The Handmaid's Tale

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Attwood

Paperback, 324 pages

Published 5th July 2007 by Vintage (Originaly published August 1985)

Shelves: adult-fiction, books-i-own, dystopian, favourites, read, read-in-2020, series-or-companions

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Description via Goodreads:

The Republic of Gilead offers Offred only one function: to breed. If she deviates, she will, like dissenters, be hanged at the wall or sent out to die slowly of radiation sickness. But even a repressive state cannot obliterate desire – neither Offred's nor that of the two men on which her future hangs.

Brilliantly conceived and executed, this powerful evocation of twenty-first-century America gives full rein to Margaret Atwood's devastating irony, wit and astute perception.

The Handmaid's Tale is a difficult book to review. In fact, it's a difficult book to even shelve. Is it science fiction or is it realistic fiction? I only know that for sure that it's a modern classic that is even more scarily relevant now in 2020 than it was when it was first written in 1985. 

The Handmaid's Tale is something that you really have to experience for yourself - it's a book unlike any other that I've read before as you're aware that it's set in the dystopian Republic of Gilead but you're also aware that what it happening is shockingly relevant - maybe not directly, but the undertones, the insinuations and ideas are most definitely there. It's the philosophy that is relevant, rather than the actions portrayed. This is where its main success lies. For anyone who's intrigued by religion, women's rights and feminism, this is a necessary read. 

This is a relatively short book at only 324 pages, but it took me quite a while to get through -  although it's written well, the subject matter can feel draining. There isn't a huge amount of character development in the book apart from that of the narrator, Offred, but as I say, this doesn't really cause concern. Although I have no deep insight into the personalities of the characters, I can imagine their feelings and concerns. 

Gilead is somewhere I have a good picture of in my head - both the workings of the Republic and  the atmosphere there. I can most certainly imagine the dreary dystopian, yet familiar setting. The fact that the setting is so familiar - a once regular town in the United States, something that we can all relate to from personal experience or films - is one of the things that make it so disturbing. 

Overall, this is a powerful book which I will probably revisit in the future. The book has always been on my radar, but since watching and adoring the TV adaptation of the book, I knew I had to read it straight away. I would highly recommend both. I'm looking forward to following it up at some point by reading The Testaments which I hope will expand on some of the characters that we were introduced to and just what happens to the women and children of Gilead.