Pros: Compelling plot, beautiful prose, good "Girl's Novel," emotionally riveting.
Cons: Dull and confusing ending
The Bottom Line: It is compelling, emotionally charged, and is concise. One will not be bored with long descriptions but fascinated at how the writing flows like poetry.
spikette83's Full Review: Margaret Atwood - The Handmaid's Tale
This book is comparable to 1984, in which an all-controlling government is vividly illustrated-and everyone should read it!
It has the wonderful elements that make novels classics.
Adventure:Your heart thumps as you imagine what risks the main character is taking.
Romance:The young woman remembers better times, with her husband, often she longs for him.
Mystery:At the beginning of the novel you are pressed to know how this world, an all-controlling government where women are sex slaves and trophies, came to be. But Atwood does not reveal the entire explanation until the end. Throughout the novel you are fed tidbits of information.
Great Message:Atwood wants her readers to feel, understand, and sympathize for her characters. Once she has done this, she can then convey her theme of control, fear, and human instinct.
Wonderful Prose:Atwood is a poet as well as a novelist. This is reflected in all of her novels, including The Handmaid's Tale. She writes beautiful similes and describes rooms with such detail that you can taste the wood floor polish.
Set-Backs:Unfortunately, the novels conclusion is dull and confusing. Instead of having an ending that explains what happened ultimatly to the characters, we are left wondering. In place of the conclusion she includes a falsified study of the characters action at a conference that takes place a 1,000 years into the future.
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