Book Review: The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

Rating: 5.0 stars

Heartbreaking. Terrifying. Beautiful.

Goodreads 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 Handmaid’s Tale is SUPER depressing. That mostly has to do with how incredibly relevant it is to real life. It becomes even more depressing when you realize that the disgusting, terrible ordeals that people living in the “fictional” society of Gilead face, are actually taken from very real-life events. It is truly shocking. Some (okay, maybe most) of the ceremonies and rules followed in Gilead seemed inhumane and impossible. I found myself thinking: “thank god I don’t live in a world like this”.... well, turns out I am! I am just fortunate enough not to be the one to have to live through it.

Our main character, Offred, is a handmaid. Offred is not actually her name, as she, like other handmaids, were given patronymic names depending on the master they served, and on top of that, must undergo the highly ritualized Ceremony (aka state-sanctioned rape) with said masters and their Wives to help repopulate society. Yeah, I know, it’s horrifying. Offred is our heroine, but she is not heroic. Her best friend Moira better suits the hero trope. However, Offred is not supposed to be the hero. She is every woman. She is someone that we can all in some way relate to. It served to invest me in her story. I enjoyed that Atwood did not write about a character that was looking to overturn the entire system, but rather a woman that searched for small rebellions to help her survive her circumstances. I found it to be a realistic portrayal of a realistic person.

The language of the novel is beautiful. Margaret Atwood is a master of the English language. The beauty of the language serves as an interesting contrast to the awful story that we are reading about. There is a definite focus on describing details, details that to any other person, may seem completely irrelevant. That is exactly the point! Offred is not any other person. She is someone who is imprisoned with no rights or freedoms. So how does she cope with it all? By focusing on random details of her environment and escaping into her mind and memories. Offred’s tale is a tale of survival. While on a surface level, some parts of her narration can seem long-winding and pointless, there is a very real struggle underneath the surface to maintain parts of who she was before her life fell apart.

The Historical Notes chapter, I have to add was simultaneously relieving and frustrating. I won’t spoil what happens, but I will say that I thought it was a great note to end Offred’s and Gilead’s story on.

This novel can be read as a warning. A warning that if we do not shape up and address the underlying issues and tensions in our society, we can face a future similar to the one described in this story. The Handmaid’s Tale was not entertaining. It was at times hard to read. Most of all, it was life-changing. I’m awarding this novel five stars not because I love it, but rather because it challenged my view of the world and my awareness of what happens in it.

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