The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Handmaid's Tale
Book Review: A Well Written Novel
Summary: 4 Stars
The Handmaid's Tale is a very interesting book that offers a different perspective on the relationships between men and women. Offred,the handmaid who is the main character of the novel, lives with her Commander and his wife Serena. Her job is to get pregnant by the Commander, give birth to the child, then give it up so that the wife can raise the baby as her own. The novel follows the thoughts of suicide, scandal, and betrayal that Offred has throughout her journey. The society in which the book takes place is fairly new, Offred can still remember life before it. It is very difficult to obtain items that would indulge any vanity. The only way to go about finding things like lotion, magazines, lingerie,etc. is on the black market. Offred and some of the other handmaid's who she meets along the way wish to corrupt the society and break down its very structured walls. Read the book to find out if she succeeds.I thought that this novel was very suspenseful about what Offred would encounter. It kept me reading. This was a challenging book to understand, filled with lots of symbolism, etc. I would reccommend it to anyone who wants a change from the everyday love story.
Book Review: A Woman's Dystopia
Summary: 5 Stars
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood is a riveting book that takes place in the future. But for women, this future is anything but happy. The U.S. Congress has been murdered and a new government, the Republic of Gilead is in power. Women are property of their husbands or male kin; they no longer work or have money. In society they are either a Handmaid, Martha, or Wife. The story focuses on a woman named Offred who is a Handmaid. She is in the household of a Commander simply to produce a child. Offred dreams of how things used to be and of escaping the totalitarian and patriarchal society.
Atwood brings her characters to life through her resonant voice. She creates simple and natural conflict between the women of the society-especially between Offred and her Commander's Wife, Serena. Atwood illustrates the animosity between the two beautifully. "She didn't step aside to let me in, she just stood there in the doorway, blocking the entrance. She wanted me to feel that I could not come into the house unless she said so." (chapter 3; pg. 13) Serena symbolizes every Wife in this story. The Wives must let the Handmaids come into their home and have sex with their husbands for the sake of society. That conflict between women makes the story seem like Gilead could actually exist.
Atwood also does an amazing job setting up Gilead and Offred's surroundings. She plants the smallest details within the story to make Gilead come alive. "There is no such thing as a sterile man anymore, not officially. There are only women who are fruitful and women who are barren, that's the law." (Chapter 11; pg. 61) Atwood has little details like this that further promotes the idea of Gilead's strict patriarchal society. Women are to be blamed for everything and men shall be blameless. Another one is "You wanted a woman's culture. Well, now there is one. It isn't what you meant, but it exists." (Chapter 21; pg. 127) Atwood has also placed a small part of women's culture within the men's but it has been perverted from women of free will to women under the control of men.
The way that Atwood has taken parts of the modern world-feminism, mistresses, etc-and used it to form a dystopia is part of what makes the story of Offred repulsive yet I couldn't seem to put the book down. I simply loved the book. Through Atwood's narrative as Offred, I could see everything as if I were watching a movie. The ending was symbolic and fitting for Offred-it won't disappoint. I highly recommend The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood.
Book Review: A Work of Art
Summary: 4 Stars
The prose is vivid, poetic, and exquisitely lush. The characters are deep and you get a fantastic sense of the mind of the narrator. But the detail about how Gilead came to be seems implausible at best and the consequences are not indicative of the best of the dystopian genre. But read it to experience the writing itself. It is a true work of art that can stand on that merit alone.Book Review: A appaulingly unplausible novel covering a beatin topic
Summary: 1 Stars
The skills of the writer lacked to the point of boredum and her attempt at establishing a stable premise at which to convey the ways in which this ridiculus world came about are not present. Socialogical factors are not even represented throughly. Reading the novel you need to forget about 80% of the population. And if i have to read one more book about social roles god save us allBook Review: A bit scary when you think about it
Summary: 5 Stars
I am reading this book as a part of a book club. It is extremely thought provoking. The scary part is how real it feels. Elements in the story translate into the real world and could make you think, "I wonder if this could be the path we are going down."