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A review by chantelmccray
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
5.0
Second reading- Let's face it. Everything Margaret Atwood does is the most brilliantly imaginative yet horrifyingly possible thing you've ever read. She can do no wrong.
First reading- I've rarely read a book that was so filling for both my heart and my head. The Handmaid's Tale is a dystopian masterpiece about a world where women’s rights have been suppressed and women are valued only for their wombs. It’s a story about what could happen with information control and women’s rights in a future that doesn’t respect either ideal. Let me tell you, witnessing the seriously disturbing gender politics going down in Washington lately, and then reading this book was really scary. The whole premise seemed entirely possible. But the brilliance of the story is the loss that the protagonist feels. It’s a powerless struggle against an old life. A women’s lib upbringing filled with lesbian friends and understanding husbands. Imagine being stripped of all identity, separated from your spouse and child, forced to watch as people were sent away for not obeying, struggling to understand how to escape, how to continue living. Wondering how things got this bad. That’s what Atwood really does in this book – she illustrates the internal struggle, between a physical life and a mental stability, mind and body, woman and womb.
First reading- I've rarely read a book that was so filling for both my heart and my head. The Handmaid's Tale is a dystopian masterpiece about a world where women’s rights have been suppressed and women are valued only for their wombs. It’s a story about what could happen with information control and women’s rights in a future that doesn’t respect either ideal. Let me tell you, witnessing the seriously disturbing gender politics going down in Washington lately, and then reading this book was really scary. The whole premise seemed entirely possible. But the brilliance of the story is the loss that the protagonist feels. It’s a powerless struggle against an old life. A women’s lib upbringing filled with lesbian friends and understanding husbands. Imagine being stripped of all identity, separated from your spouse and child, forced to watch as people were sent away for not obeying, struggling to understand how to escape, how to continue living. Wondering how things got this bad. That’s what Atwood really does in this book – she illustrates the internal struggle, between a physical life and a mental stability, mind and body, woman and womb.