The Handmaid’s Tale

I Finally Finished It!

Hey Belles & Beaux!

Yeah, I’m probably not going to hit my 20 books by New Years, but there is always next year! I might bring it down to 15 next year and add more books as I near the goal.

But right now the main event is The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood. And no, not the Hulu Series, but the actual book! Yes, that’s right. After picking it up earlier this year, I finally finished the darn thing on Christmas day while piled up with Mama and Katherine watching the Die Hard movies. And I mean darn as in how frustrating it was to never have time to sit and read anymore due to the fact that I’m usually exhausted by the time I get home. Thus I’m ready to eat something and then crawl right in bed.

So my reading time has lacked. But I finally finished this book and I’m so glad I did. Especially now that Margaret Atwood has announced she will be writing a sequel piece. I wish I was going to be on that early receiving list so that I could write a blog post about it! (#PleaseSponsorMe)

Without further ado, let’s hop in on the book. Warning: Some spoilers for both the show and book will follow the blockquote. Continue at your own risk.

Offred is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead. She may leave the home of the Commander and his wife once a day to walk to food markets whose signs are now pictures instead of words because women are no longer allowed to read. She must lie on her back once a month and pray that the Commander makes her pregnant, because in an age of declining births, Offred and the other Handmaids are valued only if their ovaries are viable. Offred can remember the years before, when she lived and made love with her husband, Luke; when she played with and protected her daughter; when she had a job, money of her own, and access to knowledge. But all of that is gone now…

The Handmaid’s Tale never tells us what year the story is based in. According to the epilogue, this whole account is given to us by Offred via recordings found in a house in the state of Maine after the fall of Gilead. Unlike in the show, we really don’t get a lot of flashbacks other than small bits. We don’t learn a lot about the terrorist attacks that took place to give the Sons of Jacob control to create Gilead… Or that they’re even called the Sons of Jacob.

The book is written to be ambiguous by Margaret Atwood, and she has thoroughly succeeded with that endeavor. It could easily fit in at any point in recent history – more so with the current state of affairs in the U.S. As I’ve said many times before, we don’t get political here other than me encouraging you to go and vote if you live in the US – but I strongly urge you that if you live where you have the right to vote to do so! However, with the current political climate in the US regarding women’s rights to their bodies, it is strangely feeling like the early beginnings of The Handmaid’s Tale.

We never hear any references to race in the book – only names that Offred knows of those around her. We only know what she knows which is very different from the show where we have learned a great deal more about Serena Joy’s part in the how Gilead came to be and many other things from before Gilead. This includes the fertility issues – which we witness when June (Offred) and Luke are at the hospital after their daughter, Hannah, is born when a woman kidnaps her from a nurse.

We follow Offred through the book as she tells us about what she does from day to day, how she attempts to get involved MayDay – which is drastically different from the show -, and up until she is taken in the van by the Eyes. An ambiguous ending for a book with know specific cues for when it takes place.

Everything feels relevant in some ways to the modern day, despite Atwood having written and published it in 1985. Yes, you read that correctly. The book was published in 1985. There was one movie made based on it in 1990 with Natasha Richardson (Kate), Robert Duvall (Commander), and Aidan Quinn (Nick) just to name a few. I haven’t seen it so I can’t say how true it was too the book.

For the show currently, the first season is more focused on the content of the book for the most part, but season two takes some liberties with what the book presents and establishes for the world of Gilead.

The book alone is amazing. I was constantly wanting to get back to it when I had to put it down. I regret not having read it prior to watching the show, but at the time I just didn’t have the energy to read the book in one sitting. Definitely worth the read, but try to be less like me and read it before you watch the show.

Ten out of ten, I definitely recommend that you give it a read. If you have read it or decide to read it, definitely let me know what you thought in the comments.

XOXO,

Trula Marie