![]() But I'm glad I came to this book simply wanting to read it, because I dug through it with relish. Perhaps it's obstinance, or just a need for difference, I don't know. It's hard for me to come to a Classic with only the mindset of This Must Be Read. All of Atwood is worth reading, but this book best exemplifies the cultural and psychological impact that a work of fiction can create. ![]() ![]() And despite its scenarios of great despair, The Handmaid's Tale is ultimately a hopeful book - Offred, and others, simply cannot be human without the possibility of hope, and therein lies the strength of the resistance. The novel is as relevant today as ever feminist backlashes continue to wax and wane, but women's rights remain in the spotlight. The world of the narrator, Offred (from "Of Fred" - women no longer have their own names), is chilling, but she is a magnificent survivor and chronicler, and the details of everything from mundane daily life to ritualized sex and violence to her reminiscences of the time before (our contemporary reality, as seen in the '80s) are absolutely realistic. Atwood's classic dystopian novel of a terrifying (and terrifyingly plausible) future America has rewarded rereading like no other book I've probably read it 30 times by now. ![]()
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