I had purchased this book quite some time ago when a friend of mine mention it to me... I had thoughts of Fifty Shades of Grey which I had purchased because another individual had liked it... Let me say right away that I read less than 50 pages of the latter and stopped reading. On the other hand, when in a discussion with a good friend, I was talking about the latest attempt to control women, looking to stop the use of an abortion pill that was been on the market for decades... At that point, she cried "OMG, The Handmaiden is Happening!
After that conversation was over and I was home, I pulled up my copy of The Handmaid's Tale. It seemed like I was led to be reading it now... I knew immediately what my friend meant. At the end, I began to read the Historical Notes, but at first overlooked the date 2195... I went in search of what is referred to as the Gileadean Regime. Which was to have been the time during which a religious group had taken over America... Suddenly I had to agree. The Handmaid's Tale was now moving forward as had begun during the beginning of the decade... See my blog post for relevant videos I found... Women have been talking about this book since 2016, in particular!
The main character is a young woman, much like my friend, who has a loving husband and a child. Soon, both of them have disappeared and she never sees them again. As we watch the woman, now given another name, she imagines what might have happened to her family. And she strives to remember the past, what was happening in her life and in the world... She is not allowed to have any contact with that world; she remembers though and hopes she will not lose those memories--of Luke, her husband and her child, a little girl... Once during the book, a picture of her daughter was shared by the wife of the man who now owned her... She wants a child enough that she is willing to bargain with his Handmaid...
There are three handmaids for his man. We never know exactly who or what he does. It is irrelevant since they are closeted away and are only seen when sex is to occur. Both of the prospective parents are included in this charade... It is described in the book; it is terrible to visualize...
And then after been raped by her owner a number of times, she arranges through his driver to have her visit him in his office. Interestingly, he asks her to play a board game... As time goes by, he introduces a magazine no longer in print, having been banned, and allows her to sit in the room to read it; he sits watching her... and they talk. He shares that he and his wife no longer talk to each other like they once did. He misses that. She now talks mostly with the wives of other owners, as they are permitted to interact only with them... It seems that every woman who is living at the time, has been given a job in their new locations... Marthas, for instance are the cooks, obviously named after the two sisters in the Bible, Martha being the one who quickly prepares a meal when Jesus visits...
But there is little to do about religion in this world in which has been created... except what is important to ensure that women know their places... the reason seems to be close to what is being spouted now... white women are not now producing enough children... something had to be done... work was no longer possible. The women needed to be free to be available for those times when it was possible to get pregnant. Nothing else mattered.
The entire book is centered into one household full of women--and one older man. Other men may work for the man as well; but the women all had specific tasks. And those who "believed" in what was happening were called Aunts; they were to train, supervise, and, if necessary, punish the handmaids. A cow prod was used.
Soon the woman who has a new name is comfortable enough with the head of the house to have him ask her if she would like to have an adventure... She is taken to what we would call a brothel, she is dressed for the occasion from old, use, sex-oriented clothing that has been hidden away after all such activities were forbidden in the world... Only men of the Gilead Regime were members of the Club... And, yes, it was a sex club where the leaders of the group participated in their sexual interests--beyond what were performed with the Handmaids... Sound familiar?
As you may already have realized, many of the things that were now forbidden for women in the book have already started occurring, based upon the move by a presidential candidate and his followers. There have been many women caught by the state congresses to stop abortions for religious reasons, it seems. I am one of the many Christians who do not accept that the Christian Nationalist Party has anything to do with God our Father... And, for me, Jesus His Son... If you have had any questions regarding this matter, I highly recommend you start reading...before it, too, is banned... The Handmaid's Tale spotlights exactly what will be happening to any woman if the party candidate (or his down-ballot candidates) are elected into office in 2024. In my opinion, there is no better way to see how religion as a single authority results in America going backward in progressive changes made during the last 100 years. Voting will be eliminated... All books of any kind will be removed... Women will be divided into groups, some of whom will be training young women to have unwelcomed sex with their new owner(s). Wives will be...tolerated...or ignored altogether... We have already seen that rape and incest are not to be factors in deciding about having an abortion. Indeed, no medical issues can affect the birth moving to completion, even if the new baby dies in the mother's arms soon thereafter. She will then be expected to begin again to provide a way to provide heirs for old men whose wives are past the age... This book prophesized it; we have not choice as women--we must speak out against it!
I consider this a must-read for every woman, and man who will be left without a wife or forced to give up all children from their marriage... Margaret Atwood watched what was happening. She wrote a futuristic novel to illustrate what she foresaw... I, too, believe, "The Handmaid Tale is NOW Happening..."
GABixlerReviews
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Takes adjusting to; a lot of poetic descriptions.
I devoured all 300 pages in one sitting. Pretty much overnight. I will start by saying it took an adjustment period in order to get over the lack of quotation marks. Perhaps it was to really emphasize the lack of person, the lack of autonomy the various characters had, especially the handmaidens. The book skips in and out of time, between the before and after, as a way of the character coping with her bleak life. She retreats into her past to remember her lost life. She went from being educated with a college degree, wearing flip flops and short shorts, to a full-bodied religious garb and strict religious rights, enforced in a brutal regime of abuse and death to force submission. Even the Wives, the Elite women along side the men, live in repression; they are allowed some luxuries, but still hidden behind a veil, not allowed to read or write, and live mostly like pampered pets. This tells the story of one woman’s life from one of freedom, at the cost of the potential violence of modern, secular men, to being protected and guided under what amounts to slavery. The lack of a produced child is a death sentence. It is dystopian in that many women cannot reproduce due to radioactive spills, fallout, as well as issues such as pollution and climate. Thus the subjugation of women, and those deemed lesser by the Elite. Breeding is a luxury as well as a need of the Elite. They use surrogates, using Biblical teachings as their rationale. Characters are still human though. The Commander is at first a sympathetic curiosity, bonding over forbidden activities such as Scrabble and the reading of forbidden magazines and books. Yet as you get to know him, you are repulsed by his blatant disregard for women’s lives, and his feelings of entitlement to be able to bed different women. His exploitation is no different than the German Soldiers who took Jewish Mistresses; he has all the power to both protect and give substance to her bleak life, as well as the means to utterly destroy her at any point. She is disposable, while he is immune to consequences. It is a take of utter exploitation. Margaret’s poetry voice is strong; it takes an adjustment period to start to understand, and the first 100 pages are rather slow, droll to a point. But like an artist, it starts with the beginning outlines of the picture, of a woman afraid to give more because she is utterly and totally repressed, and slowly colors in with the texture as the woman becomes more brave in her newfound luxuries and escapes. 10/10 would read again.
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Theo RemReviewed in Germany on May 5, 2025
Auch wenn Sie die Serie kennen: unbedingt lesen!
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