Handmaid's Tale, The

I have this book in hardcover, in two editions. Both of them are absolutely gorgeous, and were delivered in excellent condition. The world created by Atwood in The Handmaid's Tale is a world out of a feminist's nightmare- a world that reduces women to their reproductive ability. The world builds slowly and gradually, as the story unfolds, and you realise, slowly and gradually, how horrible this world is. I fell in love with Atwood's style of writing. It's metaphorical, but not sugar-coated. Don't expect her to romanticise the horrific life that Offred lived; she's very straightforward. The prose is dark, quiet, rich with detail and drama bubbles under it. This book will disturb you. It will haunt you. In the best possible way. The ending is obscure. You might immediately dislike the book when you get to that part. It might even annoy you. But, for me, it worked. It gave the book a sense of reality, that I expect from such a heavy theme. The story will stay with me forever, and so will Offred.

Handmaid’s Tale was in my TBR for a long time. Much has been said and discussed about this book. It’s a well-known fact that it’s one of the best dystopian novel. It’s story of Offred, a Handmaid. In this distant, dystopian future, things change. Handmaid’s job is to “breed”. Other women are also put in roles like Wives and daughters of Commanders, Aunts to train new batches of handmaids and Marthas for household work. Every woman has to stick to her category, dress and act according to it. They are not allowed to read, go out on their own and even talk freely. Their every move is being watched by Guardians who have the power to give death sentence to anyone. This story revolves around Offred who is placed in a commander’s house to do her duty, breed. During this time, she meets Offglen, her partner for market visits who is also a part of a secret rebel group; Nick, her commander’s driver who is also helping her conceive and commander who is bored, sneaks her into his study room to play scrabble and talk. All these characters are presented from Offred’s POV, so we can’t be sure how they are actually as she keeps on changing /recreating stories as per her opinion. In the end, she is taken away by guardians in a black van but that leaves some air of mystery for us. This was my first dystopian read and as expected, I was disturbed. Plot and narration are, no doubt, brilliant. But even thinking about such life disturbs me to the core, where people are treated as cattle and they don’t even have the freedom of voicing out their opinion. What disturbs me more is the fact that if not in totality, this is happening in fractions, here and there, every now and then. Handmaid’s Tale presents a world of nightmares with no human rights. It paints a picture of a worst possible patriarchal society where women are ignored and they struggle for their basic rights. This multilayered, seemingly feminist dystopian novel will drain you emotionally and will haunt you forever. Once you read this, you can’t “unthink” what happens to Offred and others. Even though it’s a fiction, it comes close to reality in some parts and that’s a scary. Nevertheless, for the beauty of narration and a unique plot, I will recommend this to everyone. “We were the people who were not in the papers. We lived in the blank white spaces at the edges of print. It gave us more freedom. We lived in the gaps between the stories.”

Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale" is a haunting masterpiece that delves into a dystopian world with poignant brilliance. Atwood's intricate narrative weaves a tapestry of oppression and resilience, forcing readers to confront societal reflections. The protagonist, Offred, becomes a symbol of defiance in a theocratic regime, challenging norms with quiet strength. The thought-provoking exploration of gender, power, and autonomy is both chilling and captivating. Atwood's prose is a literary marvel, leaving an indelible impression that lingers long after the last page is turned. This classic is an essential read, resonating with timeless relevance.

📌"there was little that was truly original with or indigenous to Gilead: its genius was synthesis." . . . 📌Some excerpts I highlighted: 📌believe in the resistance as I believe there can be no light without shadow; or rather, no shadow unless there is also light. 📌But who can remember pain, once it’s over? All that remains of it is a shadow, not in the mind even, in the flesh. Pain marks you, but too deep to see. Out of sight, out of mind. 📌How easy it is to invent a humanity, for anyone at all. What an available temptation. 📌A rat in a maze is free to go anywhere, as long as it stays inside the maze. 📌You can’t help what you feel, Moira said once, but you can help how you behave. 📌I wish I knew what You were up to. But whatever it is, help me to get through it, please. Though maybe it’s not Your doing; I don’t believe for an instant that what’s going on out there is what You meant. 📌I feel very unreal, talking to You like this. I feel as if I’m talking to a wall. I wish You’d answer. I feel so alone. 📌Better never means better for everyone, he says. It always means worse, for some. 📌The more difficult it was to love the particular man beside us, the more we believed in Love, abstract and total. We were waiting, always, for the incarnation. That word, made flesh. And sometimes it happened, for a time. That kind of love comes and goes and is hard to remember afterwards, like pain. You would look at the man one day and you would think, I loved you, and the tense would be past, and you would be filled with a sense of wonder, because it was such an amazing and precarious and dumb thing to have done; and you would know too why your friends had been evasive about it, at the time. 📌With that man you wanted it to work, to work out. Working out was also something you did to keep your body in shape, for the man. If you worked out enough, maybe the man would too. Maybe you would be able to work it out together, as if the two of you were a puzzle that could be solved; otherwise, one of you, most likely the man, would go wandering off on a trajectory of his own, taking his addictive body with him and leaving you with bad withdrawal, which you could counteract by exercise. 📌Why did they buy so many different clothes, in the old days? To trick the men into thinking they were several different women. A new one each day.” 📌By telling you anything at all I’m at least believing in you, I believe you’re there, I believe you into being. Because I’m telling you this story I will your existence. I tell, therefore you are. 📌And so I step up, into the darkness within; or else the light. 📌“Our big mistake was teaching them to read. We won’t do that again.” 📌As the architects of Gilead knew, to institute an effective totalitarian system or indeed any system at all you must offer some benefits and freedoms, at least to a privileged few, in return for those you remove. 📌He could, of course, have assassinated her himself, which might have been the wiser course, but the human heart remains a factor, and, as we know, both of them thought she might be pregnant by him. What male of the Gilead period could resist the possibility of fatherhood, so redolent of status, so highly prized? 📌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. 📌I hunger to commit the act of touch. 📌There is beautiful metaphorical language even though in tragic dystopian scenarios 📌The ending is uncertain, a Cliff hanger Trigger 🚧warning: animal- cat murder and suicidal ideations. I read the kindle edition.

BOOK REVIEW: HANDMAIDS TALE by MARGARET ATWOOD TITLE: HANDMAIDS TALE AUTHOR: MARGARET ATWOOD PAGES: 320 PUBLISHER: Vintage ISBN: 978-0099740919 GENRE: Contemporary Classic/ Dystopian IF I COULD REVIEW IT IN A SINGLE LINE: Offered you wonderous yet unknown creature THE REVIEW: Every once in a while we come across that has a very beautiful narration, a bang on plotline and an even better recommendation but it still just does not stick well. I’m sorry to disappoint you if you are of the many admirers of the book but it just does not my cup of tea. The book is set in a near future dystopian alternative US which is governed by army, there is no president but a union comprising just of men and in this land the women are second citizens, the army is called Republic of Gilead. Offred the protagonist who narrates the entire story is a handmaid, 33. Her only job is to breed, she is what remains of the only viable women in the state. It is her job, her duty, her virtue and her life. In this world women have no rights but rather are accessories I’d say. They are categorized as wives and daughters of the Commanders, Handmaids, Marthas and Aunts. They all have duties according to their faction and clothes according to their duties. They may either choose to abide or be sent to live beyond the perimeter in the land plagued by radiation. Offred is sent to live with a certain commander and his household, she had a daughter, a husband and a life; she remembers them fondly in her memories. Offred’s pair Offglen is her companion during visits to the grocery. She is part of an underground network of rebels but she eventually hangs herself. The commander starts spending more and more time with Offred and they are eventually drawn toward each other; on the other hand as Offred hasn’t conceived yet the wife suggests her to do so with Nick which turns into a passionate love affair. The last scene shows us Offred being taken away in a black van; what became of her we’ll never know. Now for what I did not like about the book. I’ve always been a fan of contemporary fiction and hence picked this book up because of the hype surrounding it. I tried to but couldn’t fall in love with it. The writing style and presentation was a tad bit edgy and factual or rather cold and aloof for my tastes. Everything else about the book was love. I loved the story; the climax and the beauty of a ending. The transitions between when Offred was in the present and when she was thinking of her past had me in and out of the sync of reading. Cover: 5/5 (I own the beautiful hardcover edition of this book) Title: 5/5 Characters: 4/5 Language: 5/5 Story: 4/5 Writing and Presentation: 2/5 Overall: 3.5/5 I voluntarily reviewed a copy of this book for @thatbooknerdyouknow. This review is my own and hasn’t been influenced by anyone else.

The Handmaid’s Tale is a powerful dystopian novel that, like the finest works of the genre, holds a mirror to the failings of our own society. Through the rigid, theocratic world of Gilead, Margaret Atwood draws attention to several enduring concerns: 1. Control over women’s bodies 2. Loss of identity and individuality 3. Institutionalized patriarchy 4. The use of religion to justify oppression 5. Surveillance and the policing of behaviour 6. Resistance and the persistence of agency Atwood famously remarked that nothing in the novel was invented, but every element had its roots in real historical precedents. As one reads, one will trace these elements to actual events and practices. The first half of the novel unfolds at a measured, almost languid pace, immersing the reader in the oppressive atmosphere of Gilead. Please persist. Beyond the midway point, the narrative gathers momentum, becoming urgent and difficult to put down. A sequel, The Testaments, has since been published; I look forward to exploring it and reviewing it in due course.

The print of the cover could have been better. Other than that it's good (quality of page, font size).

No wonder why this book is regarded as the classic dystopian novel. Based on an alternative world where the United States of America became "The Republic of Gilead". Women like Offred are the handmaids whose only purpose in life is to breed. Pulling down women to the level of cattle, subhuman. No rights, no identity, no voice yeah that's the kind of world we are talking about. It's not gothic or horror but the elements in the book will make a sure chill runs down your spine. It got everything that's just NOT RIGHT NOTHING BUT CRIME IN EVERY POSSIBLE WAY. talk about religious fanatism, extreme radical patriarchy, sex slavery in the name of serving God, separation of mother and child, life-changing in a second, just to name a few. This book made me uneasy, gave extreme discomfort. The intense slow writing made sure the pain gets elongated a bit more. It affected me in a personal way, every emotion, every thought of Offred became mine. I loved this book I hated this book. It made me sick in the stomach, made my moods go everywhere yet like an addict I crawled back to the book. This book is a must-read, even if you don't like reading. This book talks about possibilities that can happen like prophecy. This book is a WARNING OF LETTING THINGS TO HAPPEN WHEN YOU JUST DON'T RAISE YOUR DAMN VOICE.

Já tinha assistido à série homônima de TV e achei ótimo o livro.

Un libro maravillosamente escrito por una de las grandes de la literatura contemporánea. Una fantástica historia distópica, perfectamente escrita, en primera persona que te sumerge de lleno en una sociedad donde las mujeres son meros objetos con distintos fines dependiendo de su clase social. Fanatismo religioso se mezcla con una dictadura militar, en un libro que amas y odias al mismo tiempo.

Çok ilgili ve kibar bir satıcı :) Hediye kitap için çok teşekkür ederim :))

It came impeccable.

I will admit - Over the years, 'Handmaid' was one of those books everyone had told me just HAD to be read - but with the clear discomfort they'd show in saying that, I always thought - Nope; not for me. I'm just not one for the whole dystopian thing; I need to see some light at the end of the tunnel. Fast forward to last week - this book being required for my daughter's Eng Lit class, and sitting available while I was at loose ends in a Starbucks for several hours - I thought, Why not?... and how glad I am, that I had those few hours. Wow. I was gone, hook line and sinker, from the first page on. Handmaid is set in, yes, a dystopian future in which women's place in the world has been subverted, through various events which resonate awfully closely with current times. The story picks up at the moment when Offred (a concatenation of her "owner's" name and her position in this society) is assigned to a new home in a city in America, for reasons that become all too clear within a few short pages. Her experiences within this new environment, interwoven with her recollection of her past before this societal apocalypse, unveil themselves like the layers of an onion - a never-ending interweaving of recollections and current experiences which, in their close parallels with so much that seems to be happening in our current world, make it not just an uncomfortable read, as so many other reviewers have said; but an eerily prescient one for these times. I could go on about that aspect of what makes this such a valuable read for any person over the age of 10 years old, but I'm quite sure many of the 1,000 + prior reviewers will have spoken to that far more effectively than I ever could. But for me, what makes this book so great is the Voice that the protagonist gains as she struggles in such a harsh, unforgiving, and shockingly cruel environment - the brutal honesty with which that voice speaks to the horrors and impossible personal choices that any of us would have to make, faced with such a savagely misogynistic society. There is no turning away from those realities in this book; Offred is, clearly, no better than any of us; but, she is, perhaps, more honest about her choices than any of us would ever manage to be. She has no roads but dead ends; no feelings but pain, isolation, and tragic loss; in a society which both reviles her and yet absolutely, completely, stunningly, needs her. And yet. There is compassion - much compassion - in this book not just for Offred but for each of her persecutors; and a perfectly clear view, of each person in Offred's life, from the patriarchy which dictates every aspect of the lives of the Americans; to the women with whom she is forced to share the household; to the man who runs their lives - and in theory owns Offred, body and soul. Margaret Atwood has managed to capture the complete horror of this situation and yet the complete spectrum of needs and innate humanness - warts and all - of each of the players in this world, speaking with true sight not only about what they each do, but the real WHY of it, like a series of ornate but utterly constrained chess pieces moved about in a deadly game by unseen hands. Atwood's brilliance with the written word, the layers of meaning she assigns to so many individual words, is a both a challenge and a complete delight, no matter how difficult the topics she makes us consider. Each page is like unwrapping a gift of many layers of brightly colored paper, never knowing what you will ultimately find inside: something to treasure, or something to fear. Offred's voice and her observations of self, other, and society are so clear and beautiful, so bleak, sad and yet hopeful - so compelling - in making us see these people. There are many phrases and visions Atwood has generated that will stay with me, now, for life. I cannot say I am in all cases glad of that - but I know i am richer for it. And in reading many of the current, more negative responses of the Amazon reading community, I cannot help but wonder if their dislike of the book is in many cases driven precisely from Atwood's artistry with words. She holds up not a picture for us to view, but a mirror to reflect realities that in many cases no one in their right mind would want to see - they are far too close, too personal, too true. And yet - we MUST look. I do not see, as some others do, a depressing endgame in this book; quite the opposite. Offred's determination to survive no matter what the cost and her slow but relentless growth to her own form of power and eventual rebellion, is not so much a story as a roadmap. We could all do well by, like Offred, looking with clear eyes at this dystopian imagining. If, at the end of the day, this book leaves you uncomfortable or depressed or angry - good, if at the same time it also manages to leave you unsettled. Atwood's intent was never to entertain you but to inform you - and that, she does with a master's deft hand. Three days and counting. What will we learn in Atwood's new book? I look forward, with a perfectly uncomfortable blend of anticipation and anxiety, dread and hope, to the answer to that question.