[book_talk] book review - Margaret Atwood
- From: "Bonnie L. Sherrell" <blslarner@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "Science Fiction list" <blind-sf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "Blind Chit Chat" <Blind-Chit-Chat@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "Books for the Blind" <Books4theblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "Blind Book Lovers Cafe" <bblc@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "Book Talk" <book_talk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 18 Sep 2014 10:57:46 -0800
_The Handmaid's Tale_
by Margaret Atwood
narrated by Claire Danes
Nothing is like it was--before--
before the President and all of Congress were machine gunned to death
before the Republic of Gilead proclaimed itself the new order for those
within the United States
She has lost her husband and her daughter, and even her name. She is
known as Offred now, the Handmaid assigned to the household of one of
the Commanders. She has one primary function--she is to give birth to
a child for the Commander and his wife to raise as their own. Her one
freedom is that she is allowed to go out daily to do the household
shopping, always in company with the Handmaid for Commander Glen's
household. She and Ofglen go daily to bring home the food for the
daily meals for their households, then walk to the Wall to see what the
most recent executions, known as Salvagings, have been done. She must
dress all in red with a white veil under a red headpiece, the veil so
designed that she cannot see to the sides.
Any offense she might cause, purposely or unwittingly, could lead to
denunciation and death, or deportation to become an un-woman, someone
sent to the polluted colonies to clean up toxic or nuclear waste so as
to help prepare the lands for resettlement.
Most within the Republic of Gilead are sterile. If she can only
conceive, Offred may have a chance to continue to live, perhaps even be
given a place as a wife--anything is preferable to this life she knows.
But there are secrets in the Republic of Gilead, secrets that endanger
the Commanders and their rigidly ordered lives of relative luxury. And
the Handmaid Offred is learning them, whether she wishes to or not.
The question is, is it worthwhile to know such secrets in this regime,
when any of them might lead her to her death at the hands of the
Salvagers?
This is the second time I've read this book, the last time many years
ago. It was recorded for Audible last year, and the reading is very
well done. Another alternative future for our world in which a
totalitarian regime seeks to make over its subjects to a highly
artificial standard. Most thought-provoking, and well recommended.
Bonnie L. Sherrell
Teacher at Large
"Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment. For even the very wise
cannot see all ends." LOTR
"Don't go where I can't follow."
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