Rating: 
Summary: Women's Lib died - and this is the Hell it went to
Review: A gripping, haunting book by a powerful writer
Rating:
Summary: Chilling in its possibility.
Review: This novel required very little suspension of disbelief. Those
who would turn the USA into a theocracy probably have Atwood's
images dancing in their heads even now, jealous of the luck the
early Gileadeans had in the health and environmental problems
that helped bring about the changes.
Unfortunately, neither the revolution itself nor the resulting
sectarian warfare nor the disfranchisement of a large sector of society are anything new. What gave me bad dreams the night I
read this book was the ease with which the whole transformation happened, and how much more plausible it was than the asked-for fascism of "It Can't Happen Here".
I came to this book as a fan of dystopias. I finished the book
a fan of Atwood.
Rating:
Summary: audio is engaging, thoughtprovoking, disturbing.Srong lang.
Review: Fascinating and thought provoking. Woman reader has wide range in voice making the text come alive. A fantasy (?) tale of a religiously divided society whose women are categorized into very few roles; told from the perspective of one woman whose role is childbearer. Thoughtprovoking and, if listened to among men and women, immediately a topic of empassioned conversation The eight cassette version is long and best listened to in segments - we took this book on a long car trip and found it engaging, involving us deeply into the protagonist's past and present while wondering at the future of our own society. Highly recommended for long drives, night particularly. Strong language may be considered inappropriate for younger children
Rating:
Summary: The things that stick with you...
Review: I didn't know what to expect when I decided to read this book, but I'd heard it was
an excellent read, so I decided to give it a try. And am I glad I did!
This is one of those books that stays with you forever!
A few memorable items about the book:
1) The constant references to the way a situation can force
a person to forget everything they ever were or believed. It's an
interesting study into the methods of mental adaptation in the human species.
2) The way it's set up like an ancient oral tale that is eventually studied, picked apart, and made fun of in a long distant future. That chilling academic response to a woman's experiences is hard to forget.
This is a must read!
Adora
Rating:
Summary: !!!!!!
Review: Absolutely chilling. The last word in distopian fiction.
George Orwell's got nothing on Atwood.
Rating:
Summary: buy this book!
Review: margaret atwood's novel not only makes you wonder "could this ever happen?" but also makes you analyze its plot and look into its symbolism to bring you to question "is this actually happening now?" this book is a great stepping-stone for feminism, religion and politics and, dammit, it's just fabulously-written.
Rating:
Summary: The Handmaid's Tale:
Review: "The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood is one of the most gripping novels I have ever read. The narrator, a handmaid in the Republic of Gilead (formerly the United States) describes her experiences after the overthrow of the US government. The book really makes you think about how life would be like in America if everyone was assigned a certain role in society with strict rules to obey. A scary novel, especially for a woman who tries to imagine what it would be like to be a handmaid and be forced to give birth to children for women uncapable of bearing them. I definitely would recommend it
Rating: 
Summary: Surely there are cheaper ways to get kindling?
Review: I am another of those poor souls forced to pay for this junk and read it for college. There is nothing quite as vulgar to me as a novelist carrying an overt political prejudice into their work deliberately. It seems unfaithful to the craft of writing, dishonest and trashy. As others have said, this does not hold a candle to Orwell, though it tries shamelessly. Here's a possible reason why it stinks: Orwell was batting for the team: human kind. Not woman-left-wing-zealot kind.
Orwell's work is far more complete for many reasons, one of which is the transition from our age to a brutal totalitarian age is explained in full, in Orwell's work (it's called 'back-story' and it's handy in books.) The totalitarian state in 1984 doesn't magically 'happen' and have the processes of power hinted at by vague sweeping references to politically correct causes; the power shift is explained in plausible detail by an author who knows history, which is what makes 1984 powerful. This by contrast was a serve of the sullen feminist bitterness that, if propagated and revered, will marr the reception of all women's writing. That aside, by God it gets tiresome. Get over yourself, Ms Atwood.
Rating:
Summary: truth is stranger then fiction
Review: This was an engrossing tale.
I read it about ten years ago....and it really left an impression on me.
I hadn't thought about it tho till today when I read this stroy from germany....and ladies...
I gave me the chills that this could be happening in a modern 'civilized country. This is from the telegragh:
'If you don't take a job as a prostitute, we can stop your benefits'
By Clare Chapman
(Filed: 30/01/2005)
A 25-year-old waitress who turned down a job providing "sexual services'' at a brothel in Berlin faces possible cuts to her unemployment benefit under laws introduced this year.
Prostitution was legalised in Germany just over two years ago and brothel owners - who must pay tax and employee health insurance - were granted access to official databases of jobseekers.
The waitress, an unemployed information technology professional, had said that she was willing to work in a bar at night and had worked in a cafe.
She received a letter from the job centre telling her that an employer was interested in her "profile'' and that she should ring them. Only on doing so did the woman, who has not been identified for legal reasons, realise that she was calling a brothel.
Under Germany's welfare reforms, any woman under 55 who has been out of work for more than a year can be forced to take an available job - including in the sex industry - or lose her unemployment benefit. Last month German unemployment rose for the 11th consecutive month to 4.5 million, taking the number out of work to its highest since reunification in 1990.
The government had considered making brothels an exception on moral grounds, but decided that it would be too difficult to distinguish them from bars. As a result, job centres must treat employers looking for a prostitute in the same way as those looking for a dental nurse.
When the waitress looked into suing the job centre, she found out that it had not broken the law. Job centres that refuse to penalise people who turn down a job by cutting their benefits face legal action from the potential employer.
"There is now nothing in the law to stop women from being sent into the sex industry," said Merchthild Garweg, a lawyer from Hamburg who specialises in such cases. "The new regulations say that working in the sex industry is not immoral any more, and so jobs cannot be turned down without a risk to benefits."
Miss Garweg said that women who had worked in call centres had been offered jobs on telephone sex lines. At one job centre in the city of Gotha, a 23-year-old woman was told that she had to attend an interview as a "nude model", and should report back on the meeting. Employers in the sex industry can also advertise in job centres, a move that came into force this month. A job centre that refuses to accept the advertisement can be sued.
Tatiana Ulyanova, who owns a brothel in central Berlin, has been searching the online database of her local job centre for recruits.
"Why shouldn't I look for employees through the job centre when I pay my taxes just like anybody else?" said Miss Ulyanova.
Ulrich Kueperkoch wanted to open a brothel in Goerlitz, in former East Germany, but his local job centre withdrew his advertisement for 12 prostitutes, saying it would be impossible to find them.
Mr Kueperkoch said that he was confident of demand for a brothel in the area and planned to take a claim for compensation to the highest court. Prostitution was legalised in Germany in 2002 because the government believed that this would help to combat trafficking in women and cut links to organised crime.
Miss Garweg believes that pressure on job centres to meet employment targets will soon result in them using their powers to cut the benefits of women who refuse jobs providing sexual services.
"They are already prepared to push women into jobs related to sexual services, but which don't count as prostitution,'' she said.
"Now that prostitution is no longer considered by the law to be immoral, there is really nothing but the goodwill of the job centres to stop them from pushing women into jobs they don't want to do."
[...]
Rating: 
Summary: The Handmaid's Poo Tale
Review: I have not read any other book by Margaret Atwood so this review is solely based on the writing in this book and what I got out of it, which was not much.
The first chapters are particularly innundated with incomplete sentences which usually give a sense of urgency to the reader. In this case, it just made the reading tedious. You do not want to read this book out loud because it will make you sound very annoying.
Even though I'm all for criticizing religious extremists, a better book could have made the point without insulting people's intelligence.
On the story itself, I just didn't buy it from the beginning so it was difficult for me to get into it at all. Here's why:
- The changes that must have occurred in this society are supposed to have happened within 10 years. This is too far-fetched, as it has been mentioned before. Anyone who has taken any type of sociology/anthropology/economics/politics class is being asked to forget all they have ever learned and just go with the flow. No society where everyone living under it(including top officials)is unhappy and breaking their own rules is going to be sustainable for long and much less enforceable for long. Drugs are too easy an answer.
- The main character is not really defined, she's all over the place. In fact, for someone who was supposed to be a college grad, she's pretty stupid. She thinks of herself as timid and complacent and yet every now and then she would have an outburst of assertiveness. Like her sudden awareness of her sex appeal and manipulation of it toward the Commander in those secret meetings. She wasn't smart and that was a big turn off.
- There were so many opportunities missed from the very beginning of better story lines that never took off. Ex. Ofglen, her partner in shopping, was aware of some underground movement and yet Offred never asked questions on the subject. Similarly, other handmaids during the 'birth day' had information that our hero never bothered to pursue. Maybe she liked being a victim and the life she led. The book would have been so much more exciting if the character had been willing to take risks. Again, not a very smart or functional main character.
Although I didn't like the character of Moria (come to think of it, I didn't like any of the characters), I think I would have liked the book to be about her and her adventures better than Offred's. She got a better perspective of what was going on and she was not afraid to explore the possibilities.
I do not recommend this book. It asks it's readers to conform to a mediocre story just like Offred is being asked to conform to a mediocre life with no real justification.
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