Offred is a national resource. She is a handmaid; viable ovaries make her a precious commodity in the Republic of Gilead, where the birthrate has plummeted to dangerous levels. Assigned to a Commander whose wife cannot produce, Offred's purpose is onefold: to breed.
Dressed in red from veil to shoes, apart from the white wings which cover her face, Offred walks in silence each day past the Guardians of the Faith, who man each barrier. She exchanges tokens for food. She visits the Wall, where gender traitors and war criminals hang for atrocities, once legal, committed in the time before.
At night in the bare room, Offred remembers: quaint, outdated customs such as gossiping, using paper money, jogging. Illegal thing: women having jobs, reading, her real name, love. Love used to be central to everything. Now it is irrelevant.
Margaret Atwood, who has shown her formidable insights …
Offred is a national resource. She is a handmaid; viable ovaries make her a precious commodity in the Republic of Gilead, where the birthrate has plummeted to dangerous levels. Assigned to a Commander whose wife cannot produce, Offred's purpose is onefold: to breed.
Dressed in red from veil to shoes, apart from the white wings which cover her face, Offred walks in silence each day past the Guardians of the Faith, who man each barrier. She exchanges tokens for food. She visits the Wall, where gender traitors and war criminals hang for atrocities, once legal, committed in the time before.
At night in the bare room, Offred remembers: quaint, outdated customs such as gossiping, using paper money, jogging. Illegal thing: women having jobs, reading, her real name, love. Love used to be central to everything. Now it is irrelevant.
Margaret Atwood, who has shown her formidable insights into the complexities of contemporary woman in Life Before Man and Bodily Harm, now turns her vision to the future. Through the eyes of Offred, we are shown the dark corners behind the calm facade of the Republic of Gilead: a regime which takes the Book of Genesis absolutely at its word, with bizarre consequences for women, and for men as well. Brilliantly conceived and executed, this powerful evocation of 21st-century America under post-feminist totalitarian rule gives full rein to Margaret Atwood's devastating irony, wit, and acute perception. The Handmaid's Tale confirms her reputations a major novelist.
--front flap
Je ne savais rien de ce roman – je n'avais pas vu la série – si ce n'est que c'était une dystopie. Et j'ai été impressionné par la qualité et la profondeur de l'écriture. Ça confirme ma conviction qu'il vaut toujours mieux lire un livre avant d'en voir une adaptation.
Je ne savais rien de ce roman – je n'avais pas vu la série – si ce n'est que c'était une dystopie. Et j'ai été impressionné par la qualité et la profondeur de l'écriture. Ça confirme ma conviction qu'il vaut toujours mieux lire un livre avant d'en voir une adaptation.
I was warned this book is not a fun one. Indeed it is not.
You get to see the omnipresent fear and violence of a patriarchal surveillance state. You get to see how it got there, little by little, and how it got accepted. The disturbing part is that it is very much believable...
I hadn't seen since Orwell's "1984" the effect of a totalitarian system on an individual so well described, especially at an individual level. You get to see how a single mind resists or breaks when faced with such overwhelming brutal and oppressive environment.
It is definitely worth reading, especially when you keep in mind the fact that Atwood has been censored in several US states.
I was warned this book is not a fun one. Indeed it is not.
You get to see the omnipresent fear and violence of a patriarchal surveillance state. You get to see how it got there, little by little, and how it got accepted. The disturbing part is that it is very much believable...
I hadn't seen since Orwell's "1984" the effect of a totalitarian system on an individual so well described, especially at an individual level. You get to see how a single mind resists or breaks when faced with such overwhelming brutal and oppressive environment.
It is definitely worth reading, especially when you keep in mind the fact that Atwood has been censored in several US states.
I read this classic just two years ago. It felt more relevant to the present than it may have been when it was written. This book is a revolutionary milestone in speculative fiction and probably feminist literature as well, but I found equally interesting that the text is based on progressive loss of innocence. The final chapter is incredible and left me very satisfied.
I read this classic just two years ago. It felt more relevant to the present than it may have been when it was written.
This book is a revolutionary milestone in speculative fiction and probably feminist literature as well, but I found equally interesting that the text is based on progressive loss of innocence. The final chapter is incredible and left me very satisfied.
