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A review by taisynn
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
5.0
I devoured all 300 pages in one sitting. Pretty much overnight. I will start by saying it took an adjustment period in order to get over the lack of quotation marks. Perhaps it was to really emphasize the lack of person, the lack of autonomy the various characters had, especially the handmaidens.
The book skips in and out of time, between the before and after, as a way of the character coping with her bleak life. She retreats into her past to remember her lost life. She went from being educated with a college degree, wearing flip flops and short shorts, to a full-bodied religious garb and strict religious rights, enforced in a brutal regime of abuse and death to force submission. Even the Wives, the Elite women along side the men, live in repression; they are allowed some luxuries, but still hidden behind a veil, not allowed to read or write, and live mostly like pampered pets.
This tells the story of one woman’s life from one of freedom, at the cost of the potential violence of modern, secular men, to being protected and guided under what amounts to slavery. The lack of a produced child is a death sentence.
It is dystopian in that many women cannot reproduce due to radioactive spills, fallout, as well as issues such as pollution and climate. Thus the subjugation of women, and those deemed lesser by the Elite. Breeding is a luxury as well as a need of the Elite. They use surrogates, using Biblical teachings as their rationale.
Characters are still human though. The Commander is at first a sympathetic curiosity, bonding over forbidden activities such as Scrabble and the reading of forbidden magazines and books. Yet as you get to know him, you are repulsed by his blatant disregard for women’s lives, and his feelings of entitlement to be able to bed different women. His exploitation is no different than the German Soldiers who took Jewish Mistresses; he has all the power to both protect and give substance to her bleak life, as well as the means to utterly destroy her at any point. She is disposable, while he is immune to consequences. It is a take of utter exploitation.
Margaret’s poetry voice is strong; it takes an adjustment period to start to understand, and the first 100 pages are rather slow, droll to a point. But like an artist, it starts with the beginning outlines of the picture, of a woman afraid to give more because she is utterly and totally repressed, and slowly colors in with the texture as the woman becomes more brave in her newfound luxuries and escapes.
10/10 would read again.
The book skips in and out of time, between the before and after, as a way of the character coping with her bleak life. She retreats into her past to remember her lost life. She went from being educated with a college degree, wearing flip flops and short shorts, to a full-bodied religious garb and strict religious rights, enforced in a brutal regime of abuse and death to force submission. Even the Wives, the Elite women along side the men, live in repression; they are allowed some luxuries, but still hidden behind a veil, not allowed to read or write, and live mostly like pampered pets.
This tells the story of one woman’s life from one of freedom, at the cost of the potential violence of modern, secular men, to being protected and guided under what amounts to slavery. The lack of a produced child is a death sentence.
It is dystopian in that many women cannot reproduce due to radioactive spills, fallout, as well as issues such as pollution and climate. Thus the subjugation of women, and those deemed lesser by the Elite. Breeding is a luxury as well as a need of the Elite. They use surrogates, using Biblical teachings as their rationale.
Characters are still human though. The Commander is at first a sympathetic curiosity, bonding over forbidden activities such as Scrabble and the reading of forbidden magazines and books. Yet as you get to know him, you are repulsed by his blatant disregard for women’s lives, and his feelings of entitlement to be able to bed different women. His exploitation is no different than the German Soldiers who took Jewish Mistresses; he has all the power to both protect and give substance to her bleak life, as well as the means to utterly destroy her at any point. She is disposable, while he is immune to consequences. It is a take of utter exploitation.
Margaret’s poetry voice is strong; it takes an adjustment period to start to understand, and the first 100 pages are rather slow, droll to a point. But like an artist, it starts with the beginning outlines of the picture, of a woman afraid to give more because she is utterly and totally repressed, and slowly colors in with the texture as the woman becomes more brave in her newfound luxuries and escapes.
10/10 would read again.