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This look at the near future presents the story of Offred, a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead, once the United States, an oppressive world where women are no longer allowed to read and are valued only as long as they are viable for reproduction.
sparemethecensor: The Handmaid's Tale is the classic forerunner to dystopic fiction of sexist futures. When She Woke picks up the mantel with a more modern version of a misogynistic theocracy taking over government. Both show terrifying futures for the state of women in society.… (more)
Kaelkivial: Both stories of strong women who resist (in one form or another) the system that holds them down. Both books fairly fast paced and gripping; acts of violence and loss scattered throughout.
Wow, what a story! Written from the viewpoint of a woman named Offred, (read that “of Fred,” as she was assigned to a man named Fred), she is a Handmaid living in the Republic of Gilead in what used to be the United States, before everything collapsed. A pollutant spoiled environment has made many people sterile and most women not already married who could have children were designated Handmaid’s and assigned to a married couple. Their lives strictly controlled in all aspects. The Commander had the privilege of intimidation and, if successful, the newborn child would be immediately taken from the Handmaid and turned over to the wife to raise. The Handmaid becoming assured of not being declared an unwoman and possibly disappear.
The author, Margaret Atwood, was inspired for some of her descriptions by her Cold War experiences having lived for a while in what was then West Berlin and having traveled to several countries behind the Iron Curtain. And the society she has constructed in this amazing novel would rival any of them. An enthralling story that is a must read for anyone who enjoys Alt-History, the ending was entirely unexpected. In fact, I almost threw the book against the wall and cried, “You can’t end the book like this!” I won’t spoil it for you but let’s just say I’ll be frustrated for some time - but in a positive way. What a. Remarkable book. ( )
I give up. The writing is just not a style I enjoy or am easily able to digest. If I hadn't watched the Hulu series first, I'm not sure I would have even understood what I was reading before I abandoned the book. :",,,1,0 61179,Ringworld (Ringworld ( )
This review will have to wait a little, so I can churn this narrative down.
Review Coming soon. Oh man. Oh man. Or should I say "oh woman"? I feel devastated. What a wonderful book. I started reading it years ago, but for whatever reason I never finished. Now I reread the whole thing. What an amazing narrative. ( )
As in a dream it begins with normality only twisted, slowly revealing itself as nightmare. Gradually you sense a faceless horror is creeping closer until, too late, you discover you can't run because your legs won't move, paralysed with fear.
Not since Murakami's Wind Up Bird Chronicle have I been so utterly and compellingly simultaneously horrified and edified. ( )
And when Rachel saw that she bare Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister, and said unto Jacob, Give me children, or else I die.
And Jacob’s anger was kindled against Rachel, and he said, Am I in God’s stead, who hath withheld from thee the fruit of the womb?
And she said, Behold my maid Bihah, go in unto her, and she shall bear upon my knees, that I may also have children by her. — Genesis 30:1–3
But as to myself, having been wearied out for many years with offering vain, idle, visionary thoughts, and at length utterly despairing of success, I fortunately fell upon this proposal . . . — Jonathan Swift, A Modest Proposal
In the desert there is no sign that says, Thou shalt not eat stones. — Sufi proverb
Dedication
For Mary Webster and Perry Miller
First words
We slept in what had once been the gymnasium.
Quotations
As all historians know, the past is a great darkness, and filled with echoes. Voices may reach us from it; but what they say to us is imbued with the obscurity of the matrix out of which they come; and, try as we may, we cannot always decipher them precisely in the clearer light of our own day.
Time has not stood still. It has washed over me, washed me away, as if I’m nothing more than a woman of sand, left by a careless child too near the water.
The shell of the egg is smooth but also grained; small pebbles of calcium are defined by the sunlight, like craters on the moon. It’s a barren landscape, yet perfect; it’s the sort of desert the saints went into, so their minds would not be distracted by profusions. I think that this is what God must look like: an egg. The life of the moon may not be on the surface, but inside.
But remember that forgiveness too is a power. To beg for it is a power, and to withhold or bestow it is a power, perhaps the greatest. Maybe none of this is about control ... Maybe it’s about who can do what to whom and be forgiven for it. Never tell me it amounts to the same thing.
There is more than one kind of freedom, said Aunt Lydia, freedom to and freedom from. In the days of anarchy, it was freedom to. Now you are being given freedom from. Don’t underrate it.
I have a fork and a spoon, but never a knife. When there’s meat they cut it up for me ahead of time, as if I’m lacking manual skills or teeth. I have both, however. That’s why I’m not allowed a knife.
To go through all that [childbirth] and give birth to a shredder: it wasn’t a fine thought. We didn’t know exactly what would happen to the babies that didn’t get passed, that were declared Unbabies. But we knew they were put somewhere, quickly, away.
Since the paper famine there have been no newspapers ... At the corner is the store know as Soul Scrolls .... Behind the shatter-proof window are print-out machines ... they are known as Holy Rollers. They print prayers, roll upon roll, prayers going out endlessly. ... There are five different prayers ...You pick the one you want, punch in the number, then punch in your own number so your account will be debited, and punch in the number of times you want the prayer repeated. The machines talk as they print out the prayers ... Once the prayers have been printed out and said, the paper rolls back through another slot and is recycled into fresh paper again.
Whenever there is butter or even margarine, I save some ... There’s no longer any hand lotion or face cream ... [Our] outside can become hard and wrinkled, like the shell of a nut .... The butter is a trick ... we all do it .... butter our skin to keep it soft.
I try not to think too much. Like other things now, thought must be rationed.
Last words
And so I step up, into the darkness within; or else the light.
The Reading Guide Edition is the substantial equivalent the main Handmaid's Tale work, with a few additional pages of questions for groups to consider at the back. Please therefore leave these works combined together. Thank you
This look at the near future presents the story of Offred, a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead, once the United States, an oppressive world where women are no longer allowed to read and are valued only as long as they are viable for reproduction.
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The author, Margaret Atwood, was inspired for some of her descriptions by her Cold War experiences having lived for a while in what was then West Berlin and having traveled to several countries behind the Iron Curtain. And the society she has constructed in this amazing novel would rival any of them. An enthralling story that is a must read for anyone who enjoys Alt-History, the ending was entirely unexpected. In fact, I almost threw the book against the wall and cried, “You can’t end the book like this!” I won’t spoil it for you but let’s just say I’ll be frustrated for some time - but in a positive way. What a. Remarkable book. (