Books and other material worth picking up.
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
Feb, 2017
Until this month I had never read “The Handmaid’s Tale”. My daughter left her copy at home and I picked it up to have something to read. I had also seen the trailer for an upcoming HULU movie based on the book and wanted to read the book before seeing their version. Having read several of the old classics (“1984”, “Brave New World”, “Fahrenheit 451”, …)and at least one of the YA updates (“The Hunger Games”, …), I had some familiarity with the genre.
While “The Handmaid’s Tale” has a great deal in common with its predecessors, it struck me as describing a society that was possibly the most brutal in how it chose to control its population. Granted all of the dystopian novels are based on some form of repressive government, limited personal freedoms, and lives of constant fear but this novel made it seem more real. The plot includes little of the fighting and action that made the Hunger Ganes into hit movies. It builds slowly and reveals more of the workings of Gilead while revealing what makes the protagonist so eager to find an escape at any cost.
I am sure some parts of the internet will blow up over the feminist themes in the book. Ignore them and read the book.
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