The Handmaid's Tale: the book that inspired the hit TV series

One of the worst book I have ever read such a chore to read and not worth it at all

The book came in a really poor condition. The cover was all folded and wrinkled, it seems like it had been handled poorly. This is why we refrain from buying books from Amazon

Engaging

C'est un roman incroyable que je ne cesse de recommander à mon entourage, initialement pris pour mes cours au lycée, je me retrouve à apprécier de nouveaux cette ouvrage même après mes études. Je suis mauvais lecteur surtout en anglais, le vocabulaire étant assez poussé il est parfois difficile de comprendre la tournure de la phrase. Je sais que la grande majorité des personnes concerné sont des élèves... Il faut s'accrocher de temps en temps mais vous allez voir, cette œuvre est superbe !Niveau livraison tout est bien emballé, rien à redire.

‘It isn’t running away they are afraid of .We wouldn’t get far. It’s those other escapes, the ones you can open in yourself, given a cutting edge’Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood was in my TBR list since long. Thanks to one of online book club,I read recently and really amazed with it.Plot:As it is well-known fact that it’s a story set in distant future in dystopian USA. Country’s President is killed and parliament has been dissolved. Army takes over charges of entire nation. It is not regular army but Republic of Gilead.Its totalitarian regime governed by men only.Entire story is narrated by protagonist Offred through tape recordings.Offred is Handmaid. She is thirty -three. Her only job is to breed. Offred is not her real name. In Gilead society, all the basic human rights and freedom from women is taken away. They become second citizens. They have been categorized into Wives and Daughters of Commanders,Handmaids,Marthas and Aunts. Their functions and clothes are fixed according to their category and strictly watched by Guardians. If they don’t follow their duties, they are either hanged on wall or sent out to die slowly of radiation sickness.Story begins when Offred is newly posted in a commander’s house. She lives with commander, his wife, two housemaids and driver of commander.Offred continually remembers her past throughout the story. She has a husband, a five year old daughter, a mother and a best friend. What became of them, she does not know.Handmaids are allowed to go for walk and grocery shopping once in a day in pair. Offred is paired with Offglen. At the begging both they pretend as real believers of Gilead but as time passes they realize they are haters. Offglen is belonged to underground network of rebels who help people to cross border and disappear.She eventually hangs herself.As the story progress, commander asks Offred to spend some time with him during night in his cabin in his wife’s absence. They talk,play scrabble and he asks for goodnight kiss. On the other hand, as Offred is not yet become pregnant,so commander’s his wife asks Offred to conceive child through his driver, Nick. This one night stand turns into passionate affair with Nick. They are not in love but they make love every single night. But at the end, a black car of Guardians arrives at commander’s house to take her away. So why she has been taken away? Who has made call to Guardians? What become of Offred eventually??My Musings:As story is set in dystopia, it is obviously disturbing read. But I enjoyed it thoroughly. It was quite comfortable read for me unlike Disgrace by J.MCotezee which was not even dystopian novel.Handmaid’s Tale is considered as modern classic. But unlike other dystopian classics, this novel is narration driven rather than plot. Margaret Atwood had fascination towards dystopian set-up since her early days. She has read and great fan of Orwell’s 1984, Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, Huxley’s Brave New World to name a few.Offred seems real character. She hates her present and wantsto escape but does not have courage. As she has only one job of breeding and she is being taken care of by housemaids, she has plenty of time to spare. So she observes her surrounding and takes notes in mind. She has sharp observation skills. She remembers each and every minor detail of her daily routine and memories from past. She makes love with Nick without guilt as she feels something humanly in it in that in-human world. She even tells her real name to Nick.There are other characters but all are narrated through Offred. So we may not get their real persona. They might have come out as with different personalities if story would have been narrated in third person.The strongest and best part about the whole book is flow of lyrical narration. Lyrics are sad yet beautiful. Once in a while,we come across such rhythmic narration in fiction.It never loses its pace for a moment during entire story.Author has used so many fabulous illustrations ,metaphors to describe the pain and heaviness of situation.For example: “The newspapers stories were like to dreams to us, bad dreams dreamt by others. How, awful, we would say ,and they were, but they were awful without being believable. They were too melodramatic; they had a dimension that was not the dimension of our lives. We were the people not in the papers. We lived in the blank pages at the edges of print. It gave us more freedom.” (Page 89)The only part I did not like is its open ending.Author let readers to imagine the ultimate fate of Offred.It would have been great,if we could know Offred’s destiny.After reading this book I felt so grateful that I live in a world where such things are only on papers!So grab this book if you want to witness dystopian painting of pain painted by one of the greatest artists alive today.

Book reviews are difficult because there's the quality of the writing and the quality of the printing.The book itself is a great read, easy to get through and entertaining. The quality of the printing is the worst I've ever seen. The pages are normal printer paper, not like regular books. The pages are coarse and the spine the same. The words are printed blurry and kind of pixelated.Overall, read the book but order a different copy than this one.

TRAMAIn un mondo devastato dalle radiazioni atomiche, gli Stati Uniti sono divenuti uno Stato totalitario, basato sul controllo del corpo femminile. Offred, la donna che appartiene a Fred, ha solo un compito nella neonata Repubblica di Gilead: garantire una discendenza alla élite dominante. Il regime monoteocratico di questa società del futuro, infatti, è fondato sullo sfruttamento delle cosiddette ancelle, le uniche donne che dopo la catastrofe sono ancora in grado di procreare. Ma anche lo Stato più repressivo non riesce a schiacciare i desideri e da questo dipenderà la possibilità e, forse, il successo di una ribellione. Mito, metafora e storia si fondono per sferrare una satira energica contro i regimi totalitari. Ma non solo: c'è anche la volontà di colpire, con tagliente ironia, il cuore di una società meschinamente puritana che, dietro il paravento di tabù istituzionali, fonda la sua legge brutale sull'intreccio tra sessualità e politica. Quello che l'ancella racconta sta in un tempo di là da venire, ma interpella fortemente il presente.TITOLO ORIGINALE: THE HANDMAID’S TALETITOLO ITALIANO: IL RACCONTO DELL’ANCELLAAUTRICE: MARGARET ATWOODANNO USCITA: 1985GENERE: DISTOPICOLe donne sono condannate al silenzio. Devono imparare in silenzio, secondo quanto dice il Testo Sacro “Prima è stato creato Adamo, e solo in seguito Eva.” In questa Repubblica, le donne saranno salvate solamente se riusciranno a portare un bambino nel loro grembo. Inoltre devono vivere in estrema sobrietà, vestite dalla testa ai piedi. Dovranno fare solo il loro dovere. Non avranno più tempo libero, tempo da perdere e passatempi vari. Oltre che per procreare, non c’è spazio per l’amore in questa Repubblica. Le donne non possono votare, possedere proprietà o avere un lavoro, non possono leggere o fare qualsiasi cosa che possa farle diventare indipendenti e sovversive, nulla che possa minare gli uomini e lo Stato. Sono ridotte alla loro fertilità, trattate come niente di più che esseri aventi delle ovaie e un grembo.Perché queste donne si trovano qui? La protagonista ci mostra piccoli quadri della sua vita passata, di suo marito e di sua figlia. Cosa è successo? Alcune domande purtroppo rimangono senza risposta. Rimangono senza risposta perché non sono il punto fondamentale di questo libro: la Atwood vuole criticare il compiacimento di queste donne.“Ignoring isn’t the same as ignorance, you have to work at it.”― Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's TaleIn uno Stato totalitario, la Atwood dimostra come le persone accettano l’oppressione a patto di ricevere anche una piccola quantità di potere o di libertà. Anche Offred ricorda la madre dire “è strabiliante, come la gente si abitui, a patto che ci siano anche solo piccole soddisfazioni.” Ciò lo dimostra il compiacimento della protagonista quando inizia una relazione segreta con un uomo di Gilead. Questa vita non è nulla a paragone della libertà che possedeva nella precedente, ma questa relazione le permette di riacquistare anche solo un frammento di quella vita passata. Il contatto fisico, la compagnia, sono dei risarcimenti che rendono questa sua nuova vita quasi sopportabile.In generale le donne supportano questa Repubblica decidendo di parteciparvi volontariamente, la maggior parte per la paura di quello che subiranno se non sapranno soggiogare alle regole, alcune perché non hanno più alcuna speranza di poter tornare alla vita precedente.Le donne come Serena Joy, che sembrano avere qualche potere all’interno di questa società, lo custodiscono gelosamente e lo maneggiano con impazienza. Le donne come Aunt Lydia tengono gli occhi aperti per qualsiasi segno di ribellione, insegnano alle altre l’ideologia di Gilead.La Atwood alla fine non salva nessuno, e le condanna tutte per il loro compiacimento. Non bisogna smettere di lamentarsi. Non bisogna smettere di parlare, di esercitare resistenza. Se si smette, non sarà possibile cambiare nulla.“We were the people who were not in the papers. We lived in the blank white spaces at the edges of print. It gave us more freedom.We lived in the gaps between the stories.”― Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's TaleNon bisogna essere passivi davanti alle ingiustizie. Non bisogna soggiacere. Dobbiamo avere il coraggio di parlare e fare qualcosa a riguardo.Lettura consigliatissima. C’è qualcuno di voi che lo ha letto? È anche uscita la serie tv, “The handmaid’s tale”, che tra l’altro ha vinto l’Emmy nel 2017 come “miglior serie drammatica”.