So my roommate and I have both come down with a summer flu. Joy. The advantages of said flu are the following: a natural excuse to become a blanket person (as in one always covered in blankets), lying on the couch all day, watching hours upon hours of Buffy, having my mother at my beck and call to bring me juice; soup; and chocolate, and reading 250-350 page books in one day.
"the Handmaid's Tale" isn't one of the books I've read in the past five days. Some of you may have heard my "Margaret Atwood Elevator Experience" story. If not, you should go check it out, 'cause it's pretty funny, I think. Anyway, my senior project professor LOVES Margaret Atwood--practically worships her. And since both Margaret Atwood and my Prof are both really amazing fiction writers, I've been planning to read some Atwood for some time. On top of this, my best friend called me in April and told me about "the Handmaid's Tale"--that I would love it, that I had, had, had to read it. And that pretty much sold it for me, since Shy and I have the same taste in books.
First off, before I even talk about summary, plot, upsides, etc, let me just talk about the writing. Good Lord, I wanted to make love with Atwood's sentences. I wanted to have babies with them. Little Atwood sentence babies. That's how much I loved her writing. I wanted to take a yellow highlighter and oh-so-carefully highlight the sentences in perfectly straight lines so I could remember which sentences were my favorites forever. I did not actually do this. I thought it might mar the perfect perfectness of the perfect sentences from perfect land. If nothing else, you must read this book for the beauty of the writing. You must. Go. Now. You're not leaving fast enough.
Summary, from the back of the book (edition noted above): "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 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 of that is gone now..." I didn't think I could sum it up better than that!
Upsides: The good writing aside, I love it when writers take society, especially a society we're used to and do something really interesting with it and take it to a place that's possible, but that we wouldn't think about it. From the summary, you can surmise that the society of the book is still patriarchal, and to some definitions you can say so, but it's actually a female based society. High class men have all the freedom, but women are incredibly important in the story because of the desperate need for babies. The structure of this book is also very interesting--it's separated into titled sections, the titles giving you a hint of what's to come. Time is very fluid in this book: glimpses of the far past, close past, and the present all sort of blended together in a seriously masterful way. Atwood really eases you into each time switch and gives you pretty clear signals as to when you are. The characters are incredibly vivid. There are times when Moira is talking and you're told she's talking, but you don't need to be told, you can tell by the way she speaks. This books is all at once sad, longing, hope, fear, and anticipation. You feel it as fully as the characters feel it. I also love the mystery of this book. You're effectively thrown into the situation Offred is in without a whole lot of explanation on how society got there in the first place. That comes later. Offred's personal circumstances are revealed slowly as time goes forward (and backward) as well. And I really enjoyed how the reader is given information little by little.
Downsides (I'll try to be objective, but Atwood makes it hard!): I can see how the time jumping could be confusing for some readers, there occasionally isn't a warning and for a paragraph (or a sentence) or two, you might not be perfectly positive about what's going on. There also isn't the most conclusive ending--and it has its purpose--but I, personally, am a fan of conclusive endings. The ending does sort of leave you wanting for answers and certainly wanting for more, please GOD, more. I actually looked up all of Margaret Atwood's books and short stories to see if she'd written anything in the same universe or about the same characters. I found nothing. . .
Overall Rating: 5/5. You'll like this novel. I promise. Just look at the upsides above. And the fact that I want to have sentence sex with this book. To have sentence babies. Shy--you were right. I loved this. And the next time I see you we will have beautiful discussions about it. Of beautifulness. And stuff.
Next time: "the Hobbit" by J.R.R. Tolkien--it won't be the most traditional review, because if you don't all know in the heart of your being that "the Hobbit" is one of the best books of all time, you don't have a soul. This is not something that needs telling. I thought I might lay out some of my expectations for the upcoming movies and talk a bit about the animated movie and how everyone should see it as an extremely accurate representation of the book. . .
Happy reading everyone!
AJ
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