Paperback, 479 pages
English language
Published July 6, 2016 by VINTAGE.
Offred is a Handmaid. She has only one function: to breed. If she refuses to play her part she will, like all dissenters, be hanged at the wall or sent out to die slowly of radiation sickness. She may walk daily to the market and utter demure words to other Handmaids, but her role is fixed, her freedom a forgotten concept.
Offred remembers her old life - love, family, a job, access to the news. It has all been taken away, But even a repressive state cannot obliterate desire.
BACKSTORY: Read Margaret Atwood's account of how she came to write this landmark dystopian novel
I read this classic just two years ago. It felt more relevant to the present than it may have been when it was written. This book is a revolutionary milestone in speculative fiction and probably feminist literature as well, but I found equally interesting that the text is based on progressive loss of innocence. The final chapter is incredible and left me very satisfied.
While I was reading this book, I was immersed in the story. Great writers, I think, craft so great that they completely hide their craftsmanship, allowing us to see the creation only. They don't show off how intelligent they are.
Now after finishing it, after letting all of it sink in my mind, I can see what a great writer she is. She has a profound knowledge of dystopian society. What sort of situation gives birth to a dystopia, how they control, manipulate, kill, invoke obedience and above all manufacturer mass consent for all of their actions.
This book is also important because of its authentic feminine voice, feminist nature.
