Synopsis
About Margaret Atwood
See more books from this AuthorI would highly recommend this book to older readers who are looking for something more mature than the YA dystopian novels out there today or anyone who liked 1984 by George Orwell.
Read Full Review of The Handmaid's Tale | See more reviews from Guardian...this novel seems ever more vital in the present day, where women in many parts of the world live similar lives, dictated by biological determinism and misogyny.
Read Full Review of The Handmaid's Tale | See more reviews from GuardianI would highly recommend this book to older readers who are looking for something more mature than the YA dystopian novels out there today or anyone who liked 1984 by George Orwell.
Read Full Review of The Handmaid's Tale | See more reviews from Guardian...shadowy memories made all the more indistinct by Atwood's lyrical prose, in which facts appear to merge into one another, and history appears immaterial...
Read Full Review of The Handmaid's Tale | See more reviews from GuardianAtwood has created a spirited and engaging narrator and surrounded her with an array of active and passive supporting characters, each of whom represents a type familiar in America today. She has rounded off her icy cautionary tale with a desperately needed and hilarious spoof of an academic convention...
Read Full Review of The Handmaid's Tale | See more reviews from LA Times“The Handmaid's Tale'' has dominated literary news since its publication. With an indignation that sometimes suggests a cautious reformer, sometimes a resigned pessimist, Atwood is showing her readers her Brave New World – and challenging them to reject it.
Read Full Review of The Handmaid's Tale...the didacticism of the novel wears thin; the book is simply too obvious to support its fictional context. Still, Atwood is quite an esteemed fiction writer...Demand for her latest effort, therefore, is bound to be high; unfortunately, the number of disappointed readers may be equally high.
Read Full Review of The Handmaid's TaleAnd The Handmaid’s Tale still has the power to chill and to shock; Atwood’s frank depictions of female sexuality—the suppression and abuse of it, as well as the desire and memory of desire that the narrator still cannot help but feel—still undoubtedly set off alarm bells amongst the self-appointed guardians of young minds.
Read Full Review of The Handmaid's TaleIt’s a powerful and frightening story and a novel that I think everyone should read. Margaret Atwood writes some beautiful books which are full of wonderfully written phrases and imagery, but this is the best of her plots, thoroughly enjoyable and highly recommendable.
Read Full Review of The Handmaid's TaleAs a character study alone, this work stands a cut above. As a dystopian world, it fills one with the kind of unease that challenges you to resolve to never allow such a thing to happen. It deserves every accolade it has received and then some.
Read Full Review of The Handmaid's Tale...The Handmaid's Tale is a story arising from the women's liberation movement that has stood the test of time because it is such an enriching read.
Read Full Review of The Handmaid's TaleThis is an important book containing direct warning against the misuse of the environmental and human resources at the disposal of today's culture. The clinically sexual descriptions make the book unsuitable for younger readers, but for a society that has superseded Orwe 1984, the Handmaid's urgent message should have an impact.
Read Full Review of The Handmaid's TaleThis is an important book containing direct warning against the misuse of the environmental and human resources at the disposal of today's culture. The clinically sexual descriptions make the book unsuitable for younger readers, but for a society that has superseded Orwe 1984, the Handmaid's urgent message should have an impact.
Read Full Review of The Handmaid's Tale...The Handmaid's Tale is most interesting as an artifact expressing the hysterical concerns of the Left in the Reagan Era. It has simply not withstood the test of even a brief time very well.
Read Full Review of The Handmaid's TaleWinner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award and nominated for the Booker Prize, this dystopian work of “speculative fiction” from 1985 is still a powerful warning of what could be.
Read Full Review of The Handmaid's TaleI have found that while Atwood's dystopia doesn't thunder and shake like Orwell's, it quietly plants a seed of thought. As I have revisited the book to write this review, reading over passages I had highlighted, I have found myself thinking about it more and more.
Read Full Review of The Handmaid's TaleSome of my questions were answered by the end, but readers shouldn’t expect everything to be wrapped up in a nice, neat package by the last page. Nevertheless, Atwood does a wonderful job balancing the horrific images and unimaginable scenarios with a bit of hope.
Read Full Review of The Handmaid's TaleI am glad this is something I waited to read, because I think if I had read it when I was younger, I wouldn’t have understood it fully.
Read Full Review of The Handmaid's TaleAt the very heart of it, The Handmaid’s Tale hits much closer to home than its dystopian compatriots, such as Brave New World or 1984, and feels like a possibility that could be just around the corner. That said, it’s a fantastic read, and a book I can’t put down, year after year.
Read Full Review of The Handmaid's TaleAlong with Angela Carter's reimaginings of fairy tales in The Bloody Chamber and Ursula Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness, The Handmaid's Tale is a story arising from the women's liberation movement that has stood the test of time because it is such an enriching read.
Read Full Review of The Handmaid's TaleIn the first 200 pages much less is happening and I found it even a bit boring at times. I even put the book down for a bit to read some other books first. But I am glad that I did pick it up again or else I would have missed the best part of the book.
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