The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
|
List Price: Our Price: $7.27 You Save: $7.73 (52%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $1.42 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of The Handmaid's Tale
Book Review: Atwood's Masterpiece
Summary: 5 Stars
"I wish this story were different. I wish it were more civilized. I wish it showed me in a better light, if not happiness, then at least more active." So says master writer Margaret Atwood regarding her tour de force, The Handmaid's Tale. Set in the future (in what is currently Massachusetts), Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale is the chilling portrayal of a totalitarian society as told through the eyes of a Handmaid named Offred. Offred, who can remember the time when she had a home, a husband and a daughter, now serves as a "birth vessel" and is valued only for her powers of reproduction.Offred (her name was derived from "of" and the name of her own Commander, "Fred") is forced to live her life in a new dictatorship called the Republic of Gilead. Offred is allowed to leave her Commander's home only once each day; her freedom, like that of other ordinary civilians, has been stripped from her and she exists at the mercy of the heads of state who are known as the Commanders.
The Republic of Gilead, however, is a society in the midst of crisis. Its land and atmosphere have been polluted by nuclear waste and all but a handful of the population has been rendered barren. Those infertile women, women who will never, or never again, reproduce, are known as "Unwomen," and are sent to the Colonies where they must toil as laborers with no privileges, working to clean up the nuclear waste. The only exceptions are the infertile Wives of the Commanders. Women lucky enough to still retain their fertility, like Offred, are considered a treasured "object" of society and one whose role is to bear children for the Wives of the Commanders who cannot. In the Republic of Gilead they have a saying, "There's no such thing as a sterile man...there are only women who are barren." Offred, though, knows that in this nuclear aftermath, sterile men do, indeed, exist, and so she prays for a baby; not a baby that she, herself, wants to love, but one that will keep her from the dreaded fate of the "Unwomen."
Many of the events in The Handmaid's Tale are derived from the biblical story of Leah and Rachel and Atwood has chosen to use many biblical names throughout the book. There are Handmaids and Marthas, Angels and Guardians and many others.
The Handmaid's Tale is written in Atwood's masterful prose but this is not a linear tale. Be prepared to drop back in time, then flash forward, then drop back again. The writing, though, flows effortlessly and Atwood, as always, manages to keep readers riveted to the page.
Although many people might feel that The Handmaid's Tale is too futuristic to be plausible, many of the events depicted have happened or are happening somewhere in the world at this very moment. It doesn't take more than a few minutes to recall places where gender discrimination and human rights have all but been stripped away. Atwood, herself, said, "One of the things I avoided doing was describing anything in the novel that didn't happen in this world."
Chilling, moving, vivid, terrifying and sometimes even humorous, The Handmaid's Tale is a profoundly moral story. It is a true masterpiece of power and grace that will someday attain the status of a classic.
Book Review: Atwood's Masterpiece
Summary: 5 Stars
"I wish this story were different. I wish it were more civilized. I wish it showed me in a better light, if not happiness, then at least more active." So says master writer Margaret Atwood regarding her tour de force, The Handmaid's Tale. Set in the present-day Massachusetts of the future, Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale is the chilling portrayal of a totalitarian society as told through the eyes of a Handmaid named Offred. Offred, who can remember the time when she had a home, a husband and a daughter, now serves as a "birth vessel" and is valued only for her powers of reproduction.Offred (her name was derived from "of" and the name of her own Commander, "Fred") is forced to live her life in a new dictatorship called the Republic of Gilead. Offred is allowed to leave her Commander's home only once each day; her freedom, like that of other ordinary civilians, has been stripped from her and she exists at the mercy of the heads of state who are known as the Commanders.
The Republic of Gilead, however, is a society in the midst of crisis. Its land and atmosphere have been polluted by nuclear waste and all but a handful of the population has been rendered barren. Those infertile women, women who will never, or never again, reproduce, are known as "Unwomen," and are sent to the Colonies where they must toil as laborers with no privileges, working to clean up the nuclear waste. The only exceptions are the infertile Wives of the Commanders. Women lucky enough to still retain their fertility, like Offred, are considered a treasured "object" of society and one whose role is to bear children for the Wives of the Commanders who cannot. In the Republic of Gilead they have a saying, "There's no such thing as a sterile man...there are only women who are barren." Offred, though, knows that in this nuclear aftermath, sterile men do, indeed, exist, and so she prays for a baby; not a baby that she, herself, wants to love, but one that will keep her from the dreaded fate of the "Unwomen."
Many of the events in The Handmaid's Tale are derived from the biblical story of Leah and Rachel and Atwood has chosen to use many biblical names throughout the book. There are Handmaids and Marthas, Angels and Guardians and many others.
The Handmaid's Tale is written in Atwood's masterful prose but this is not a linear tale. Be prepared to drop back in time, then flash forward, then drop back again. The writing, though, flows effortlessly and Atwood, as always, manages to keep readers riveted to the page.
Although many people might feel that The Handmaid's Tale is too futuristic to be plausible, many of the events depicted have happened or are happening somewhere in the world at this very moment. It doesn't take more than a few minutes to recall places where gender discrimination and human rights have all but been stripped away. Atwood, herself, said, "One of the things I avoided doing was describing anything in the novel that didn't happen in this world."
Chilling, moving, vivid, terrifying and sometimes even humorous, The Handmaid's Tale is a profoundly moral story. It is a true masterpiece of power and grace that will someday attain the status of a classic.
Book Review: handmaids
Summary: 5 Stars
Though I am not a female, I am intrigued by the strong feminism evident in this book, so I do recommend this book. Margaret Eleanor Atwood warns her audience of the insidious, lurking sexism and male superiority that can arise at any instant in contemporary society. Because the book is a feminist protest, it argues that women are being dominated by men through a subtle and unnoticeable tendency, and Atwood's purpose is to reveal that very innate unconsciousness of human nature that is imperceptible to society.
Though she is from a feminist point of view, Atwood directs her book's content towards all types of audiences - male and female, antifeminists and feminists, through its subtle satire and dramatizing of an improbable futuristic society. Because this book is a dystopian fiction, it is all just a speculation, futuristic and unnecessarily realistic. However, the whole point of the novel is to argue the fact that the natural tendency of government is to have a society run by male domination. Though the citizens might not perceive of this insidious trend, Atwood argues that it will inevitably happen if society does not notice and stop it before it is too late. Much of this ultimate male domination is due to the fact that the repercussions of male power are devastating. As men begin to gain more power, they are eager to exercise their newfound authority, and thus they unknowingly crave for more power at the expense women equality. Supporting an egalitarian society, Margaret Atwood stresses the importance of realizing the natural inclination for human society to drift into a male dominated government, and the only way to prevent this ultimate devastation is to start today and protect women rights and equality.
This book does not so much include allusions, but it is in itself a whole allusion that parallels the theme of a previously written book. Both taking place in the near future, Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale and Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 are dystopian novels that reveal the terrifying plausibility that constitutional freedom can be readily taken away, thus both authors stress the need to preserve that valuable right. Also, it somewhat resembles Orwell's 1984, as it also concocts a theoretical dystopian world.
Margaret Atwood's Handmaid's Tale should be read slowly, because it requires a prodigious amount of attention to detail as it is written as a satire. Because satire is increasingly subtle in higher works of literature, this novel deserves a very close read between the lines. Much of the light humor is attributed to the style and, in this instance, the tone dominates the humor. At first glance, the novel may seem centered on serious matters of a male dominated society, but a closer read would unravel a whole new point of view under a different light - one that is light and sarcastic. Therefore, it is imperative that The Handmaid's Tale be read under a close magnification, because of Atwood's use of a satirical tone
This book is thought provoking, because it makes me reflect on today's government and the way our society is organized. I wonder if our constitutional rights are truly secured or are we all just conditioned to believe that our rights are secured?
Book Review: Frighteningly Prescient
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a work of speculative fiction that takes place in a dystopia of the near future, a totalitarian government in the former United States.The particulars of the story serve to describe this society and I will not go into the details here as they are available in the editorial reviews, except to say that because the society's repressive laws are misogynous and are couched in terms of Biblical laws and mythologies it may seem to be an indictment of evangelical Christianity and it is actually so much further reaching than that. Subtle warnings about a clever and devious conservative white male think tank that in all probability is utterly devoid of any actual spiritual motivation and whose primary focus is the self-preservation of their elite privileged lifestyle in the face of its own self-destructive biological consequences are to be found here. Subtle warnings abound in this story and it behooves one to look at oneself as well. Short-sightedness and perfunctory utility are the destroyers of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
This is a well-realized society that Atwood has created, one that is utterly repressive in every way. The book is well-paced, well written and masterfully conceived. So complex and thought provoking is the book that it is one of the few modern day works of fiction to be the subject of a Cliffs Notes study guide.
I found it particularly interesting that this book was published in 1985 and yet it warns of a paperless society, plastic and numerical money, and universal identification cards among other aspects of modern times that do, in fact, seem to be a coming reality. Ironically, the narrator of the story, a completely objectified, sexual commodity, enslaved and utterly repressed by the government, prior to the coups d'etat, worked as a transcriber in a university library and her task was to transcribe books onto compact disks in order to maximize space. As long as she still had the illusion of liberty and was being paid, she never questioned the danger of her job to civil liberty as a whole. Atwood's allusion to the reality in modern times of an insidious Fahrenheit 451 attitude, ostensibly for practicality's sake, is just one of the chilling warnings presented in this book.
In one passage of remarkably prescient writing Atwood describes the actual day of the takeover thus: "It was after the catastrophe, when they shot the president and machine-gunned the Congress and the army declared a state of emergency. They blamed it on the Islamic fanatics, at the time. Keep calm, they said on television. Everything is under control."
I find it exceedingly interesting and frightening that our true-life catastrophe of 9-11 has already caused us to lower our guard and allow serious incursions into our civil liberties. We, like the Handmaid Offred in her earlier life, seem to be unconcerned so long as we are still getting paid and are still allowed our own personal familiar comforts. We are so complacent and so trusting. This book was a wake-up call seventeen years ago when it was published and today it is a warning siren against a gathering storm that we dare not plug our ears to ignor. Read it and think.
Book Review: A Must-Read for Anyone Who Cares about Women's Rights
Summary: 5 Stars
Margaret Atwood, a Canadian novelist (and poet) has written a dark fantasy. The novel is set in The Republic of Gilead, formerly the United States, or at least the parts of it that are not radioactive. The radioactive parts are called the colonies, where bad girls are sent to die of radiation poisoning. The time is the near future, after the inevitable nuclear war, and the breakdown of government as we know it.
This novel was a. Book of the Month Club featured alternate. However, that was a long time ago. It would never be recognized or honored in today's political environment.
The society depicted in The Handmaid's Tale is a nightmare: everyone is watched by the Eyes, possibly the successor to the FBI or CIA, or a home-grown version of the religious police found in some fundamentalist countries in the Middle East. Women are strictly controlled. They are forbidden to have jobs. They may have no money of their own. They are irrevocably assigned to classes.. There are, at the top, the chaste, but morally superior, Wives, almost all of whom have been rendered infertile by the inevitable nuclear war. At the bottom are the housekeepers, or Marthas, who are non-entities. In the middle are the Handmaids of the title, who are fertile, but tightly controlled. Handmaids are forced to have sex with the Commanders, the husbands of the Wives. During this sex, the Wives are intimately present to take in any "love" their Commanders have to give.
The Handmaids are trained to remain unattached to the Commanders. They are prohibited from using makeup or doing anything to make themselves attractive. Handmaids are forced to turn their offspring over to the Wives.
The government is totalitarian and monotheistic. The one god is very strict, and has His Eyes everywhere.
The tale is narrated by Offred. (Her name is derived from: "of Fred", since she exists only because of a man.) Offred is a Handmaid who, despite her training (read brainwashing), recalls her past, her loving husband, and her adored daughter. She tells with sparkling, and terrifying clarity, how the society came to be the way it is.
This governmental aspect of the story is instructive.
A coup d'etat is executed by a group of hardcore fundamentalists. They machine gun the Congress. They then use this lawlessness as an excuse to permanently suspend the Constitution. These religious rebels then enact into "law" an amazingly contemporary assortment of violations of human rights.
Offred's personal story is heartrending. It reminds one of the miseries of, say, the women of Darfur. When the government breaks down, she and her husband and daughter attempt to flee to Canada. Unfortunately, they are caught. Her daughter is "confiscated." Her husband is taken away. She never sees her husband again.
Offred's "training" is described at length and in great detail.
Atwood's writing is compelling. The story is a must-read for anyone with a political conscience.