It's not even the genres I assumed it was....
It's a dystopia novel, designed around a sort of old-fashioned world inside modern society...hard to explain really. It follows the story of Offred, a handmaid. The women in this society are divided up into different sections, with different purposes in life and different color clothing to identify them. The red handmaid's job is to be assigned to a commander when the commander's wife is unable to get pregnant. They have this whole special sexual ceremony they do when the handmaid and commander have sex to get her pregnant. It involves the wife right there with them. When a handmaid does get pregnant, the baby goes to the commander and his wife. For Offred this is her third commander and final chance to give a couple a child
Some people may call this book "slow" and maybe it is. But there was something about Offred's voice in telling the story, and the overall plot she tells us that is very compelling. We're taken through her day to day life: shopping with her friend, the occasional religious ceremony and sex with the commander (and his wife). All while telling us her life before all this and about the man she loved, Luke.
Enter the drama: she has forbidden meetings with the commander in which he...plays? with her. We're never fully told why he's doing what he's doing. nightly meetings to play scrabble, giving gifts she desires, etc. On the other hand, the commander's hateful wife is ready for a baby and is starting to think it's the commander's fault they're not getting pregnant, not Offred. BUT in this society, it is NEVER the male's fault. It brings us to patriarchy in the family how it used to be centuries ago. So she sets Offred up with one of the male servants to try to get pregnant with him and lie about who the baby's father is. Simple enough except Offred actually learns to enjoy sex enough with him and they begin a secret nightly relationship as well.
The ending.. The ending was near and I had NO idea if it would end good or bad. After reading this, I think Atwood didn't know how to end it either (good or bad) so she did what she did and...just ended it. Offred is taken away for reasons unknown and..That is it. Book over. I closed the book with a big WHAT on my lips.
Overall it's a compelling read and I definitely want to watch the TV show after this.
It's a dystopia novel, designed around a sort of old-fashioned world inside modern society...hard to explain really. It follows the story of Offred, a handmaid. The women in this society are divided up into different sections, with different purposes in life and different color clothing to identify them. The red handmaid's job is to be assigned to a commander when the commander's wife is unable to get pregnant. They have this whole special sexual ceremony they do when the handmaid and commander have sex to get her pregnant. It involves the wife right there with them. When a handmaid does get pregnant, the baby goes to the commander and his wife. For Offred this is her third commander and final chance to give a couple a child
Some people may call this book "slow" and maybe it is. But there was something about Offred's voice in telling the story, and the overall plot she tells us that is very compelling. We're taken through her day to day life: shopping with her friend, the occasional religious ceremony and sex with the commander (and his wife). All while telling us her life before all this and about the man she loved, Luke.
Enter the drama: she has forbidden meetings with the commander in which he...plays? with her. We're never fully told why he's doing what he's doing. nightly meetings to play scrabble, giving gifts she desires, etc. On the other hand, the commander's hateful wife is ready for a baby and is starting to think it's the commander's fault they're not getting pregnant, not Offred. BUT in this society, it is NEVER the male's fault. It brings us to patriarchy in the family how it used to be centuries ago. So she sets Offred up with one of the male servants to try to get pregnant with him and lie about who the baby's father is. Simple enough except Offred actually learns to enjoy sex enough with him and they begin a secret nightly relationship as well.
The ending.. The ending was near and I had NO idea if it would end good or bad. After reading this, I think Atwood didn't know how to end it either (good or bad) so she did what she did and...just ended it. Offred is taken away for reasons unknown and..That is it. Book over. I closed the book with a big WHAT on my lips.
Overall it's a compelling read and I definitely want to watch the TV show after this.