Read for: Mount TBR, Audio Book Challenge
Synopsis: "Throughout her career, Margaret Atwood has played with different literary genres in her novels--historical fiction (Alias Grace), pulp fiction (The Blind Assassin), the comedy of manners (The Robber Bride)--but no foray into genre fiction has been as successful as her turn to speculative fiction in The Handmaid's Tale. Published in 1985, it echoes Orwell's 1984 and Huxley's Brave New World, but a vibrant feminism drives Atwood's portrait of a futuristic dystopia. In the Republic of Gilead, we see a world devastated by toxic chemicals and nuclear fallout and dominated by a repressive Christian fundamentalism. The birthrate has plunged, and most women can no longer bear children. Offred is one of Gilead's Handmaids, who as official breeders are among the chosen few who can still become pregnant."
My Review: I may have read this book in the past because some of the parts were familiar. I listened to the audio book of this one and I am glad I did or I might not have read the whole thing. I found the constant jumping around of the timeline and the random tangents throughout the book to be very off-putting for me. With that said the book still had a big message in it. I found it almost to be horrifying, in a way that it could happen and has already in some forms in other countries. While it wasn't my cup of tea in the presentation of the story, it is an excellent story.
My Review: I may have read this book in the past because some of the parts were familiar. I listened to the audio book of this one and I am glad I did or I might not have read the whole thing. I found the constant jumping around of the timeline and the random tangents throughout the book to be very off-putting for me. With that said the book still had a big message in it. I found it almost to be horrifying, in a way that it could happen and has already in some forms in other countries. While it wasn't my cup of tea in the presentation of the story, it is an excellent story.
My Rating: I honestly am not sure how I feel about this book, it is definitely a classic that should be read in some class. It would be an interesting book to discuss with others. It has some great value but the presentation and the rambling manner in which it is written didn't sit well with me. I give it a rating of Two Paws.
I think I'm with you--I probably wouldn't be able to read it and would be better off listening to it. I grabbed this one at a thrift store once because I wanted to read a classic dystopia, but ended up ultimately deciding I probably couldn't read it in the end with my short attention span, lol.
ReplyDeleteIt is one I really had to push myself to finish, even with the audio book. The constant tangents and pop up memories were really annoying, yes they were needed to figure out exactly what was going on but at the same time they weren't smoothed into the story well.
DeleteWe read this one for book club and it did make for a good discussion book. Had I read it on my own I don't think I would have appreciated it at all. Even in a group it wasn't my favorite.
ReplyDeleteI can see how it could spark some interesting conversation in a book club but it definitely isn't a book for everyone and not one I would go out of my way to read again.
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