The Handmaid's Tale

Rating:
Summary: Awesome book
Review: I simply couldn't put it down. I loved every word of it. I almost didn't want it to end. I loved how the author didn't describe every single nook and granny of the scenery, allowing more space for plot development.

Rating:
Summary: Really good. Atwood writes like a poet.
Review: Wow! What can I say? Margaret Atwood writes like a poet. This whole novel is like a jigsaw puzzle that the reader puts together. There's great use of imagery, symbolism and metaphor to tell the story of a woman trapped in a dystopian, patriarchal future governed by the credos of the bible. It's a tremendous novel about the power of the individual, the direction our hedonistic society is heading, the subjugation of women and the dangers of totalitarianism. Ultimately - The Handmaid's Tale is definitely the finest book Atwood has ever written, and deserves a place high in the literary canon.

Rating:
Summary: Inventive and Yet, Frightfully REAL
Review: I've read Atwood before, having picked up "The Robber Bride" a few years back. Nevertheless, I wasn't quite prepared for the genius of "The Handmaid's Tale," a futuristic fable of what might happen if a religious stronghold annihilated the government and suspended the Declaration of Independence.

This is a precautionary piece of literature, both political in its message and highly erotical in Offred's desires.

Many women have been reduced to the literal sense of "baby-makers"- Handmaids - imprisoned to homes dictated by a Commander and his wife.

In these homes, women sign themselves up to copulate with the Commander in hopes to add to the grossly underpopulated United States, now known as the Republic of Gilead. Any other sensual activity has been outlawed; courting no longer exists, marriages are archaically arranged. Touching without some sort of contract is absolutely forbidden.

Instantly absorbing, the reader is carried through this fictionalized but convincingly real, suppressive society by Offred, a woman whose true name has become a shadow; her own true identity seemingly slipping away as each chapter progresses.

In this novel, time warps from the present into the past, from the strangeness of this new world to the old one which is relative to today. We are told of the transition, of how things came to be so controlled for Offred and perhaps that is what makes this novel so frightening; that in one day, all in which one takes for granted - the right to freedom, the right to love, the right to possess, to even HAVE rights - all those things can be eradicated and overturned. Life as one once knew it can, quite easily, be seized by greater forces.

This is an engrossing book, from the opening line: "We slept in what had once been the gymnasium," to the last question. It is a book in which one learns to appreciate any kind of ability, of reading one word or having just one cigarrette. A simple kiss, a gentle touch, a serious stare... all things outlawed in that of "The Handmaid's Tale."

Rating:
Summary: A Frightening Yet Unlikely Future....
Review: I had to read this book this summer for my advanced english class next year, and wasn't sure what to expect. I'm not a fan of Maragaret Atwood's writing style in this book, it doesn't fill in enough holes and the endings to some things leave you wanting a taste for more...which I guess is good writing but annoying anyways.

The story is about a future life in which religion has taken over. All of lifes luxeries are taken away for the most part, especially for women. The narrarator of this story tells you about 3 different aspects of her life: Her past, including her childhood and her married life before the change... The time spent in a training type camp as she was groomed to be a Handmaiden... AND The current moving storyline...her present life. Basically she is enlisted as a Handmaiden, a woman that sleeps with an old powerful guy, in hopes she'll have his child as his wife is too old. She has a few chances to produce a child before she'll be killed. Her life is very restricted...no reading, writing, speaking freely, nothing that we have today would be hers really. ANyway she starts experiencing some luxeries...the old man she has to sleep for falls for her and starts giving her things, and taking her out. The wife of the old guy devises a plan with her to help her with the baby situation. Her shopping partner is an underground source. She even has a free affair with another man. Basically the story tells you about how the world changed from before, what the training for this life was like, and how horrible it is to live like this.

If you are interested in taking a whole new look at that magnificent future you have planned out for you, read this book...however the ending left me most unsatisfied, and I wish more loose ends were tied up! I guess Atwood wants you to choose the final fate of Offred...oh yes I've figured out her actual name, it's June...there are 5 characters listed in the beginning and the only one not mentioned again as another person is "June". Enjoy!

Rating:
Summary: terrifying look into the future
Review: The Handmaid's Tale is a horrific view into the future that displays the use of sex as a political aspect. In an extreme rightist world, Offred, a handmaid, is used as a tool for expanding the population. She is forced into have sexual intercorse with her "Commander" so that she may bear children, who will be raised not by the handmaid, but by the Commander's wife. Yet, as terrifying as it seems, the future that Atwood describes becomes viable, palpable at times. Atwood develops the plot so that the future she describes could easily be our own. She confronts issues which we struggle with today, such as abortion, birth control, extreme rightisim, and surrogate mothers and provides conclusions to them. For example: the abolition of birth control and abortion, and the glorification of surrogate mothers. These conclusions shape the scenes that Atwood presents. The use of handmaids has arisen because of the use of surrogate mothers in the past. However, the conclusion of the novel leaves the reader curious, slightly confused, and bewildered because of the lack of explanation by Atwood. The main character, Offred, is taken away and the novel concludes, leaving the reader without an explanationof her whereabouts and wellbeing. This is definately a novel that will intrigue minds and give you something to ponder.

Rating:
Summary: Better than 1984, worse than Brave New World
Review: Let's not get confused here: The Handmaid's Tale is good, rather much so. Whether or not it's the best dystopian novel ever, well, that's a different story.

The Handmaid's Tale is from the point of view of, unsurprisingly, a Handmaid (a "surrogate mother" who is reduced to a breeding machine in the theocratic fascist state of Gilead). The book often shifts between the present and the Handmaid's (named "Of Fred" or Offred to indicate who owns her) memories of a much different past, when she used to be a normal woman in a normal world. Slowly we learn a bit about Gilead's ideology: using a few isolated Bible verses they have reduced most women to just chattel, forbidding them to learn to read and write, and making them wear veils. (Clearly, the point is that all of these things have all happened before in some way somewhere on the Earth, and that they could easily happen again.) This existence begins to weigh on Offred, for whom such things as the angle of her head, her posture and her tone of voice can mean the difference between life and death - all the more so when she meets her old friend, who was always militant, feminist and rebellious, and sees that even she ended up being spiritually beaten. To try and retain her identity, she starts breaking rules. This culminates in her sleeping with the house guard, who in the end gets her across the border into Canada.

The most interesting part of the book, however, is the epilogue, a transcript of a scientific conference about 150 years after the main story takes place. Here we are told in greater detail about how Gilead came to power and what its "ideals" were like - not enough to satisfy our curiosity, unfortunately. It ends with the note that since the main story is a first-person account, no one can be sure as to its accuracy; therefore, no one will really find out the truth about the full extent of Gilead's oppression and we can't be sure if we have just read the truth.

Somehow I found Brave New World's picture of Dystopia to be more complete, and thus scarier - and also more realistic; it does require no small suspension of disbelief to assume that the whole USA would willingly subjugate and disenfranchise 50% of its population (which worked and paid taxes and served in the armed forces). According to the book, the takeover starts with the massacre of the U.S. government, but it would never have been successful without popular approval. I also don't accept this as a "feminist novel," as some do - Gilead's oppression bears no parallel at all to anything today. That aside, it's a fine story, if not because of its frightening world then because of the poignance of the main character's situation. Recommended.

Rating:
Summary: one of my favorites
Review: This is definitely one of the best books I have ever read. I've read it multiple times and each time I find something new that I hadn't realized before. I think it is incredibly powerful and really makes you think. I had to write a school report on a dystopia and I chose to do it on this book. There is so much in this book to talk about. It's a fast read, very interesting, thoughtful, entertaining, and even a bit scary. I recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a great book to read.

Rating:
Summary: Amazing
Review: This is one of the best books I have ever read. I think this also one of the most scarest because the whole time I was reading it was thinking how a lot of what the character goes through is a reality for women around the world. It frightens to think that this, even though may sound far fetch, could be a reality to anyone. I recommend the book to anyone who enjoys a good story.

Rating:
Summary: 1984 for the feminist set
Review: First, let's get one thing straight: Margaret Atwood can write. And I mean weave a story that you just CAN'T put down. I couldn't. Futuristic tales of this sort (1984, Brave New World, Fahrenheit 451) are so compelling when they have roots in current events. Atwood takes today's subtle misogyny (or sometimes not too subtle at all) and brings it to a natural end. What if men and the state had complete control over a woman's fertility? What if women returned to the property-status we once held? How powerful is religion on people's conception of gender roles or sexual norms? (Note: Atwood points her finger at no particular religion. So Christians, she isn't neccessarily talking about you or anyone). But she also shows the strength of women. Women who will go underground to help others, women who will die before they submit or women who will lie in wait, slowly plotting a revolution.

Rating:
Summary: A Must-Read!
Review: I'm 15 years old, and this book was recommended to me by my Sophomore Literature teacher. I had heard that in previous years, this book had been banned and was a little hesitant to read it. Well, I took the chance and loved it. Please DO NOT hesitate to read this book because you may have heard of its "explicit sexual scenes" because I have read romance novels that are more graphic than this book. It is shockingly real and makes a person think and wonder outside the world he/she lives in. Read it and you will not regret it.