The Handmaid's Tale: A Novel

I will admit - Over the years, 'Handmaid' was one of those books everyone had told me just HAD to be read - but with the clear discomfort they'd show in saying that, I always thought - Nope; not for me. I'm just not one for the whole dystopian thing; I need to see some light at the end of the tunnel. Fast forward to last week - this book being required for my daughter's Eng Lit class, and sitting available while I was at loose ends in a Starbucks for several hours - I thought, Why not?... and how glad I am, that I had those few hours. Wow. I was gone, hook line and sinker, from the first page on. Handmaid is set in, yes, a dystopian future in which women's place in the world has been subverted, through various events which resonate awfully closely with current times. The story picks up at the moment when Offred (a concatenation of her "owner's" name and her position in this society) is assigned to a new home in a city in America, for reasons that become all too clear within a few short pages. Her experiences within this new environment, interwoven with her recollection of her past before this societal apocalypse, unveil themselves like the layers of an onion - a never-ending interweaving of recollections and current experiences which, in their close parallels with so much that seems to be happening in our current world, make it not just an uncomfortable read, as so many other reviewers have said; but an eerily prescient one for these times. I could go on about that aspect of what makes this such a valuable read for any person over the age of 10 years old, but I'm quite sure many of the 1,000 + prior reviewers will have spoken to that far more effectively than I ever could. But for me, what makes this book so great is the Voice that the protagonist gains as she struggles in such a harsh, unforgiving, and shockingly cruel environment - the brutal honesty with which that voice speaks to the horrors and impossible personal choices that any of us would have to make, faced with such a savagely misogynistic society. There is no turning away from those realities in this book; Offred is, clearly, no better than any of us; but, she is, perhaps, more honest about her choices than any of us would ever manage to be. She has no roads but dead ends; no feelings but pain, isolation, and tragic loss; in a society which both reviles her and yet absolutely, completely, stunningly, needs her. And yet. There is compassion - much compassion - in this book not just for Offred but for each of her persecutors; and a perfectly clear view, of each person in Offred's life, from the patriarchy which dictates every aspect of the lives of the Americans; to the women with whom she is forced to share the household; to the man who runs their lives - and in theory owns Offred, body and soul. Margaret Atwood has managed to capture the complete horror of this situation and yet the complete spectrum of needs and innate humanness - warts and all - of each of the players in this world, speaking with true sight not only about what they each do, but the real WHY of it, like a series of ornate but utterly constrained chess pieces moved about in a deadly game by unseen hands. Atwood's brilliance with the written word, the layers of meaning she assigns to so many individual words, is a both a challenge and a complete delight, no matter how difficult the topics she makes us consider. Each page is like unwrapping a gift of many layers of brightly colored paper, never knowing what you will ultimately find inside: something to treasure, or something to fear. Offred's voice and her observations of self, other, and society are so clear and beautiful, so bleak, sad and yet hopeful - so compelling - in making us see these people. There are many phrases and visions Atwood has generated that will stay with me, now, for life. I cannot say I am in all cases glad of that - but I know i am richer for it. And in reading many of the current, more negative responses of the Amazon reading community, I cannot help but wonder if their dislike of the book is in many cases driven precisely from Atwood's artistry with words. She holds up not a picture for us to view, but a mirror to reflect realities that in many cases no one in their right mind would want to see - they are far too close, too personal, too true. And yet - we MUST look. I do not see, as some others do, a depressing endgame in this book; quite the opposite. Offred's determination to survive no matter what the cost and her slow but relentless growth to her own form of power and eventual rebellion, is not so much a story as a roadmap. We could all do well by, like Offred, looking with clear eyes at this dystopian imagining. If, at the end of the day, this book leaves you uncomfortable or depressed or angry - good, if at the same time it also manages to leave you unsettled. Atwood's intent was never to entertain you but to inform you - and that, she does with a master's deft hand. Three days and counting. What will we learn in Atwood's new book? I look forward, with a perfectly uncomfortable blend of anticipation and anxiety, dread and hope, to the answer to that question.

I'm not sure if some of the words are spelled a certain way because of an accent or something but there seems to be quite a few typos if not. Otherwise it's an amazing book. The show inspired me to want to read the book and it did not disappoint.

You need not fear this amazing novel. Let me just say that this is a heavy read--emotionally, mentally, spiritually, and yes, physically! First, this book never truly lets you set it down because of how harrowing the content within is. The main character is Offred, and she is so multifaceted and deeply human. I love how this book incorporates themes of love, sacrifice, fear, triumph, and unscrupulous denigration to make a blend that truly highlights the horrors of misogynistic, theocratic societies that hinder women's abilities to free movement, property ownership, and bodily autonomy. For anyone who's ever pondered why Christian Nationalism is such an ominous threat to American society, look no further. This book has gotten a lot of flak for downtrodding on men, but it is justified because there are many men who do genuinely think that the society of Gilead is somehow noble and empowers women when it instead subjugates them against their will to men who don't understand consensual relationships. I am also elated by the fact that this book draws upon real historical regimes that have put restrictions on their female-half of the population via the clever use of a small cohort of women who serve the purpose of the state to save their own skin while oppressing other women; in the story this is represented by the Aunts. So please, please, please, read this book and you shall be eternally enlightened and left much more cognizant of why we can never allow a place like Gilead to come to fruition and foment staunch advocates.

There may be possible light spoilers ahead: Read at your own risk! As scary as the whole total subjugation of the female species would be I was honestly just as appalled by the fact that women were not allowed to read. I could think of nothing more boring than that. That out of the way my opinion of the book is mixed. It is written as though in present tense but, as you find out later, it is not. The effect of that is that the memories that she is recalling do not seem immediate or intense at all. Her missing her husband and longing for her child just do not resound with the reader because she barely sounds like she misses them. The narrative skips around a lot, back and forth through time, often from paragraph to paragraph so if that and things like dropped quotation marks bug you then this may not be the book for you. However, it does fit with the way the story is told. One thing that bothered me a lot was her dangling information just out of your reach. Purposely. And to the point it got very irritating. Want to know that happens to Offred? Too bad. How about Luke and their daughter? Nope. Nick? What the women got hung for? Anything that might have raised a spark of curiosity? Nope, nope and nope again. And what is really infuriating is that she wrote an afterword, as though scholars were studying the Gileadean society. She could have used this as an opportunity to answer some of the questions she raises but no, just takes it as an opportunity to rub our noses in the fact that yet again she decides to withhold information. Which would have felt a little cheap but would have been better than nothing. Two things I found very disturbing about the book. The first is the way the women treated each other. Even though the other women had basically been ripped from their lives as well ( The cooks and the housekeepers and so on) they seem to be pretty laid-back as to what has happened to them and to adjust pretty quickly. And everyone looks down on and seems to scorn the Handmaidens. Even though they (the Handmaidens) have been ripped from their lives and families and pretty much forced into a rape contract where if they don't reproduce they will be killed, the other women in the novel show an amazing lack of compassion. For each other, also. It is made clear that the Wives hate the Handmaidens but almost seem to act like they wanted to become breeders. I actually found that the most disturbing of all. Maybe I think to well of the human race but I would hope that in a similar situation the women would at least have an iota of compassion towards each other. The other thing is that the book pretty much sends the message that the men in your life, no matter what, will jump at the chance to disempower you and enjoy your subjection. Even the good ones secretly want it. There are also some plot holes that since she doesn't seem to want to answer questions about it remain gaping. For instance: The reasoning behind the Handmaids is that there aren't enough children and that everyone desperately wants one. Ok, fine. But then you learn about an unofficial Commander's club called Jezebel's which is basically a brothel. It is stated that all of the women that work there have had an operation to prevent getting pregnant because "think of what kind of problems that would cause" in the words of one character. Um, I don't really get that. Everyone is so desperate for children yet they are cutting off a very large avenue of reproduction. That is one of the questions but there are many more like it. It almost feels like the author couldn't think of workable solutions and so just left it vague. All of this may sound like I did not like the book but I did. It's a good book, it just has its problems.

I am a fan on Hulu's The Handmaid's Tale, I eagerly awaited the final season. I think they made quite an extension of the book. I wasn't sure what to expect inside the book, but the dystopian world in which Atwood created blew me away. I actually wanted more, I wished to see more inside their government & I'm glad the TV series delved into it. I was very surprised at the book's ending! I thought our center Handmaid would have a different ending, in the very last chapter they talk about finding these cassette tapes with her story on them & I would have liked to read some more of what was on them & what became of her after Gilead, but overall I'm satisfied with the novel & was glad I finally read the book the inspired the series.

This book follows our FMC, named Offred, as she works as a handmaid. This name is not her true name, which she is not allowed to use in this new form of reality in a country known as Gilead. The country of Gilead appeared after the United States fell apart. Handmaids are used by the higher-ups in the community, called Commanders, and their wives in order to cause pregnancies that would lead to children the commanders and their wives could say are their own. Offred's thoughts are focused more on finding her husband and daughter after they were separated when she was captured to become a handmaid. She is not sure if they are alive or dead and that is what fuels her to want to search for them. ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– I've read this book before, years ago, and didn't realize how much my thoughts would change during my second read-through. I'm genuinely nervous about the events that are playing out in the United States now and wonder if this will turn into our reality soon enough. I think that's what I'm most nervous about in the long run. I'm nervous that we'll end up losing the freedoms our forefathers fought for all those years ago. Yikes. I'm not amused. I don't want to have to look over my shoulder on a constant basis, obviously. I did like the narrator for the audio version of this book. I enjoyed her voice but I don't know what it is about her voice that I enjoyed so much. I guess I found it soothing in a way, which is really weird with the subject matter being what it is. I know my take on this is weird but here we are. The subject matter makes me feel weirded out and the epilogue at the end just heightens my reaction of feeling weirded out. I love the "found footage" aspect that we don't realize is there until the very end. I'm not sure if Ms. Atwood meant to end up writing "The Testaments" or not but the ending is making me aggro. I wanted to find out what happened to Offred! lol I don't know if we find out what happens to her in "The Testaments" but I guess I'll find out. lol I haven't read it yet. I mean, I'm not sure if I'd recommend this book with the events actively going on in the United States at the moment. If you have triggers surrounding today's political horizon, please avoid this book with a 50-foot pole.

I had purchased this book quite some time ago when a friend of mine mention it to me... I had thoughts of Fifty Shades of Grey which I had purchased because another individual had liked it... Let me say right away that I read less than 50 pages of the latter and stopped reading. On the other hand, when in a discussion with a good friend, I was talking about the latest attempt to control women, looking to stop the use of an abortion pill that was been on the market for decades... At that point, she cried "OMG, The Handmaiden is Happening! After that conversation was over and I was home, I pulled up my copy of The Handmaid's Tale. It seemed like I was led to be reading it now... I knew immediately what my friend meant. At the end, I began to read the Historical Notes, but at first overlooked the date 2195... I went in search of what is referred to as the Gileadean Regime. Which was to have been the time during which a religious group had taken over America... Suddenly I had to agree. The Handmaid's Tale was now moving forward as had begun during the beginning of the decade... See my blog post for relevant videos I found... Women have been talking about this book since 2016, in particular! The main character is a young woman, much like my friend, who has a loving husband and a child. Soon, both of them have disappeared and she never sees them again. As we watch the woman, now given another name, she imagines what might have happened to her family. And she strives to remember the past, what was happening in her life and in the world... She is not allowed to have any contact with that world; she remembers though and hopes she will not lose those memories--of Luke, her husband and her child, a little girl... Once during the book, a picture of her daughter was shared by the wife of the man who now owned her... She wants a child enough that she is willing to bargain with his Handmaid... There are three handmaids for his man. We never know exactly who or what he does. It is irrelevant since they are closeted away and are only seen when sex is to occur. Both of the prospective parents are included in this charade... It is described in the book; it is terrible to visualize... And then after been raped by her owner a number of times, she arranges through his driver to have her visit him in his office. Interestingly, he asks her to play a board game... As time goes by, he introduces a magazine no longer in print, having been banned, and allows her to sit in the room to read it; he sits watching her... and they talk. He shares that he and his wife no longer talk to each other like they once did. He misses that. She now talks mostly with the wives of other owners, as they are permitted to interact only with them... It seems that every woman who is living at the time, has been given a job in their new locations... Marthas, for instance are the cooks, obviously named after the two sisters in the Bible, Martha being the one who quickly prepares a meal when Jesus visits... But there is little to do about religion in this world in which has been created... except what is important to ensure that women know their places... the reason seems to be close to what is being spouted now... white women are not now producing enough children... something had to be done... work was no longer possible. The women needed to be free to be available for those times when it was possible to get pregnant. Nothing else mattered. The entire book is centered into one household full of women--and one older man. Other men may work for the man as well; but the women all had specific tasks. And those who "believed" in what was happening were called Aunts; they were to train, supervise, and, if necessary, punish the handmaids. A cow prod was used. Soon the woman who has a new name is comfortable enough with the head of the house to have him ask her if she would like to have an adventure... She is taken to what we would call a brothel, she is dressed for the occasion from old, use, sex-oriented clothing that has been hidden away after all such activities were forbidden in the world... Only men of the Gilead Regime were members of the Club... And, yes, it was a sex club where the leaders of the group participated in their sexual interests--beyond what were performed with the Handmaids... Sound familiar? As you may already have realized, many of the things that were now forbidden for women in the book have already started occurring, based upon the move by a presidential candidate and his followers. There have been many women caught by the state congresses to stop abortions for religious reasons, it seems. I am one of the many Christians who do not accept that the Christian Nationalist Party has anything to do with God our Father... And, for me, Jesus His Son... If you have had any questions regarding this matter, I highly recommend you start reading...before it, too, is banned... The Handmaid's Tale spotlights exactly what will be happening to any woman if the party candidate (or his down-ballot candidates) are elected into office in 2024. In my opinion, there is no better way to see how religion as a single authority results in America going backward in progressive changes made during the last 100 years. Voting will be eliminated... All books of any kind will be removed... Women will be divided into groups, some of whom will be training young women to have unwelcomed sex with their new owner(s). Wives will be...tolerated...or ignored altogether... We have already seen that rape and incest are not to be factors in deciding about having an abortion. Indeed, no medical issues can affect the birth moving to completion, even if the new baby dies in the mother's arms soon thereafter. She will then be expected to begin again to provide a way to provide heirs for old men whose wives are past the age... This book prophesized it; we have not choice as women--we must speak out against it! I consider this a must-read for every woman, and man who will be left without a wife or forced to give up all children from their marriage... Margaret Atwood watched what was happening. She wrote a futuristic novel to illustrate what she foresaw... I, too, believe, "The Handmaid Tale is NOW Happening..." GABixlerReviews

The Handmaid's Tale is a relatively "old" book in that it was first published in 1985, but it is still popular/well-known. This is not surprising as Margaret Atwood is one of those author’s whose work will endure as "literature" and she will still be well known in 100 years. That is, unless the Handmaid's Tale is prophetic and all secular literature is burned. Don't worry, it won't be. However, it does have some elements that could be argued as being a caricature of modern day happenings. There are plenty of reviews out there that give a run down of the plot and how they feel it's all happening right now. No doubt many of these reviews are from women, and justifiably so since this book "speaks to them". So I'm going to discuss the subtext of the novel, and hopefully, I can get a few guys to read this book because there is stuff in it for them. The background story is that The United States has been taken over by religious fundamentalists. The religion is never mentioned by name, but it is clearly Christian/Jewish/Islamic. When it comes to their respective flavors of fundamentalism, they all bear a striking resemblance to one another whether they want to admit it or not. This is not surprising, since they all worship the same god and use overlapping religious texts. If you're curious about the tale of how this happened, this is not the book for you. After all, this is the Handmaid's Tale. All you get is the story of one woman starting probably about 10 years after an event called "The President's Day Massacre", i.e. the coup where the fundamentalists took over. Personally, I do not think such a regime could take over in such a simple manner, but what followed after the coup is more plausible. As I said, we don't get much of this story directly, but we hear snippets of how, slowly, over the course of weeks and months, oppressive policies are implemented and they are always implemented for the same reasons that such policies are implemented today. Namely, the safety of the public, the betterment of society, etc. At the same time, women are slowly and unequally stripped of their rights. If you think that women could never be usurped of their identities in this way, and no one would stand for it, blah, blah, blah. You are wrong. All it takes is the right social pressure. Imagine a scenario where the number of women capable of bearing children is cut to a small percentage. They then become a "national resource". (My words, not the author's.) When it comes to resources, there will always be people (usually men, and this is coming from a man) in power who will want to exploit and seize control of such resources. This is how such things can happen. And this is the scenario used by Atwood in The Handmaid's Tale. When I was younger, I probably would never have bought that line of reasoning and not terribly enjoyed this story. As I've aged to a venerable 40 years and some of my Platonic idealism has tarnished, I have learned to accept that "the masses" don't get as outraged as individuals do. Most of the time, groups of people are scared when it comes to dramatic change and accept it if fed the line that it is temporary and for the good of all. Most of the time, these changes are never about being for the good of all, they are simply about control. A past example to show even women are not above this: The Temperance movement to abolish alcohol. Propelled by religious minded women, fresh with their new ability to vote. Despite Jesus being pro-wine they felt it their duty to rid the world of drink. You can argue the details all you want, but at the end of the day, it was about asserting power and control. A modern example: For the past 12 years, the U. S. citizens have been force fed the line that we are all living under a faceless threat of "Terror" and in this time we have fought two wars, one of which we are still fighting, and most of us don't really know why, other than we are "fighting terror". These wars are not as openly covered as the Vietnam War, because our government has learned that atrocities that are not visited daily are quickly forgotten because people prefer to stick their head in the sand. And so people forget. They don't get outraged. They simply accept the situation because it is supposedly temporary, for the good of us all, for all our safety, blah, blah, blah. What are we looking to control? Some say oil, others say that the area is strategically located real estate. Regardless, it is about control. So do I think a "fast coup" could take over and make such radical changes? No. But a slow insidious change over the course of a decade or two? Well, I have seen it with my own eyes, so yes, the scenario in The Handmaid's Tale is plausible to me, but I know that such a shift would happen over years, not months. Anyone who thinks otherwise is sticking their fingers in their ears, closing their eyes, and repeating the above blah, blah, blahs. A possible future example that's been a long time in the making: During the 80's (my youth) religious fundamentalists (in this country) blew up abortion clinics because they were outraged and wanted change. Presumably, they wanted things to return to the way they were when abortions were illegal, in back allies with coat hangers. Just in my lifetime, they have since learned that getting people upset only motivates them to stand with or against you. And if you're the one blowing up teenagers, it's tough to motivate people to stand with you. They have taken their fight political, a realm where everybody's eyes glaze over and become dispassionate, and they have slowly set about making laws against birth control and abortion clinics. As someone who is pro-choice, I can't say all of these laws are bad. Many are simply requiring clinics to uphold standard medical cleanliness practices. The laws that really hurt, are the laws that reduce or eliminate funding preventing the clinics from having the money to be able to upgrade their facilities and are forced to shut down. You can tell this is about the control of others and not about any religious objection because the number one cited religious reason is the belief that life begins at conception. Rather than supporting research for birth control that simply prevents conception, they politically attack all avenues of abortion and birth control. So even if you address their concerns, it does not change the way they behave. Leaving the examples and subtext behind, back to the story at hand. The Handmaid's Tale is true literature, thus by practical definition, this makes the story a little slow and boring at points. When I was in college, I had to take plenty of slow and boring classes that I thought were of minimal value. However, I quickly learned that it is possible to garner lessons from and learn something from every class and that is what I set out to do. I took it upon myself to walk away with something for my time and money. This book requires that same model of thought. Even after 28 years, there is a wealth of intriguing thought experiments that went into the writing of this story and a similar trove for those willing to consider the next step of reasoning, but you have to be willing to dig for that gold. And there you have it. The subtext of The Handmaid's tale is a marvellously thought provoking book about the subtleties that go into how societies change, but if you're not interested in thinking, move on to something formulated for entertainment purposes this is not the novel for you.

Já tinha assistido à série homônima de TV e achei ótimo o livro.

Un libro maravillosamente escrito por una de las grandes de la literatura contemporánea. Una fantástica historia distópica, perfectamente escrita, en primera persona que te sumerge de lleno en una sociedad donde las mujeres son meros objetos con distintos fines dependiendo de su clase social. Fanatismo religioso se mezcla con una dictadura militar, en un libro que amas y odias al mismo tiempo.

Çok ilgili ve kibar bir satıcı :) Hediye kitap için çok teşekkür ederim :))

It came impeccable.

One of the worst book I have ever read such a chore to read and not worth it at all