Let's talk about The Handmaid's Tale. Nowhere, and I mean absolutely nowhere, is there a picture associated with this book that does not strike you right in the kisser with it's unforgettable imagery. Every cover, every movie or tv still is bright and iconic. Once you've seen the red dress and the white face covering, you do not forget it or it's horrifying significance. When choosing online which cover I'd purchase for myself - because I did not want to borrow a version, I could tell that this would be a book to keep - I found the prettiest one I could find, as that's the kind of magpie I am. There's something so wrong, I'm realising after the fact, about finding the prettiest picture of female oppression you can find, but that's often what we do as women, to discount our own experience, to make our suffering seem less serious because of how much opposition we face in simply being believed. I don't really want to whip out a lesson in equality during this review, but suffice to say that this book makes you think about the state of things both politically and in your interpersonal relationships with other humans, and if it doesn't, IT ABSOLUTELY THE FUCK SHOULD, PLEASE GET YOURSELF A REALITY CHECK. When I begin a book I am drawn in. This likely happens in the book store, the cover strikes me visually or there's a little recommendation on the shelf. Often the genre will makes promises enough, but the opening pages are the most important. Some begin with wit, some with outlandish description, pulling you into a world unlike your own. The Handmaid's Tale begins slowly, quietly, every page calm, but underwritten by a mysterious element that takes almost too long to figure out. There's something not quite right from the outset. The realisation after meeting more handmaids - their names are ownership titles.. "Of" combined with a mans name. Offred. Ofglen. Ofwayne. Ofwarren. I'm not sure how I feel about that at this stage, only a few chapters in. I know the significance but not the reason, and the first chapters are scattered with such curiosities. This the first Margaret Atwood book I've ever picked up and I feel as though I'm in for a brain workout. Needless to say, as a woman this book was particularly horrifying. The Republic of Gilead, a dystopian future where the government is taken over by un-named militia, and the first thing to go? Women's bank accounts, women's jobs, finances, security, bodily autonomy, freedom. Women become property again, too quickly, too easily. However, there is such a hazy quality to Offred's experience that we are lulled into a sense of passive confusion. We are given only the details she can recall, and her real name is never revealed. She is never given an identity, only a past and a present. There is no guarantee as to her future. Only in the end do I come to understand a few things about the depicted events. Some sort of biological warfare is waged alongside the overthrowing of the current government. Men suffer from varying degrees of sterility and the birth rates across the country plummet. Handmaids are women plucked from many places, unmarried, un-wealthy, unlucky... broken and reformed as incubators. Their job is to bear children to the important men of the Republic of Gilead, to be surrogates to the barren wives of the new world leaders. Once a child is born, though many are deformed, she is reassigned to another leader for the next round, to see if she can do it again. Some still remember freedom, their old lives. Some choose to opt out of this bleak future with suicide, sabotage or escape. Some fully embrace the state of thing, as they recognise the complete brutality of the regime and the blatant futility of trying to resist. Hangings are common, no one is truly safe. Handmaids who stray from their masters, wives who kill the handmaid in her home out of jealously, or spite, doctors, scientists, nuns who refuse to abandon celibacy. There is little choice in life anymore. Only fear and duty. "I feel angry. I'm not proud of myself for this, or for any of it. But then, that's the point." When I come to the end of the book, Offred's tale is cut off at the climax. I yell into the quiet air of my empty house. "WHAT." It is not even a question. I don't understand. What follows after this blatant full stop and blank page is a section called "Historical Notes", dated the year 2195. As a charming speaker brings up this document, this tale, to a convention of well-to-do scholars, it becomes so very real where it simply wasn't before. Everything Offred describes along her journey is woven with quiet, safe shades of grey, despite the bright red iconography of everything that makes up a handmaid. Survival tones and warning lights. There's a quality of numbness that keeps back a sure panic about the state of things, ensuring that we drift with her, disassociated from the actual events as she recalls them in a mostly matter of fact way. No conversations, simply words recorded on a page as a transcript, emotionless. She does describe how she's feeling, an awful lot, don't get me wrong, but the overall tone of the construction makes it difficult to do much but experience with her and wonder in horror at how things could have reached such an awful state. Cutting off her recollection right at the most real moment when all eyes are suddenly on her, this shift in time and perspective made me finally slam on the breaks. I broke through the surface of that numbness and suddenly I was possessed by a need to be back with her in that mute place, to see her through whatever comes next. To experience the sheer terror of having nothing of your own, no way to fight back, no safe way to hold onto a rich, free past. "You are a transitional generation. It is the hardest for you. We know the sacrifices you are being expected to make. For the ones who come after you, it will be easier. They will accept their duties with willing hearts." It becomes apparent with the way the "document" is analysed at the end, that Offred has somehow managed to record her tale, that somehow... she escaped. The relief I feel at this discovery is minuscule. I am afraid of how easily this future could become reality in present day. Part of the appeal in reading this was the current political state of the world - anywhere you look this book is being touted as highly relevant in Trump's America. I don't want to call it Trump's America. It is not his, and he's doing a REALLY good job of fucking things up. Having read it, I can see the parallels, the possibilities, the potential for segregation, degradation, iron rule over women's bodies... This is a think piece that will probably always be sadly relevant. Title: The Handmaid's Tale Author: Margaret Atwood Published: 1985 Genre: Dystopia Pages: 479 Finish Date: 17/05/2017 The following online stores all have free worldwide shipping You can buy it here at Fishpond.com You can also buy it from Book Depository For UK based companies there's Wordery and Books Please This is a solid 9, folks. Put it in your eyes and your To Be Read piles.
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