The Handmaid's Tale (Contemporary classics)

This is an excellent novel. Compelling, engaging, story-telling, challenging - it drew me in and aws very hard to put down. It is a dystopia story, set in a future society (in this case the US - renamed as the Republic of Gilead)under totalitarian rule...possibly a theocracy. Mostly it is about the subjugation of women to conservative and ultra-feminine roles, apparently for the preservation of...more

This is an excellent novel. Compelling, engaging, story-telling, challenging - it drew me in and aws very hard to put down. It is a dystopia story, set in a future society (in this case the US - renamed as the Republic of Gilead)under totalitarian rule...possibly a theocracy. Mostly it is about the subjugation of women to conservative and ultra-feminine roles, apparently for the preservation of the society. The roles for women are stereotypes named: Wives, Marthas, Handmaids, Aunts, Econowives and Unwomen. The "unwomen" are in a sense the illegitimate female members of society living outside the mainstream - "slaves" in the "colonies"...destined to be worked to death. The handmaids job is to provide babies for the sterile wives who are literally the wives of the elite men. The story is disturbing on several levels - the religious/conservative domination of society, the gender stereotyping - it is not so long ago that much of it was normal and in some places still is, the ideas of total enslavement of part of society (in this case women, but not so long ago total races), that some men might accept this as a good idea ever(!), the loneliness, defacing and dehumanising that occurs in our world when people are subjected to the domination, power, control of others. Prophetic visions like this are important. They warn, they remind and they repel.   hide

A decent read, though I still maintain it is a feminist mirror of 1984.

Because it made me a feminist.

A post apocalyptic novel set sometime in the future USA. Post coup a new regime of christian religeous zealots has regressed society to a time when women are second class citizens. Good only for being wives and mother's enforced by a draconian set of laws. Faced with a falling population the regime imposes with punitive punishments laws that makes all women who can bear children become...more

A post apocalyptic novel set sometime in the future USA. Post coup a new regime of christian religeous zealots has regressed society to a time when women are second class citizens. Good only for being wives and mother's enforced by a draconian set of laws. Faced with a falling population the regime imposes with punitive punishments laws that makes all women who can bear children become handmaids to the so called great and the good the leaders to bear children to their families where their wives cannot. Those women who cannot and or will not follow the laws and do not hold any position are either sent to the wastelands to help the clean-up of toxic areas death is pretty much certain or into "clubs" to service the extra marital activities of the "Commanders".Or executed by hanging by their peers. This is The Republic of Gilead.... Offred is pressed into service as a Handmaid, she longs for the old days and the freedoms and her daughter and lover that have been taken away. She fails and starts having a private association with her Commander, and, in an effort to become pregnant,and bring great praise and position to the household, with his Driver. Both could result in her paying the ultimate price, DEATH. Her affair with her commander is discovered but she is rescued by the underground and spirited away to safety. This is less a work of science fiction more a moral story about choice and the strength of the human spirit that comes to the fore in the face of adversity. You can can control someone physically but you can never totally control their mind.Thoroughly absorbing, dark and perceptive read...   hide

A future over-zeolously religous dystopian government (set in or in part of the US) force 'Offred' into a life of being a breeder. Wouldn't be much of a story if she didn't rebel. (which she does, a bit at least). This book falls somewhere between 1984 and Brave new world, and yet seems to echo a lot of stuff I hear coming out of Iran these days, (especially with regard to treatment of women's...more

A future over-zeolously religous dystopian government (set in or in part of the US) force 'Offred' into a life of being a breeder. Wouldn't be much of a story if she didn't rebel. (which she does, a bit at least). This book falls somewhere between 1984 and Brave new world, and yet seems to echo a lot of stuff I hear coming out of Iran these days, (especially with regard to treatment of women's rights) so it is probably even more frighteningly relevent then it should be.   hide

Scariest thing I read since 1984.

Stunning book well writen and conjour great images in ones head as it is read. I feel this is one book I'd love to see made into a film as I think some of the scenes would have a great impact in a visual medium which would add to the story. It has the same sense of well developed sociological structures as a Le Guin story

A gripping read.

disappointing ending, but scary prospect.