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August 29, 2007

The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood

Where do I start, the science-fiction, futuristic pseudo-reality of this book is almost too realistic, but that's what makes it good.
You start out thinking that the current state-of-the-world as depicted in this story is not at all something that could happen, then you see that perhaps if it happened ... little-by-little ... one seemingly less-than-catastrophic step at a time, as it does here, would we really notice enough to stop it?
This novel depicts a world that has gone out of control, the government having been overthrown by the religious Right, returning the rules to an "Old Testament" standards taken to a perverse extreme. (I found myself wondering exactly WHO was behind this, and we are never given the satisfaction of having a leader, or ruling individual identified ... it is just "them")
Importantly, survival itself in this world hinges on the ability to reproduce. With most of the population sterile (from nuclear accidents, pesticides and general pollution and toxins) the "fertile" women remaining are coralled into service as "Handmaids" (Genesis 16:1 But Sarai, Abbam's wife, had no children. So Sarai tooh her servant, and Egyptian woman named Hagar, and gave her to Abram so that she could bear his children). The role of the Handmaids is obvious, the life of the Handmaids is impersonal and solitary. They are permitted no communication, even with other Handmaids, of course no books or reading of any sort and no connection with their former lives and families. They are simply surrogate wombs, often driven to suicide and any children born taken from them upon birth and awarded to the wife of the household. The total degredation of women is what is frightening. We are not to know if this is regional or global, as we have only the perspective of our Handmaid (the name given is "OfFred" as the only identity required of the Handmaids is the name of the man in the household where she is in service).
Women are not allowed to read, to have their own money, or live independantly. They are married, or Handmaids or Marthas (another biblical reference to Mary and Martha - Martha being the sister who took care of the household and the domestic needs of the family)
This is a good read, I recommend it. The reader becomes a champion of our heroine OfFred, we take up her cause, cheer for her defiances, ache with her submissions, and like she-silently hope for proof of the existence of an underground movement that will eventually overcome. Unfortunately, and I will not spoil, but ...

Posted by sunybank at August 29, 2007 10:40 PM

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