The Handmaid's Tale

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Summary: Fictional America - Real Afghanistan
Review: While The Handmaid's Tale describes a fictionalized (thank goodness) America, it is not too far removed from the conditions women have to endure in modern day Afghanistan. Anyone who is the least bit concerned about the 2001 Mid-East conflict should read this book. It gives a human side to this issue that statistics and tactical reports can't approach.

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Summary: Take Nothing For Granted
Review: This is not a medieval tale; the time is the not-too-distant future; the place: probably in what we know as Boston, MA. The government is a combination of brutal dictatorship with a Luddite cast of mind. Women have lost all rights and are to think of themselves as pure vessels of procreation-that is when they think at all.

The book is presented in diary form, one that has been written after the fact. We never know our heroine's birth name. She, like her fellow handmaids, is christened anew when she is posted to a new assignment. A handmaid's job is to get pregnant by the high-ranking husband-of-the-house who hired her. If there is a resulting child, it belongs to her employer and his wife. The birth rate is very low and live births are few. If she succeeds, she is given another post. If she fails after three posts, she is banished or worse. Her present singularly ugly name is "Offred." Her employer is "Fred" and she is merely "of Fred."

Offred is an intelligent, sometimes lyrical woman, who in the very recent past had a husband, child and career before the upheaval. She is often suicidally depressed, but tries very hard to resign herself to the present without completely losing her sense of the past. She is lyrical and evocative and has a shrewd eye for her fellow humans. She accepts but does not respect the laws and persons she lives under.

Many of these reviews are by students that were forced to read this novel on assignment. I was fortunate to come by it by happy chance. I sympathize with being directed to read; I have never enjoyed George Eliot or William Wordsworth for that very reason. However, Offred has much to proffer and does so in an engaging manner. Her situation is dire. Her description of sexual intercourse with her employer vividly emphasizes her shame and the low caste she has been assigned. The customs surrounding the birth of a child are repulsive, prudish nonsense.

I did not see "Handmaiden" as a feminist tract. It seemed to me the men were just as regimented and unhappy as the women. I enjoyed this well-told futuristic story and recommend it. You can even provide your own ending.

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Summary: A Handmaidenly Handful of Fear
Review: Picture a world, not far in the future; consisting of low birth rates, oppressed females, religions, constant wars, and a never-ending battle for freedom of thought. That is the type of setting presented in Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. This book tells the tale of Offred, who happens to be one of the few handmaids in the world. A Handmaid is a woman who is used as a tool for the leaders of the world in order to procreate. Sound scary? You have no idea. Atwood describes a world full of fear and oppression that is easily portrayed through the narrative of Offred. With her harrowing words, Offred describes the people, places, and her thoughts quite clearly, leaving readers only in the wake of her emotions. She speaks to the readers personally about her contact with an underground organization, her past, the events leading up to the present, her secret affair, and much much more. All I can say is that this book holds you in a grip of anticipation and mystery as to how the set of events will unfold. The only thing you can do while reading this book, is to hold on for a wild ride of excitement and suspense. This book is a change from Atwood's common writing style, but she seems to handle it like a pro. You will definitely feel a sense of satisfaction when you put this book down. I highly recommend it.

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Summary: More relevant than ever
Review: It was probably not a coincidence that Atwood wrote this novel in the year 1984, as it fits right into the futuristic genre that George Orwell's famous book typifies. Right now that there is such a focus on the Taliban in Afghanistan, a regime that eerily echoes the Republic of Gilead, the revelations in this book might sharpen our thinking. The Handmaid's Tale is considered a feminist novel, which it is, but it so much more. It is a warning against destroying the enviroment, a plea against zealotry on the right and on the left, a tragedy of human nature, a fable of religion gone wrong, a satire on delusional public figures such as Phyllis Schafly, and a reminder that feminism is part of humanism and the two need each other for sustanence. It's also more than a moral and political novel. In fact, I recommend reading it twice, the first time for her characters and her powerful description of her creation, the Republic of Gilead, and the second time for the literary play. The Handmaid's Tale in a generic novel that subverts its genre's assumptions. It is a play on the modernist affectation of the kalediscoped (and unreliable) narration. It is one of the few novels that I can admire on both its cleverness and its honesty, classing it with something like Lolita in my estimation. It far surpasses its inspiration.

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Summary: Absolutely my favorite!
Review: The Handmaid's Tale is absolutely my favorite book by my favorite author. It's a stunning combination of absolutely amazing social commentary and just plain fascinating fiction. I sound like I'm gushing, I know, but this book really is that good. If you've never read Atwood, start with this one; if you've never read it and don't like some of Atwood's other work, read this anyway. It's wonderful, and very eye-opening. Just read it.

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Summary: Not her best, but very good.
Review: This is the second Atwood novel I've read. While it's quite good, I think it falls short of the The Blind Assassin. Neither as ambitious, nor as fully realized, IMHO. Although most reviewer's focus on depictoin of the 1984-ish dystopian society in which Atwood sets the novel, the heart of the book doesn't lie in political or social commentary. Instead, it's in the human interactions among Offred and the various people, from all levels of society, she encounters, as well as in Offred's own struggle to reconcile her need to reach out to others with her opposing need to protect herself from the grievous harm others could cause her. (In this way, it reminds me of Joseph Heller's comment that Catch-22 was not a "war" novel, but in fact was fundamentally a peacetime novel.) One quibble: Atwood does a terrific job in constructing the fictional world in which Offred lives, and as readers we quickly come to accept it as her "reality". However, I found the scene in which she depicts how the "revolution" actually came about a bit forced. Better, in my opinion to have simply depicted it as a fait accompli. But still, a very good, engrossing book.

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Summary: Good heavens!
Review: I began reading this book at the beginning of a long plane ride from Texas to Wisconsin. By the time I was at the O'Hare Airport (in Chicago, about halfway to my destination) I was completely saturated in it. I became extremely paranoid, not wanting to draw attention to myself or even to speak. I felt like I was in the story, and it was a strange and wonderful feeling. This book draws you in and leaves you fairly breathless. It is extremely enjoyable, powerful, and thought provoking.

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Summary: Anti-Christian? Nope. Atwood's Best? Hardly
Review: Unlike what most of the postings suggest, the novel is NOT anti-Christian. Offred prays to God more than once, Ofglen tells Offred she believes in God, and various sects(Baptists, Jesuits, Catholics, Jews, Jehovah's Witnesses and Quakers are those mentioned) of Christian religions are just as persecuted if not moreso than the women are. It's barely even what I'd call a feminist novel, the book doesn't seem nearly as propagandizing as I'd first assumed it would be.

In addition, it is not Atwood's best work. It's wonderful, a compelling read, and Atwood breaks many literary rules, with almost always a positive effect. In any other author's repertoire, this would certainly stand out. But compare her prose here to, say, the Blind Assassin or Robber Bride. It's blown out of the water. It's almost juvenile in comparison.

Atwood excels, however, in her treatment of the genre. The heroes and heroines of most post-1984 novels are revolutionaries, maverick thinkers, non-conformists. Also, their universes seem to be crafted by the author to fit exactly their strengths and weaknesses; don't we all wish such traumas were custom-made? Instead, Atwood focuses on Offred, who remembers the days when times were better but doesn't exactly care to attack the problem on her own. She vows to herself to accept her new life and try to move on, as long as she can stay alive. Not until she is approached by several underground workers does she decide to act on what every other handmaid is feeling. And she does nothing to really bring about the downfall of Gilead, she's just another handmaid who happens to get lucky and escape the system. She fails at her 'mission', she abandons hope, and never quite recovers it. She ready and willing to die when chance brings about her redemption. Offred is a true, real character, one of the best of the genre.

Also, Atwood's portrayal of the Republic of Gilead is small-scale, and never reveals the nature of the system or its creation, making it seem more realistic. The characters never break into long monologues about Gilead's history; they all know it, and only reveal information in small references. Even in the slightly redundant historical notes no explicit knowledge is given. They're university students, they've all learned this before.

A Handmaid's Tale is a very engaging and easy read, yet it can also be very profound, and it ends in about the right place. Just as it is about to get redundant and melodramatic, it is able to end realistically, and only barely seems to end too fast.

So pick up A Handmaid's Tale if you're looking for an above average spin on most Utopian novels, but don't expect this to be an example of Atwood's later work. You'll be much more entertained with the aforementioned Blind Assassin and Robber Bride, or Cat's Eye or Alias Grace.

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Summary: Tasteful ruminations
Review: The Gileadian Takeover happened very quickly, and before anyone had a chance to react, martial law was announced, women were robbed of their jobs, and all marriages after the first were declared unlawful. To halt the dropping Caucasian birth rate, unattached able-bodied women were corraled into "Red Centers", where meekness and submissiveness were hammered into them under prison-like conditions. Later, these "handmaids" were redistributed to affluent households, childbearing being their only goal in life. This is the tale of one of these unfortunates: 33-year-old "Offred" can still remember her husband and daughter, being allowed to read and write, but with every passing year this Calvinist society claims more and more of her.

Very surprisingly, "The Handmaid's Tale" did not at all strike me as especially feministic. Its dystopia is all the more striking because everyone is discomfited - both the opressor and the opressed. Out of the numerous cautionary tales I've read this is the rare one that takes into account almost every side of the story: whereas others usually pose one side as unjust tyrants and have the other side engage in a just struggle, the quietly nightmarish world of "Handmaid's Tale" is especially appealing in that its central character, a nameless everywoman knows only by a patronimical (Offred - "Of-Fred"), is out not to revolutionize, but to survive. Indeed, this is a tale of finding contentment in the unlikeliest of places, of living day to day, of forming relationships, of adapting, and of coping. Not wasting any more time than necessary on the do-not-resuscitate plot (Offred's eventual escape), Atwood commits every last drop of her writing prowess to examine the personalities of her characters and the numbing effects of the new order. In doing so, in constantly examining and re-examining Offred from every perspective, she makes her so multi-faceted as to make her more than a character - she becomes an excellent interface between the reader and Atwood's conceptual vehicle.

The profoundly disturbing - of not particularly likely to happen - dystopia Atwood creates serves as a stage for examining the various drives and motivations of her characters, using the veil of strangeness to abstract her findings into something approaching objectiveness.

Something I didn't expect was how particularly inert men are in the world of the "Handmaid". While the narrator speaks no more cynically of them than of the women, it is women who seem to run everything, from the general social order to the secret underground. Men appear content - if not especially happy - with their secret burlesques and generally acting as if they still had any real power.

While I enjoyed the gentle manner with which the author maintained my attention despite the poststructuralist approach, there are few memorable ideas that the book communicates. I feel that I will remember it solely for the ludicrous, gruesome visual trappings - and that's quite a misfortune.

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Summary: Handmaid's Tale Disgusting Feminazi Propaganda
Review: Supposedly this book is about a male dominated society that is dominated by males. However this book actually reveals a thriving subculture of feminist underground revolt. In a way, I think, it parallels our own society. Seriously, how many female generals do YOU know? Oh, zero? Precisely. And I bet the male ones you know have mistresses. PRECISELY. The society depicted in this book is supposed to be an "extreme". But in reality it is happening here and now, right around us. Hell, just the other day my neighbor was shot by the government and his wife taken as a midwife. And a hotel used as brothel? Gee, that's never happened before.