Review: The Handmaid's Tale

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Look I get it and I also kind of don't.

The themes and story are powerful; this is a dark, dystopian world not too far from our own, and a lot of its ideas make sense in a really scary way. I don't want to delve too deeply into female oppression and misogyny etc. but this made me furious at times and had me ranting like a rabid feminist when I've never considered myself such before. I can't imagine the effect it would have had on women at the time of its original publication.

The whole premise is that women are divided into categories, and the protagonist is a Handmaid - a woman whose sole job is to fall pregnant to important men in the place of their wives. It's pretty sickening but here's the thing: the whole reason is never really fully explored?

I take it the wives are barren, and this is a fairly recent change to society so many of these marriages were probably already in place, but I didn't really comprehend how the pairing up works, and how widespread it is, and how women are divided up into the other roles, like Aunts etc. It was so focused on the consequences and the now of this horrid society that it didn't really seem to be properly explained. It was kind of like a feminist version of 1984 only there was not really a lot of explanation of why . Why are children so important? Why is procreation considered the single most important thing in this new society? It painted such a bleak picture but it lacked that 'this is possibly our future if we keep doing x' factor that helped 1984 pack such a punch.

Also.

The writing was TERRIBLE.

I understand that it's a stylistic thing designed to symbolise the telling of the story, but here's an example that hopefully explains my frustration:

'Nights falls. Or has fallen. [...] Maybe night falls because it's heavy, a thick curtain pulled up over the eyes. Wool blanket. I wish I could see in the dark, better than I do.'

Honestly I found it tedious at times, dealing with her musings. There are so many commas and disconnected thoughts, and the tense jumps around all over the place. I understand why it was written that way, but it made it harder to read and that could easily put people off.

I did actually really appreciate the story, as it gets the wheels turning and it encourages discourse on gender inequality, which I think is incredibly important. Surface level, I was so curious about her past so putting all the pieces together was actually kind of fun. I suppose I just felt like the jigsaw was only 80% completed, and missing all the outer edges.

The ending was never going to be happy but dang, was it frustrating! (See below rant of immediate impressions) Screw that. It was such an enormous let down. Can't say I was surprised, though.

As for characters, they were pretty bland, as far as characters go. There's not really any attachment because they're so imperceptible; they live inside their definitions and there's no room for their personalities to really stretch out or break free. The Commander was strange, the Wife was sullen, Nick was a barely defined outline and Offred herself was difficult to understand, particularly as an unreliable narrator. i found it so hard to align the present-day narrator with the past she spoke of. It seemed like such a dramatic change in so short a time and I think that right there pretty much sums up my biggest issue with this novel. I think I figured out that all of this had come about in the space of three years? Hmmmm ...

I still have so many questions and this one really hurts my head to think about it any kind of detail. It's a fascinating commentary on society but a somewhat shallow, as opposed to comprehensive, viewpoint, in my opinion. It is an interesting story but this is a politically charged novel and not a light read.

I understand why it's popular: it raises some important questions through portrayal of a society drastically changed by ideals that are rampant in our present day society. It is written in a unique style, and everything is written with purpose. I think these things allow some to overlook the tedious writing, and gaps in the world-building. The story is enjoyable enough on the surface, but I wouldn't call it a page-turner. This is another book that's all about what's being said between the lines. I liked it, but I won't be raving about it.


***

Immediately after finishing:
...

WHAT THE FRENCH FRY WAS THAT???!

Nah, screw that ending!! I'm so mad!

What a load of ... !!!!

I'm too mad to write a proper review. I'm gonna need a minute over here.

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