The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

So, I have finally picked up this book – I know I am very late to the party with ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’.

I have heard so much about this book and Hayley from Home is a huge fan, so she inspired me to finally pick it up and give it a go (as well as it being the title for this month’s #BookClub140). I had a bit of an idea of the plot and, to be honest, I think that put me off for a while as it seemed a little bit depressing. However, I was so wrong; I could not put the book down and it really appealed to the history geek in me.

It is true that it is a rather hard-hitting storyline and there are clearly influences from our history that have helped form the plot, but I actually found it fascinating and thought provoking. It really does make you realise that we take an awful lot of our freedom for granted and that it is a delicate balance that avoids us slipping into such a terrifying reality.

The narrator’s voice is perfect throughout the novel. You empathise with her from the first line and you have a continuing desire to find out what her story is and where it may go; this is certainly what kept me turning the page. The characters were incredibly rounded and fascinating, considering their roles were so carefully defined in society. You do feel resentment towards those characters that appear to be privileged in society but they all, also, have demons that seem to be haunting them. There is the fear of not fulfilling the role you have been placed in, as well as the constant memory of the past and what may have been. The cliffhanger ending really does leave you with your imagination going off in all sorts of directions, never really knowing which are correct.

The final ‘chapter’ that suggests that this society is being studied is something that had really caught my imagination as a teacher. It left me thinking about the way we teach about societies of the past and when we may have been close to similar situations in our past.

I did not find this a difficult or harrowing read, but I am not sure that I am quite prepared for the television adaptation as this is taking the story out of my own safe imagination and possibly bringing it closer to reality.

Have you read any other of Margaret Atwood’s books? If so, where would you recommend me to venture next?

 

 

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