Handmaid's Tale

, #1

Paperback, 311 pages

English language

Published March 16, 1998 by Anchor Books.

ISBN:
978-0-7710-0879-5
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Goodreads:
49982302

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5 stars (3 reviews)

It is the world of the near future, and Offred is a Handmaid in the home of the Commander and his wife. She is allowed out once a day to the food market, she is not permitted to read, and she is hoping the Commander makes her pregnant, because she is only valued if her ovaries are viable. Offred can remember the years before, when she was an independent woman, had a job of her own, a husband and child. But all of that is gone now ... everything has changed.

14 editions

Una novel·la que enganxa des del primer paràgraf i que et fa pensar com poden arribar a passar coses tan bèsties

5 stars

Tenia pendent la lectura d’alguna cosa de la Margaret Atwood i, quan he aconseguit temps, he començat pel Conte de la serventa , la primera novel·la de la temàtica Galaad. M’he penedit de no haver-ho fet abans perquè m’ha enganxat a la lectura i no he parat fins a acabar el llibre i començar el segon, Els testaments , que comentaré un altre dia.

Primer de tot cal dir que l’autora té una mestria en l’escriptura que molts altres voldrien. A cada paràgraf hi passa alguna cosa, per petita que sigui, i això t’enganxa i et fa avançar amb ganes.

En segon lloc, el tema que tracta que no saps ben bé si és ciència-ficció o política ficció. No és la ci-fi de marcianets i maquinetes a què estem acostumats. Més aviat es tracta d’inventar un model de societat puritana, cristiana i retrògrada on les dones són relegades als papers …

A must read in the current political climate, but not in love with the writing style

4 stars

A must read in the current political climate. I like the Hulu TV show better than the book though... the book is good, but I just don't care for: 1) the confusing, random flashbacks in time that don't seem to be triggered by anything in the book's present time; 2) some of the deep, detailed dives into things such as the appearance of a flower. While Hemingway had an excessively sparse writing style for me, Atwood had a bit of an excessively flowery, purple-prose style at times for my taste; 3) the sensation that from the start of the book to the end of the book, nothing progressed. There didn't seem to be a plot, rather just a description of how awful life in Gilead was. Perhaps you can piece together a plot from some of the pre-Gilead flashbacks, but I prefer more linear storylines.

reviewed Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood (The Handmaid's Tale, #1)

a classic

5 stars

I read this classic just two years ago. It felt more relevant to the present than it may have been when it was written. This book is a revolutionary milestone in speculative fiction and probably feminist literature as well, but I found equally interesting that the text is based on progressive loss of innocence. The final chapter is incredible and left me very satisfied.

Subjects

  • Canadian fiction (fictional works by one author)
  • Fiction, fantasy, general
  • Man-woman relationships, fiction
  • Fiction, dystopian