Review ~ The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

Title: The Handmaid’s Tale Author: Margaret Atwood
Copyright: 1998
Type:  fiction
Pages: 311
Series: no

Reason for Reading
My friend Alyssa suggested it to me

Summary:

Offred is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead. She may leave the home of the Commander and his wife once a day to walk to food markets whose signs are now pictures instead of words because women are no longer allowed to read. She must lie on her back once a month and pray that the Commander makes her pregnant, because in an age of declining births, Offred and the other Handmaids are valued only if their ovaries are viable. Offred can remember the years before, when she lived and made love with her husband, Luke; when she played with and protected her daughter; when she had a job, money of her own, and access to knowledge. But all of that is gone now... 

The Problems:

1.      It happened too fast had did we allow it to go from society of today to Offred? I don’t think even with the way that life is going that it would fall apart that fast with no explanation other than it just happened b/c babies weren’t being born?

2.      I needed more explanation during this to let me know how we got to where we were and why we as a society allowed it to happen

3.      There is way too much hype surrounding this book for what it offered

The Wins:

1.      It was interesting being in Offred’s head and watching her go through what she was going through and how she made the decision she made and why

2.      Seeing the life and rules the caste system and how it was set up was interesting and the “secret” society and how why we brushed against it yet still had the same things we claimed destroyed society was interesting. I would have liked to see more depth in that and what the consequences of that would be.

3.      I liked seeing Offred struggle with the basic choices she made and how she would reflect on the what ifs I believe out of everything those were the real moments of the story.

Goodreads Grade: 2 out of 5 stars

Would you recommend this book to others?  I really didn’t care for it I felt that we started in the middle of the story and for that reason it didn’t make sense how we went from the one extreme of this life to that life with little to no explanation of how we got there.