"The Handmaid's Tale"-Margaret Atwood

Book Title: The Handmaid's Tale
Author: Margaret Atwood
Version: Paperback
Published: March 16th, 1998
Publisher: Anchor
First Published: 1985
ISBN: 9780385490818
Genre: Dystopian Fiction
Voice: First Person

SYNOPSIS: "Let the women learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression."

It is the future and the government has been completely overthrown by what can only be called the Christian fundamentalists, those that feel that the Bible should be followed word for word. Especially the parts about women being the inferior sex. There are different classes of women, the Wives, married to Commanders (high ranking officials in the new regime) and with the most in the way of "freedom", Marthas, basically maids and cooks, unwomen, those that have been deemed unworthy and sent to the outer colonies basically to die and the Handmaids, they are the incubators. The Handmaids are put into houses where the Wives can no longer conceive and once a month they go through a ceremony. They lay down in the lap of the Wives with their faces covered in a red veil and the Commanders have intercourse with them. Their hope is to conceive a healthy child so that their lives will be seen as valuable.

Offred is such a Handmaid and lives in such a situation. She is allowed out, to meet up with a second Handmaid, for daily shopping. The shops are all marked by pictures in their windows for women are no longer allowed to read. Although Offred has all the correct greetings and knows how to keep her head down and out of trouble she still remembers what life was like in the time before. She remembers wearing jeans and buying cigarettes on her way to work, she remembers making love with her husband and holding their daughter in her arms. It is in these memories that Offred rebels in her quiet way.  

One night as Offred really steps out of bounds and sneaks into the parlor one of the Guardians, a male chauffeur/guard, comes in and tells her that the Commander wants to see her in his study alone the next night. After this message is delivered everything begins to change for Offred. Her life goes from being quiet and boring to more full and slightly more dangerous. Which makes a nice change for Offred. But it's a change that leaves her having to decide whether or not everything is worth it. Offred has to decide which is more important, being alive or having a life.

REVIEW: This book is my greatest nightmare realized. And the fear and slight disgust I felt in reading this was part of why I loved it so much. It was so well done that the fear I felt was real, palpable and thick through out. I really, really liked "The Handmaid's Tale" as much as I feared and hated the ideas that were in it. But I kind of think that was part of the point. It was Ms. Atwood's warning to everyone of what could happen if one group with a single minded idea was allowed free reign.

The story was depressing and frighting to read about but at the same time it was beautiful in a very dark way. Reading about the way Offred saw the world she was living in was strangely beautiful in its bleakness. It is literally a nightmare version of what the world could turn into. There was nothing redeeming about the story except for Offred and her memories of the time before. But even those are few and far between.

Margaret Atwood is obviously a poet first. Her writing is all poetry. Sweeping lines of beauty and pain, fear and lost time. She mixed the past and present so simply that there was barely a break between the two. There were even times when I was unsure if I was reading about the present or the past but I kind of liked getting lost like that. And Ms. Atwood's descriptions of colors and places, the picture signs in shop windows, the white of a hanged man's hood, is so rich. It's vivid and tangible. There were times that I actually felt shivers race up my spine just from the way something was described. My feelings about her writing boil down to this, it was brilliantly done.

This is an incredible book, writing that leaps off the page and gets under your skin, a story that makes you stop and really think about things and a narrator that pulls at your heart strings. It's a tough story to read but that kind of makes the book fly by. For me I couldn't get enough of the tale and I read it in a few days. After reading it I felt a sense of accomplishment and slight relief that not only was I done but that it really was just fiction. Because it's the type of book that you get lost in and if you aren't careful you begin to fear that the fiction is the reality. It's that rich and thick in all the best ways. It's a classic for sure not only because it is a nightmare version of what the world could turn into but also because of the writing, Offred and her memories and maybe most importantly the way she sees things. She without a doubt becomes our ticket into this world and it is only through her that we are allowed in and out safely. It's a terrific read if you are brave enough to try it.

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