Rating: 
Summary: chilling, compelling, unforgetable
Review: This book absolutely must be devoured. It is a tale so moving and compelling you feel driven to complete it. Move over Orwell's "1984." You become even more engrossed in this story. The reality of it takes over your own. The eventual outcome of our heroine is never revealed, although the epilogue offers tantilizing clues that keep your mind speculating long after completing the novel. Superb!
Rating:
Summary: chilling warning for the future
Review: Offred, a fertile female, is made a "handmaid" in a portion of the world that has been overtaken by right-wing fanatics; how much of the world, we don't know. out heroine, the "handmaid" is pretty much in the dark about everything, having to speculate about what has happened to much of her past, including her home and her family. as we are introduced slowly to the horrors of this extreme society, we realize that the author is warning us when the interests of one group go too far individuailty, freedoms and privacy suffers. no one is completely immune to suspicion in this totalitarian system of paranoia.i found the movie by the same name to be fairly faithful to the book.
Rating: 
Summary: Amazing
Review: I had to read this book for literature even though I'd read it before and I'm glad I did. The whole point of 'The Handmaid's Tale' isn't evident until you really start to pull it apart and think about it. It's one of those books where everything contributes to give a cohesive effect - the narrative isn't as significant as structure in communicating Atwood's ideas. To fully appreciate this work, I'd advise to get rid of all distractions and buy Cliff Notes to go with it - unless you're into post-modern literary analysis, you'll need it. It's not an easy read (if you do it right) but it's definitely worth it.
Rating: 
Summary: Mediocre at best
Review: As Sci Fi books go this is a poorly written one. Doris Lessing once remarked that if you want to write literature in this day and age it has to be in the form of science fiction. Viewed in this light this is mrs Atwoods first attempt at writing literature and she shows here she does not (yet) have the writing ability. This book barely rises above the level of a feminist pamphlet, if that. For a properly written book on this theme see Suzette Haden Elgin's 'Native Tongue' (and sequels).
Rating:
Summary: An amazing and thought provoking piece!
Review: I loved reading this book because, for the first time in a long time, I found something that I couldn't put down. The story makes readers wonder about the security in their lives and the control so many people have over us without our even knowing it. If you read any Atwood novel, as I have also read Cat's Eye and Surfacing and found them...lacking, read this one! It is unforgettable and amazing! Highly recommended!
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting, but. . .
Review: This book had a shocking and interesting idea behind it, but the actual story was somewhat lacking. While the idea of Womankind being totally subservient to men is appalling, it definitley keeps the reader riveted. That said, I found myself wanting to know more about who Offred was before she was a Handmaid. What was her real name? Her daughter's? I realize that the reason Ms. Atwood did not share those details was because Offred was basically supposed to be Everywoman, yet in a sense I felt a little cheated after I finished this book. I thought that the ending was totally lacking. What ever did happen to Luke? Offred? Was she pregnant? I would not recommend this book to anybody who dislikes cliffhanger endings.
Rating:
Summary: Great read - for futurist and/or feminist
Review: This is a scary book about the aftermath of an extreme right wing violent takeover of the USA. In the future, women are at first denied the access to their money, bank accounts and credit cards. Their resources are then turned over to and handled by their husbands and fathers. Then it gets worse. They are denied independence, education, and any sense of self worth. They are to be controlled. Meanwhile, environmental problems have destroyed the fertility of much of the population. And, so the "new powers that be" have a solution. They take women that are believed to be fertile and assign them as handmaiden's to high ranking family's in the new order. Their value is solely for procreation. The heroine and her family want out and try to escape by crossing the border to Canada. The attempt fails and she looses everything of importance including her child.. who is taken and given to another family. The story unfolds with Offred, the heroine, being trained and then assigned to a high ranking family as the handmaiden. Here the new family traditions combine 20th century technology and old testiment biblical customs. Her longing for her child and husband and her old life never abate, even when she finds a way to resist throught an undeground anti-government resistence. While this is obviously fiction, it is easy to find current real life parallel. I'm not sure that the author was thinking of fundamentalist Muslins when she wrote this, but she could have been.
Rating:
Summary: Beautifully-written, chilling tale of a dystopian future
Review: Years ago, when "The Handmaid's Tale" first hit the shelves, I was drawn to the painting on the cover. It depicts two women, dressed in long flowing red robes, wearing white headdresses, carrying baskets in front of an unnaturally tall curved brick wall. There is a patch of blue sky that can be seen over the top of the wall. You perceive the wall as a barrier, that the women are somehow cut off from the world. Before I knew anything about the book, I assumed it was an historical novel, something from the Middle Ages. I wasn't too far off. Margaret Atwood conjures a future society, but many elements of her society can be seen in fundamentalist cultures right here, right now. And unlike most science fiction, her story is not about the fruits of technology, but rather the sociological and personal implications of technology's impact. Much has been said about the political sensibilities of the book, but I would like to praise its exposition. We are introduced to a new America (now called Gilead) by the first-person account of the narrator, Offred. Her birth name has been taken from her. Offred means "Of Fred" making her identity literally that of a possessed object. She weaves her thoughts about her present-day predicament with observations of her daily routine and a history of her personal life and the transition from the USA to Gilead. Her view of the world is necessarily limited by her lack of access to information, but after a while you realize that her detached description of her environment is also a survival mechanism. For our heroine to even articulate her position to herself puts her life in danger. As is true in all dystopias, it is frightening to wake up. In another writer's hands, this futureworld could be a strident polemic. Ms. Atwood makes this book so engrossing by letting her narrator reveal herself and her world in her own time, by making the personal political. Without giving too much away, this is a story about technology and control run amuck. The future is a world where technology, pollution and personal freedom have created new survival choices for society, and society has chosen badly. Ms. Atwood says that her book points out what would happen if certain ways of thinking were taken to their logical extreme. As Offred's instructor says, "the Old World protected 'freedom to'. We protect 'freedom from'. Is her story relevant? With Americans guzzling gasoline in behemoth SUVs faster than Detroit can make them, and fundamentalists controlling large parts of our political and communication machinery, do you have to ask? The Handmaid's Tale is an engrossing, chilling, and well-written story from beginning to end.
Rating:
Summary: Mediocre
Review: Atwood's dystopian portrait of a society of subservient women whose only purpose is to breed, is mainly a backlash toward the rise of Christian Right, 'anti-porn' feminists & conversatives of the late 70s and 1980s. Through the inconsistent narration of Offred, the story never fully takes off. However, Atwood's darkly textured societial vision is a haunting & effective one that never goes overboard or drowns in sentiment.
Rating:
Summary: Read if you must
Review: This was a very strange tale of a woman who went from being someone, an individual, to being a means of procreation. The story takes you through the strange rituals of sexual intercourse and leaves you wondering if a society could ever really reduce itself to such means to ensure the survival of mankind. The main character must suffer the loss of not only her daughter and husband, but also her own identity and self-esteem. A very degrading tale of how women are sometimes viewed as an object to be used and discarded as men and people in power see fit. On the last page of this book one question came to mind. "That's it?". The ending was very disappointing. I really wish there could have been a little more information imparted as to the character's past. A name would heve been nice. But then again that may have spoiled the mystery. Overall, I found the book interesting but it left me unsatisfied. So what's the use?
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