The Handmaid's Tale

by ,

9 audio discs (approximately 11 hr., 6 min.)

English language

Published 2012

4 stars (3 reviews)

The Handmaid's Tale is a radical departure for Margaret Atwood. Set in the near future, in a locale that oddly resembles Cambridge, Massachusetts, it describes life in what was once the United States. Now, however, it has become the Republic of Gilead, a monolithic theocracy that has reacted to social unrest and a sharply declining birthrate by reverting to the repressive intolerance of the original Puritans, and has gone far beyond them. This regime takes the Book of Genesis absolutely at its word, with bizarre consequences for women, and for men as well.

The story is told through the eyes of Offred, one of the unfortunate "Handmaids" under the new social order. In condensed but eloquent prose, by turns cool-eyed, tender, despairing, passionate, and wry, she reveals to us the dark corners behind the establishment's calm facade, as certain tendencies now in existence are carried to their logical conclusions.

The …

47 editions

reviewed The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

Well written, disturbing

3 stars

This work was well written. I would say I liked it three stars. Definitely left me feeling uneasy, and honestly quite hopeless. In part I think that is what the author was going for. A speculative fiction work based in a North American society that has taken Calvinist fundamentalism to the extreme. Including, but not limited to, forbidding "baren" wives from fornicating with their husbands, instead forcing a "hand maid' to move in in which they have a breeding ceremony once a month to try to impregnate her with everyone watching. Its been said that when Atwood only put things in here that already existed somewhere in the world in 1980s. Maybe in Iran? I'm not sure. Seems far-fetched even for such repressive regimes. I was disappointed that the story kind of just ended. Nothing resolved, and it certainly wasn't happy (or maybe it was, we really don't know). The …

reviewed La servante écarlate by Margaret Atwood

Not so speculative fiction

5 stars

I was warned this book is not a fun one. Indeed it is not.

You get to see the omnipresent fear and violence of a patriarchal surveillance state. You get to see how it got there, little by little, and how it got accepted. The disturbing part is that it is very much believable...

I hadn't seen since Orwell's "1984" the effect of a totalitarian system on an individual so well described, especially at an individual level. You get to see how a single mind resists or breaks when faced with such overwhelming brutal and oppressive environment.

It is definitely worth reading, especially when you keep in mind the fact that Atwood has been censored in several US states.

avatar for fu

rated it

3 stars

Subjects

  • Man-woman relationships
  • Misogyny
  • Fiction
  • Women
  • Dystopias
  • brothels
  • Scrabble
  • Christian fundamentalism
  • revolution
  • military dictatorship
  • Old Testament
  • religious fanaticism
  • totalitarianism
  • theonomy
  • handmaids
  • United States Congress
  • fantasy fiction
  • Canadian fantasy fiction
  • Dystopian fiction
  • Canadian authors
  • theocracy
  • pregnancy
  • political fiction
  • science fiction
  • Canadian fiction (fictional works by one author)
  • Man-woman relationships, fiction
  • Fiction, fantasy, general
  • Fiction, dystopian
  • Comics & graphic novels, adaptations
  • Comics & graphic novels, literary
  • Comics & graphic novels, fantasy
  • Theocracy
  • Pregnancy