'A Handmaid's Tale' by Margaret Atwood

A Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood (5.0)

I had forgotten how powerful this ‘Tale’ was – rereading it was a delight. In the same genre and league as Orwell’s ‘1984’, it is the story of a possible future of which the religious zealots have managed to take over a part of the world in order to reshape it more like the ‘good old days’. At first introduction, the state of society does not seem credible (you will tell yourself ‘that could never happen’), but the narrator uses flashbacks to fill in the blanks as to how the transition came about and eventually you are shocked into believing the unbelievable is possible. Written in 1998, Atwood’s prescience is frightening. The combination of environmental stresses and societal declines has given us a reactionary culture determined to do something about the lack of pregnancies and successful births. Women need to focus on their main job: having healthy babies. Our narrator is one chosen for this duty, a Handmaid. I don’t want to give too much away, but the ends to which this society goes to manufacture a process in which to do that is chilling. I particularly liked the ending – not a fairy tale ending, but a unique way to add a bit more light on the subject. Margaret Atwood is one of my favorite authors and here she is at her best.