I'm again nagging aboutThe Handmaid's Tale -- by Margaret Atwood.
Forgive me, I can't help myself.
"Offred [pronounced 'Of Fred'] 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 the 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 only valued 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 that is gone now.
"Atwood takes many trends that exist today and stretches them to their logical and chilling conclusions. An excellent novel about the directions our lives are taking. Read it while it is still allowed."
Houston Chronicle
6 comments:
A great book--and very scary.
hi dguzman--
and to think Atwood saw it all coming -- WAY before I did, certainly.
I just hope we can stop the train before it does any more damage than it already has.
Dystopian novels fascinate me, and this is one of the better ones. They are an interesting way to engage the reader while making comments on current conditions and ideologies.
I also love her Oryx and Crake.
Darn, I still haven't read that book. I'll get it this summer, I hope.
hi, libhom--
thanx for the ref to Atwood's other stuff. I don't know that [is it one book or 2?]
anyway, I'll have to try it [them].
dystopian works fascinate me, too. it's interesting to see how other's view the direction society is heading.
another I've read several times is Alas, Babylon. [don't remember author] a very naive look at life during WWIII.
reading it today, I get more of a sense of the world during the late 1950's [when the book was written] -- there's even a message that someone could WIN an atomic war. [the US did, of course].
hi, Mary Ellen--
not to worry. I'll keep nagging till you do, don'tchaknow---
knowing your penchant for books that make you sleep with the lights on-- I do think it's right up your alley.
dguzman hit the nail on the head: very scary.
Atwood wrote it during the late 1980's or early '90's. and it could STILL happen here. that's part of what's so scary about it.
like the review says: read it now while it's still allowed.
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