The Handmaid's Tale

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Summary: A great book. Anyone willing to be shocked should read it.
Review: What an excellent book. By following Offred's daily routine we learn about a frightening new society, one where a religious faction has taken control of the government and subjugated all who do not agree with their doctrines. This story gives rise to disturbing thoughts about what could happen if a zealous religious group did gain control of the government. The beginning is a bit slow, which is necessary to introduce you into the monotony of Offred's daily life. The novel picks up soon enough, to the point where I read the last half of the book in one sitting. All in all, an excellent book. I would recommend it to almost anyone.

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Summary: This book is an excellent commentary about what MIGHT happen
Review: I read this book when it first came out, saw the possibilities of the plot, and now in 1998, with the strength of the conservative, religious right wing, am seeing the possibilities of Margaret's fictional suppositions coming true.

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Summary: Great great great... I recommended it to everyone I know !
Review: A friend of mine gave me this book last year. I found the single-page first chapter disturbing enough to start it that same day. Well, I didn't put it down until I was finished. This is the most powerful and captivating book I have ever read. I'm lending my copy of it to everyone I know !

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Summary: The tale of a woman in a forced birthing camp.
Review: This book was excellent. However when I read the ending I still had questions remaining. Warning: to fully understand this book you have to read the afterword. Let me know what you thought.

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Summary: Try watching the film if you want to know what is about!
Review: This novel creates a great feeling of depression, which for one put me off trying to actually finish the book. The way in which Atwood jumps from different timelines my seem a good way of showing the reader how society turned to adapt to the circumstances of woman becoming less fertile. But It just goes on and on, and the exaggerated descriptive style, is very monotonous, distracting you from the plot. A very imaginative view of the future though, and yes it's certainly for woman. There's a lot better, like -Three billy goats gruff.

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Summary: magnificant book to read
Review: I was assigned this book for summer year for my senior year but I didn't read it because I thought it woulfd be boring but when I heard all my classmates talking about how realistic and shocking this book was, I went ahead and got. When I got the book, I just can't put it down for one second, it kept you interested to know what happened next in the story. It's a book that I would recommend you read on your own because it gives you a clear picture of what the world might become in the future.

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Summary: Could this ever happen?
Review: Seven years ago my sister gave me this book to read. Since I never was very big on futuristic fiction I packed it away. I just discovered it and began to read. I soon found myself in Atwood's nightmare, unable to put it down and escape. It was a wild ride into the world of the extreme right and religious fanaticism. This is a must read!!!

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Summary: Sharing from the "common wealth"
Review: Shame, shame, shame! As a Canadian who has an extensive knowledge of literature available in Canada, Ms Atwood should have had the decency to acknowledge the [similarities between] her novel [and] John Wyndham's novella "Consider Her Ways". The similarities between her book and the Wyndham book which predates it are too numerous to allow reviewers to use words like "original".

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Summary: A chilling walk down the road ahead of us.
Review: Margaret Atwood knew, long before vigilantes began shooting doctors in abortion clinics in Florida, that issues of the right to manage one's own body would be the issues that spawned the next major civil unrest in America. We profess our superiority, claiming we live in a state undivided by religious dogma, but our own personal convictions, shaped by thousands of years of religious teachings, ultimately divide us on opposite sides of issues of law. In "The Handmaid's Tale," Atwood offers us a chilling glimpse of our own future should we choose to continue our derisive treatment of those who believe differently than ourselves. She deftly manages the language and timeline to produce a book which appears to have been written in the "present" it describes - giving only a slight nod to the "history" that created her environment, despite the fact that we are living that history in our own modern times.

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Summary: What is to come?
Review: Although some may scoff and say that Atwood's dystopia is too extreme to be taken seriously, I for one think that Gilead needs to be studied carefully. Offred is a natural, loving, creative woman and she has been reduced to living in a world that refuses to recognize her abilities. The only ability that Gilead recognizes is her ability to bear children. Today, we have seen people reduced to states parallel to Offred's whether it be during times of war or economic distress. Offred's story does not seem so extreme. I truly think that all who live and keep up with ANY current event should add this book to their library. In her own way, Offred has become a type of "Everywoman" through her distressing tale.