The Handmaid's Tale: A Novel

THE HANDMAID'S TALE is a frightening look at a not too distant future where sterility is the norm, and fertile woman are treated as cattle, to produce children for the upper class who cannot have any. The narrator Offred, as she is called in her new life, is the Handmaid for a top Commander in the new government. Once a month she is tested by a gynecologist to ensure that she is healthy, and then is taken to the Commander and his wife in the hopes of becoming pregnant.

Offred, along with the other handmaid's, are not allowed to look directly at anyone else. They all wear the same outfits; red long dresses and headgear that cover their bodies. They live together, spend most of their time together, and are taken care of, in the hopes that they will produce children for this barren society. In this society, most women are not allowed to read, and are treated as if they have no minds. The government dictates their role in society. If they disobey, they are punished severely.

Offred's memories often go back to a time when she was happily married to Luke, and with their daughter they were looking forward to a long and happy life together. Things changed when a military group took over the government, and immediately their lives as they knew it were over. Women lost all rights to ownership; bank accounts were frozen, land was taken away; fertile women were taken away from their husbands and families. A handful of older women were made into `Aunts', and their duties were to instruct and guide the handmaids, reminding them of their role on this earth, which is to procreate.

I have to say that my feelings during this book were of shock. In some sense, what has happened in this book has already happened in other parts of the world and can happen again. The control over women is very much like that of the women in Afghanistan. The control over religious choice brings to mind Nazi Germany, as one of the issues in the Handmaid's Tale is the elimination of anyone that refuses to be as one with the new government - religious persecution is justified and encouraged.

The Handmaid's Tale is a horrifying story of a government fully in control of each person's life and totally out of control. The book was so riveting that it took me only one day to read. I highly recommend this novel.


A fascinating and horrific look into the future...   December 23, 2002
Dianna Johnston (Joplin, MO)
134 out of 166 found this review helpful

I had this book on my bookshelf for three years before I finally decided to read it. Now I'm kicking myself for waiting so long! The Handmaid's Tale is awesome and it has completed my favorites list of 2002. Highly recommended.

Margaret Atwood's story is set in the future after the United States has undergone a nuclear war and the government has been destroyed. In place now is a strict and dangerous political scene, where any type of crime can result in an execution and a public hanging on The Wall. Not only that, but women are made secondhand citizens and are no longer able to hold jobs, make money, read or write.

The Handmaid's Tale is told through the eyes of Offred in the former state of Massachusets, now called the Republic of Gilead. Offred is a Handmaid, or a surrogate mother of sorts, who is appointed to an infertile couple in order to get pregnant and help boost the population. However, it isn't as easy as that since the only legal way to get pregnant is the old-fashioned way, which causes jealousy and tension throughout the household. And with the rigorous government, Offred isn't allowed to complain or refuse unless she wants to be shipped off to clean up toxic nuclear waste for the rest of her life.

I absolutely loved this book and will recommend it to all my book friends. The Handmaid's Tale is the perfect book for book clubs as it will evoke numerous discussions on feminism, nuclear war, radical government policies, slavery, etc. Margaret Atwood poses the question of "what if?" and one can only hope that this tale remains fiction. Excellent, thought-provoking, fascinating and heart-pounding -- this novel will never be forgotten.


A not so far fetched theocratic nightmare   December 18, 1999
Kari Sullivan (CS, CO)
22 out of 33 found this review helpful

This novel was originally billed to me as a female version of 1984. I now know that serves a great injustice to A Handmaid's Tale, only because it stands alone in its own right.

Margaret Atwood paints a chilling picture of a disutopic theocracy where women are confined to a few set roles, and the "lucky ones" become vessels for the rich to mate with. The plot revolves around Offred ("of fred") a former revolutionary who is entrapped in a life as a handmaiden while her daughter is raised by strangers.

Offred is a character that I felt I could relate well to, as she is a woman with great courage, intelligence, and defiance. Her ultimate uprising against the family and government that oppresses her is the epitome of heroism. Although the novel ends rather abruptly and ambiguously, I think that the ending works best as it gives the reader a sense of both realism and hope.

The oppression reflected in this novel is quite plausible, despite its critics' claims to the contrary. Modern Islamic countries are already halfway to the state of oppression A Handmaid's Tale represents, and it is foolish to think that they may not go further in a totalitarian direction. This novel serves as a warning to both women and men to keep check on their own individual rights.


The Best Novel I've Ever Had The Experience To Read   April 1, 2004
Busy Body (London, England)
38 out of 51 found this review helpful

Since September 2003 Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale" is the novel that I have been fascinated with continually. As part of my current English Literature study on the great modern novels, The Handmaid's Tale was the obvious choice, or so though my teacher. I have just finished the book in class. My teacher told me not to read any further than where we were in class because he wanted us to have a surprising ending, but I can tell you that it was a difficult time trying to resist the temptation to see further developments. In class we look at almost every word that is contained within the book and analyse it further and further, and I have an exam on this book in June. My future in English Literature hangs in the balance with this book!

In The Handmaid's Tale, our central character is Offred. The book is set in a post 21-Century dystopian society in which the United States has been destroyed from a nuclear war which obliterated large parts of the world. What remains is a strict and harsh barbaric society called The Republic Of Gilead. She is allowed only one function: to breed. Most of the women died and even most of those who managed to survive are contaminated and therefore can no longer reproduce. The few that can successfully do so are called Handmaids. They must give birth like rabbits to boost the population. Their babies are then handed over to the Wives of the Commanders who run the place. The Handmaid's are dressed in long red cloaks, they do not hold down jobs, must do as they are told and forced to live in strict households. They are tortured if they deviate from the 'correct' way of life and are not allowed freedom of speech - the removal of hooks and glass windows in case of the obvious suicide attempts that would reign throughout is a reminder of the harsh ideology.

The Handmaid's Tale is, indeed, not an easy read. It is a difficult book to understand, but then we really aren't meant to. The novel is shrouded in ambiguity and eventual possibilities, which all generate an electric buzz that keeps the reader hanging on, wanting to know what happens to our narrator, Offred. This at times can be extremely frustrating, especially for the casual reader who may give up after just a few chapters. The detail and thought that has gone into this novel makes it a masterpiece in its own right. Atwood uses detail to the max in describing the tumultuous state of mind that Offred experiences throughout her time in the society. In the first few chapters she describes her surroundings and introduces herself.

The characters also form a strong and coherent basis on which the novel is built. Serena Joy is the leader of the group. She is an evil and cold-hearted woman who is desperate for Offred to get pregnant so she can have a child of her own. Moria is the novel's hero. She is rebellious, she objects the system and doesn't care what happens to her if she strays from it. She is Offred's hero and keeps her sane throughout bleak times when suicide is a viable option. Moira's presence in the novel is extremely ambiguous and her downfall towards the end of the novel is genius. Cora, Rita and Nick also have minor roles, but in the end we get to see the bigger picture. The Aunts are like the officials of the household, strolling around with their cattleprods hung from thongs. Janine is perhaps the novel's greatest character in terms of ingenuity. She is a firm believer in the system and is the object to which all other Handmaid's fear becoming. In Chapter 13 we witness a meeting between the Handmaid's and the Aunts. Janine tells the story of being gang-raped aged 14, to which the Aunts yell at her, "But whose fault was it?" The rest of the brain-washed Handmaids chant, "Her fault, her fault, her fault!" It's a terrible scenario to be in, but a week later Janine believes what was being said and admits it was her fault.

The high points in this novel include Offred's first-ever sex scene with the Commander in Chapter 16. The chapter is a purely comical look at stereotypical sex scenes. The shocking and violent language works in contrast with the humorous dialogue and avoids, in this moment completely, falling into the trap of being labelled simply another feminist novel. The outing in Chapter 36, the savage scenes in Chapter 43, Janine's birth scene in Chapter 21 is superbly crafted and Offred's meetings with the Commander throughout are true moments of intimacy which she craves so badly. She doesn't know where her husband Luke from the time before is, nor her daughter. She misses them incredibly, but pushes them to the back of mind because she knows dwelling on them would drag her to the jaws of suicide, and she doesn't want that. She believes in escapism, in a better world - she has the hope and her temporary loss of it in frequent situations makes this a gripping read.

OVERALL GRADE: 10/10

I have to say that The Handmaid's Tale is simply one of the greatest books I have ever read. Some people dislike it - fair enough, but I really think that anyone with an open mind and an eye for fantastic, jaw-dropping and thought-provoking novels should pick up a copy of this. If I wasn't limited to the length of this review, I would carry on for hours and hours about the genius of the novel and the way in which it is an important tool in modern day society, but I can't. However, all I will say is that this is an awesome book that I'm enthralled with. I hope you feel the same.


Open a Swiss Bank Account, Now!   June 16, 2006
T. K. Kenyon (www.tkkenyon.com)
55 out of 61 found this review helpful

Margaret Atwood's stunning novel The Handmaid's Tale is one of the best modern dystopian novels written in the last few decades.

Since the year 1984 passed us by with very few Orwellian repressions to note, misanthropes like myself have needed to find new repressions to fear. Atwood's seminal novel The Handmaid's Tale fits this bill nicely. Though there is a frame story of an academic paper set several hundred years in the future, the preponderance of the books takes place in the near future, in a time when an epidemic, which may have been a natural plague or a biological weapon gotten out of control, has caused mass infertility in the U.S. A repressive conservative religious regime has taken control of the government and, with one stroke of a keyboard, abrogated women's property rights. The few fertile women who are left (or, perhaps, the wives of the few fertile men who were left) are declared a natural resource and appropriated to bear children for the wealthy. These fertile women are called Handmaids, after the Biblical story (Genesis) of the infertile Sarah, when she allowed her husband Abraham to take her handmaid Hagar to bear him a son.

Offred, a Handmaid whose name means "Of Fred," meaning that she is an indentured surrogate to bear Fred a child, is the central character and first-person narrator. Offred's narration and observations are clear and, in places, funny, though her situation is as desperate as the women of Afghanistan's used to be.

The Handmaid's Tale is a beautifully written narrative of a horrendous, possible future reality. The part that scared me the most was not even the Christian conservative government but the ease with which women's property rights were stripped away with a few keystrokes. We depend on the electronic manipulation of data for our whole lives, from our ATM and credit cards to get money out of a bank to our deeds that are registered in the computers of our local governments to ordering a book off of Amazon. While this book was frightening in the nineties, when I first read it, it's bloody terrifying now. It makes me want to get a Swiss bank account, stuff money in my mattress, and live "off the grid" to avoid Offred's fate.

As a note added in proof of how much people enjoy this book: I have bought 5 copies in my life. Every time I loan it out, the person keeps it and won't give the darn thing back.

TK Kenyon
Author of Rabid: A Novel and Callous: A Novel