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The Handmaid’s Tale (The Handmaid's Tale, #1)

Margaret Atwood

Start date: February 1, 2018

Finish date: February 28, 2018

Discussion: 2018 RT Tournament of Books

Why we're reading this: Contender for 2018 RT tournament of books, Round A
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What Members Thought

Mar 11, 2014 El rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: hear-me-roar-and-gender, permanent-collection, biddles, society-went-boom, 1001-books-list, 20th-centurylit-late, margaret-atwood, re-read-mania

This was required reading the summer before I started college, a book that set the tone for most of my education to come for the next four-and-a-half years (I changed majors in there somewhere). I've read this maybe once or twice all the way through since graduating college (during which time I think I had to read it at least once more before graduating, this time for a Margaret Atwood-specific class). Each reading has brought me something new, I've read it with a new pair of eyes, with new expe This was required reading the summer before I started college, a book that set the tone for most of my education to come for the next four-and-a-half years (I changed majors in there somewhere). I've read this maybe once or twice all the way through since graduating college (during which time I think I had to read it at least once more before graduating, this time for a Margaret Atwood-specific class). Each reading has brought me something new, I've read it with a new pair of eyes, with new experiences.

I've marked this copy up in different ways during each reading as well. In my first reading I marked sections, lines, paragraphs that dealt primarily with time and memory, as those are factors that are important to me. During another reading I found myself interested in references to faith and hope, and I made connections between hope and the previous interests of time and memory, how Offred's memories are a source of hope and faith. Later, control and power. And then connections back to hope and faith and further back to time and memory. All of these issues are connected, but it took me various readings to make all the connections.

Offred lived in gasps - whether it be smells or sights or sounds - and that's how I've read this book over the years. In gasps, even when sitting down and reading it in its entirety, so each time I sit down with it I walk away with something new.

It's funny going back now and seeing some of my marginalia, the way my handwriting has changed over the years, how my focus has changed over the years, how certain lines used to have left more of an impression on me, and how, now, maybe those lines don't mean as much but the one right after the one I previously underlined does. Maybe in another 10 years there will be another set of passages to underline, or a whole new set of pages that will bring me something new. In another 10 years I'll have a whole new set of experiences to give me a whole new set of eyes.

In the meantime, I'll continue reading the news and being terrified that each day Offred's story is becoming more and more familiar. ...more

24 likes · Like · see review

Jul 05, 2011 Christopher rated it it was amazing

Shelves: american, epistolary, science-fiction, metafiction, nameless-characters, 20th-century, dystopia

I read this first several years ago and I thought it was a fine book, I gave it four stars. But this time it really won me over, and the difference is that it seems a lot more feasible now. When I read it first I was freshly married, just out of college, starting a new job, the whole world ahead of me. Life was bright and shiny. Now, I've seen the election of Donald Trump and the subsequent emboldening of white nationalists and the alt-right. I've become disillusioned with a lot of the values th ...more

6 likes · Like · see review

Feb 06, 2012 Dawn rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: literary-fiction, favorites, science-fiction, can-lit

I absolutely loved this book. I had never been inclined to read Margaret Atwood but a new found interest in Canadian literature and having this book show up in so many favorite lists convinced me to try it.
The story is written from the point of view of a women caught in the events that unfold as a part of the United States is over taken by religious fundamentalists. In the newly restrictive world where woman are prized only for their ability to have children, the handmaid tells her tale.
The st ...more

6 likes · Like · see review

Mar 10, 2007 Rachel rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, 1001-books-to-read-before-you-die

I'm ashamed to say it took me so long to read this, but now I can say I'm one of the club! Provoked lots of thoughts, and written really well. Am going to attempt Cat-Eyes for the next Atwood novel, but not for awhile. ...more

3 likes · Like · see review

Feb 18, 2009 Cait rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 1001, owned, sci-fi-fantasy, apoca-lit, ucked-fay-up-way, read-in-2015

“You can't make an omelette without breaking eggs", is what he says. "We thought we could do better."
"Better?" I say, in a small voice. How can he think this is better?
"Better never means better for everyone", he says. "It always mean worse, for some.”

It is frightening how plausible this book is, even more so now than when Atwood first published it. ...more

2 likes · Like · see review

May 21, 2010 Julie rated it really liked it

Shelves: read-in-2010, dystopia-or-apocalypse, 1001-books

I loved how little by little, Offred's life and the circumstances of her world are revealed to the reader. Sometimes you don't quite know what the book is talking about, but that just made me want to read more to find out. ...more

2 likes · Like · see review

Apr 11, 2010 Nadine in California rated it it was amazing

Re-read after more than 25 years - the same mass paperback too, yellowed and brittle - the edges of the cover kept breaking off in my hands. In preparation for an IRL book group and the upcoming TV series. (So excited.) Carting this book all over the country for decades has finally paid off ;) I'm sure I liked it back then, but now all of Atwood's speculative fiction are desert island books for me.

Possibly.....a sequel? http://www.theloop.ca/margaret-atwood... ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Nov 10, 2007 Sera rated it really liked it

Shelves: own, classics, 1001-books

I read this book many years ago, but absolutely loved it. It's a great book on the topic of how much control women should have over their own bodies, which interestingly, remains a hot topic today. ...more

1 like · Like · see review