The Handmaid's Tale

Author: Margaret Atwood

Rating: 3/5

Pages: 324

Year Published: 1985

Synopsis (From Goodreads): “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…"

I had been hyping reading this book for so long! I had heard so many good things about it and could barely wait until I actually got to read it myself. I picked it up and started reading it and… I didn’t like it as much as I thought I would. The disappointment made it hard for me to get through it since non of my expectations were fulfilled. So maybe this isn’t a bad book, maybe it’s me, maybe we aren’t a perfect match!

The writing was simple, easy and a bit like a child’s. The sentences were short, but still it was well written. However this type of writing annoyed me since I felt like the simplified language structure implied that I was stupid. After I had finished the book I reflected over the writing style and came to the conclusion that the main character used a simple language since she hadn’t been writing for ages.

The story had interesting messages and provocative. The hate and anger which floated under the surface of the pages sometimes bled through as ink and words and made the reader stop reading to just think. The society portrayed in the book is extremely different from the society we see today but it can be seen that many of its values were taken from other cultures and societies.

I felt no strong connection to any of the characters except Nick. To me the commander and his wife were unimportant and not very interesting. The same goes for Moira. However the characters held some stereotypes, but regardless they were well written. It was written out of Offred’s points of view and I think that what upset me the most was that we never got to know Offred’s real name! However I enjoyed how it had an open ending, and the speculations in the end. I think I would have enjoyed it even more if there were no historical notes at the end and you were left to speculate yourself how her story ended.

The novel was vivid, detailed and a story worth reading. Margaret Atwood is an amazing writer with a captivating language and wonderful fantasy. This is a story exploring the possibilities of how the world might come to look like in the future even though this is very extreme. It is definitely worth reading. Just remember to not have too high expectations since that ruined my experience with this book!