I give an average recommendation for the book “The Handmaid’s Tale”. (I have not seen the series as of this book review.) The book tells the story of Offred, a handmaid in Gilead. Gilead is a dystopian society imagined by author Margaret Atwood.
The story is told from Offred’s perspective, as she has a unique role in the Gilead society and she had a life pre-Gilead. Pre-Gilead, she had a fairly normal life and was married with a daughter. When Gilead began, she had lost her family, was renamed Offred and began life as a handmaid. The handmaid’s main purpose was to bear children. I liked Offred, as she was a strong female character that found herself dropped in a horrific new society.
The setting of the book is an isolated community in America, titled Gilead. The community became isolated sometime after the 1990s. The book gives some small insights into why the community changed to the Gilead form (environmental and economic concerns) but not enough for me to truly make a full leap into the new society.
The community leaders (mostly men) forced the population to live by their new set of society rules. The community leaders dictated what the person’s role was in the society. The role came with a generic label that coincided with the role. The handmaids in the story were renamed with names starting with “O”, such as Offred and Ofglen.
The ending of the book was not satisfactory to me. I wasn’t sure whether to be happy or sad for Offred. This ending may be a set up for the next installment. I felt I had no closure with this book.
My only takeway from this book is my plan to read the classic “1984” by George Orwell. I haven’t read this book, and now want to read another story about a dystopian society.
My recommendation is average. I could connect with Offred. I couldn’t connect with the overall story and how Gilead came to be. I didn’t like the Gilead society, and I didn’t find the ending satisfactory to me.
Me: I am Diane M. Spolar and I live in Willowbrook, Illinois (a suburb outside of Chicago) with my husband, son and cat. I am a CPA by day, and a reader by night and on the weekends. I am a lifelong lover of books.
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