The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret AtwoodMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
I must have been asleep when this book was first published and I knew nothing of Margaret Atwood. Ignorantly I presumed this was a historical novel. How wrong can you be?!
The recent hype around the TV adaptation of it spiked my interest. I hate to watch these before I've read the book and there was a copy of it in the house so now I've read it and am glad I did. It wasn't what I was expecting and it's not a genre I usually read but it was chilling.
It's hard to imagine (and much is left to your imagination) how the hierarchy developed to lead to the situation Offred, the Handmaid, finds herself in. But I know we have looked back at many events in history and wondered "How did that happen?" Or more appropriately, "How did we let that happen?"
Hopefully this book won't turn out to be prophetic, although it could be argued that in some cultures it already has.
It wasn't a particularly satisfying ending (and you do need to read to the very end) but it was certainly plausible.
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I'm an Atwood fan, although I confess I haven't read her most recent.
ReplyDeleteMy faves are probably Cats Eye, The Robber Bride, The Blind Assassin and Alias Grace.
I giggled at your comment about expecting an historical romance. I wonder how many people were shocked by the tv series for exactly the same reason.