The Handmaid's Tale

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Synopsis

Offred lives in a future world, where a part of the United States has been transformed into a theocracy known as Gilead and there women have become second-class citizens. They aren't allowed to read or think for themselves. Instead, they serve one of only three purposes, that of Wife, servant, or Handmaid. Offred was chosen to become a Handmaid because she'd previously given birth, proving her fertility. She was sent to the Red Center, where she was indoctrinated into what is expected of her, and then was sent to live with a Commander and his wife, who pray that she will give them a child. Offred is only allowed to leave the house once a day in the company of another Handmaid to go to the market, and once a month she must take part in a ritual mating with the Commander and hope that she gets pregnant. If not, she may be sent to another Commander or to an even worse fate. But Offred can still remember her life in the before times with her husband, Luke, and her daughter, and sometimes wonders what became of them. So when she hears of a resistance faction known as Mayday, she must decide whether it's worth the risk to join their cause, as it could lead to either freedom... or death.

Review

The Handmaid's Tale is the first book in Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale series. In this dystopian world, the United States government has been overthrown and now a portion of the country is a theocracy known as Gilead. At some of the borders, Gilead wages war with other parts of the U. S. which appear to still be free, but these enemies are considered to be heretics. Within Gilead, women's rights are basically non-existent. They are expected to perform one of only three roles: Wife, Martha (servant), or Handmaid. The story follows one such Handmaid known as Offred. Birthrates have plummeted, many Wives are unable to have children, and reproduction is viewed as essential, so the Handmaids are women who have been selected for being young, healthy, and/or their past ability to breed. They are indoctrinated at the Red Center, and then given to high-ranking officials within the community known as Commanders. Once a month, during their fertile time, they submit to a ritual mating with the Commander and pray that they become pregnant. If they don't after a prescribed period of time, then they are no longer considered useful and may be killed or sent to a fate that may be worse than death. However, there is a faction called Mayday (after the SOS signal) that is working to undo this oppressive government from within, and Offred gradually starts to learn about their activities, which could either save her or be her downfall.

Offred (although this isn't her real name, which we never learn) was an ordinary woman in the before times, someone who went to college, worked, married, and had a child. We meet her in her present circumstances where she's been indoctrinated as a Handmaid (though she isn't a true believer) and has been assigned to a Commander and his wife, Serena Joy. The narrative jumps around in time, mostly showing what Offred's day-to-day life as a Handmaid is like, with hints of what life is like outside the Commander's home in the greater world of Gilead. But Offred also takes us backwards, talking of her training at the Red Center, and also what her life was like in the before times with her husband and daughter. Gradually Offred's life begins to change. She becomes aware of the Mayday faction, which gives her some hope that perhaps one day she'll be free of this life. The Commander, whose relationship with his Wife appears virtually non-existent, decides that he wants more from Offred than a once-a-month mating ceremony, though it is technically forbidden. Then there's the increasing pressure for her to get pregnant by any means necessary, again even though that is also forbidden. All of these things will affect Offred's future safety and prospects.

I've been looking forward to reading The Handmaid's Tale for a while. It's a good book and one that's timely given the circumstances of our present world and how some people are indeed trying to take away women's rights and send us back to an earlier era. I think it's a cautionary tale of what could happen in the future if we let it. Don't get me wrong, I did like the book, but I didn't quite enjoy it as much as I thought I would, hence my four-star rating. Part of that is because it's written in a more literary style with an ofttimes poetic feel to the prose that doesn't always work well for my autistic brain. Admittedly that's a me problem and not necessarily a book problem, but when I encounter books written this way, it does tend to diminish my enjoyment. Outside of that, though, the story is more slow-paced than I've typically encountered in the dystopian genre. The focus is mainly on Offred and what she's going through, while the greater world outside of her current home is left somewhat murky. Some of the blanks start to be filled in, though, the further the story goes. Again, something that's different than most other dystopian stories I've read is that Offred isn't a revolutionary or even particularly heroic. She's simply a woman trying to survive from one day to the next. That's certainly a valid characterization and probably what most of us would be doing in similar circumstances, but perhaps not quite as compelling. As I mentioned the dystopian world isn't quite as solid as I prefer in this type of literature. We learn enough to know it's not a place any of us would want to live in, but sometimes I wanted a few more details. Lastly, as I suspected, it has a rather open-ended final chapter that leaves Offred's fate mostly up to the reader's imagination. Ms. Atwood does have an epilogue of sorts at the end, in which historians a couple of hundred years in the future speculate on the authenticity of the tale Offred tells, which provides some clues as to what happened to her, but it still leaves a lot of questions unanswered. However, it looks as though the author may have finally answered those questions in The Testaments, the sequel published over three decades later, which I'm eager to check out soon. I'm also looking forward to watching the television series even though I suspect it will be different from the book.

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Margaret Atwood