Pros: Absorbing political allegory, compelling main character, important themes that resonate loudly Cons: Takes a while to get going
I have been running the book fairs at the elementary school attended by my children for many years. Two fairs each year. In all that time I thought I had sort of “seen it all” when it came to putting on one of these events, but I was wrong. ...
-Genesis "Night Falls. Or has fallen. Why is it that night falls, instead of rising, like the dawn? Yet, if you look east, at sunset, you can see night rising, not falling; darkness lifting into the sky, up from the horizon, like a black sun behind ...
Pros: Powerful and intense, writing style, unique view on sex and politics Cons: none
What would life be like without creativity, compassion, and freedom? Can you imagine not being able to read, laugh, or show love toward anyone? This is what life is like for a woman in Offred’s world. Offred belongs to the only class of fertile ...
Pros: Good characters
A believable setting Cons: Crude and vivid description
“And she said, behold my maid Bilhah, go in unto her; and shall she bear upon my knees, that I may also have children by her” Genesis 30: 3 The book is set in the future, in the fictional Republic of Gilead. Throughout the eyes of one woman, ...
Pros: A fascinating glimpse into a possible future. Horrifying but equally captivating. Cons: none
The dystopian novel has always been a fascinating affair and often conjures some images that we’d rather not think of but hoard like guilty pleasures. Margaret Atwood tackles this topic with much zest and disturbing content, some of which is...
Pros: A startling look at a very backward and dystopian future. Cons: None that I can think of.
Margaret Atwood's 1985 novel The Handmaid's Tale is most possibly her darkest novel to date. The Handmaid's Tale single handedly confirmed Atwood as a powerhouse writer, and earned her many awards including Canada's top literary prize, the ...
Pros: Carefully crafted prose, tense narrative. Cons: Philosophy a little overdone.
Kansas this isn't
In her best-known novel, The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood gives us a world in which society has changed, almost overnight and almost out of all recognition:
Pros: A brilliant and terrifying glimpse of a horrifying future. Cons: Maybe too close to the evening news for some. May also cause weight gain.
Today as I was driving to work, my local NPR station broadcast a request for listeners to call or email the station and report what, if anything, has changed about them since the September 11th terrorist attack. "Well," I thought grimly, "I've gotten...
Pros: Provocative; intense; captivating; well-written Cons: Ending is disappointing
In The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, a woman, known only as Offred, tells her story. She lives in the late 20th century in which the United States has retreated to a male-dominated, Puritan-like society. Women have no rights, cannot hold...
Pros: Really makes you appreciate the freedoms we do have Cons: Thoroughly depressing...
The Handmaid's Tale is depressing as a whole. It is also funny at times, confusing, hopeful, and inspiring. The novel examines the many variations on power, control, choice, freedom, fundamentalism, bigotry, and treatment of women.
Pros: Powerful narrative and well defined characters. Cons: I honestly can't think of any.
The most worrying thing about The Handmaiden's Tale is that it obviously could happen. A future country, perhaps America, is suffering from infertility in the populous and has been taken over by fanatics. Following an episode from the old testament where...
I read this one a long time ago, when it was first released. It was the cover of the book that caught my eye, the woman looking like someone out of a Brueghel painting, her face and body obscured by red and white.
In the world of the near future, who will control women's bodies? Offred is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead. She may leave the home of the Comman...More at Barnes & Noble.com
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