El cuento de la criada (El cuento de la criada, #1) in PopSugar Reading Challenge en Español

Jul 02, 2010 Jen rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: dystopian, own-audible

This book is about observations. A lot of really boring observations.

...more

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Oct 18, 2017 Paloma rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: reading-challenge-2017, owned, not-my-cup-of-tea, 2017-popsugar-reading-challenge, distopia-dystopian, literatura-canadiense

Well... I guess I am part of the minority here and I am totally fine with it. I mean... the beauty of books is that we can all have different tastes, and we prefer certain genres over others, and so on. I was surprised though, as basically this book is sort of a modern classic and not a new, popular one which everyone is reading (aka as overhyped) -and yet, I didn't enjoy it at all.

I understand the idea, the picture of the threat we women around the world have faced, face and will face for many Well... I guess I am part of the minority here and I am totally fine with it. I mean... the beauty of books is that we can all have different tastes, and we prefer certain genres over others, and so on. I was surprised though, as basically this book is sort of a modern classic and not a new, popular one which everyone is reading (aka as overhyped) -and yet, I didn't enjoy it at all.

I understand the idea, the picture of the threat we women around the world have faced, face and will face for many years to come. I am a girl and I am aware that we will continue struggling, for a while, with misconceptions, with the deeply rooted idea that being a women implies being a mother, and so on and so forth. I TRULY GET THAT.

And yet, I wasn't convinced or moved by this book. Now, I am not a fan of dystopian literature, and I've read onlyBrave New World and The Hunger Games and even though this last one was a best seller, I liked it even better than Atwood's novel. Now, I don't think it is possible to say that we enjoy books on dystopia because the fact is that they show a quite terrible world, where people have become dehumanized -objects, prizes, games. But they are eye-openers, they shake you to the ground. At least that's how I felt after reading Huxley -I was shocked how he basically described our world now with people to lazy to even care about having a family and lost in drugs and other addictions- or even Collins -not exactly Nobel prize stuff, but the first book of the series depicted how humans, private lives, become the way to entretain others.

With The Handmaid's Tale I kept waiting to be shaken, to be scared out of my mind, to hate someone, to think about what this Republic of Gilead could do to my world. But I felt detached from the story, I felt I couldn't sympathize with the main character, I couldn't understand which where the circumstances that lead to the creation of that terrible society. And it is not like what she is narrating isn't true or it doesn't happen or hasn't happened -nothing can be truer than religious/political communities around the world that think of women as nothing more than child-bearers. But something did not click.

Now I think this could be due to three things:

1. The narrative style - this is definitely a very personal preference, but I tend to dislike books written on first person because you basically need to be a literary genius to be able to depict clearly the people around you without being subjective. Offred's voice was just...plain. One can understand she became indifferent once she lost her loved ones, but she had no passion nor conviction, nor sadness nor hatred.

2. The context -what happens to the main character is terrible, what women go through in this new world is creepy AF. BUT.... what led to it? What happened? Who allowed it? I think my main problem with this is that as the story is set in the U.S., I assume something really crazy most have happend in order for the most LIBERAL country in the world to change in the blink of an eye. And I want to know what happened, sorry. And yes, perhaps I am one of the most traditional readers you'll ever meet: give me a plot, characters and an ending. I need things to make sense, at least in terms of the construction of the novel.

3. Incoherence in some aspects. A society can change from one day to the other, as authoritarian regimes have shown. However, can the minds of people change in 5 years? Accept that reality in such a short time? This isn't credible to me. Cultural change takes generations to be rooted in the mind of people, so I think that Offred's daugther might have accepted it but not her. Also, there's a scene in the novel that describes how Japanese tourists visit this U.S. city and they take pictures of the women there, and are fascinated by that lifestyle...who in their sane mind would do it, would find that even funny, at least coming from another culture? And would an authoritarian regime allow foreigners to come and see their lifestyle knowing they will be criticized? This doesn't make sense to me, sorry.

In any case, I believe fortunately and unlike Offred's reality, we are allowed to disagree and... most importantly, we are allowed to read and voice our thoughts on books. Because what was really scary of the book was the fact that women weren't allowed to read. I would have definitely gone mad and attacked someone... and maybe be dead but, never not reading. ...more

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Dec 21, 2011 Glire rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, plot-twist, you-changed-me

¿Lo bueno? El final. ¿Lo malo? Todo lo demás.

Desagradablemente posible. Brutalmente humano.

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May 31, 2017 Leonor rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: drama, dystopia, desafío-2017

Reseña

Este libro se sitúa en un Estados Unidos durante una guerra, donde la población ha quedado diezmada por las bombas y porque las personas, antes de la guerra, no intentaban ya tener hijos, por lo que se necesita recuperar con urgencia la población.

Es en este contexto donde nace la figura de las criadas, que son mujeres vestidas de rojo de la cabeza a los pies, cubiertas por una toca blanca, cuyos nombres comienzan con el posesivo “De”. Nuestra protagonista es Defred, una mujer en sus trein Reseña

Este libro se sitúa en un Estados Unidos durante una guerra, donde la población ha quedado diezmada por las bombas y porque las personas, antes de la guerra, no intentaban ya tener hijos, por lo que se necesita recuperar con urgencia la población.

Es en este contexto donde nace la figura de las criadas, que son mujeres vestidas de rojo de la cabeza a los pies, cubiertas por una toca blanca, cuyos nombres comienzan con el posesivo “De”. Nuestra protagonista es Defred, una mujer en sus treinta que cumple el papel de criada, donde su único objetivo en este mundo distópico es quedar embarazada del comandante al que está asignada (y llevar el embarazo a buen término, claramente). La ciudad en la que viven es Gilead, y todas las personas tienen asignados un rango y una misión, todo muy normado pero también brutal: quien se sale de su papel es ejecutado.

Crítica

En este libro los derechos de las mujeres fueron disminuidos poco a poco, hasta hacerlas depender totalmente de los hombres. Lo peor es que la forma en que la autora narra en la que sucedieron los hechos se ve perfectamente plausible: primero, el dinero físico fue desterrado y todas las transacciones financieras se llevaban a cabo con dinero plástico. Todas las personas tenían tarjetas de crédito y/o débito, con lo cual se tenía registro de quién, cuándo y qué compró cada artículo.

Luego, restringieron el control de las cuentas de todas las mujeres al uso de solamente hombres: ellas ya no tenían acceso a su propio dinero, teniendo que contar con su contraparte masculina para poder usarlo. Y así continúan las restricciones por parte del gobierno hacia las mujeres, dejándolas al final como meras propiedades, para el uso y disfrute de los hombres.

Es una novela, para mi punto de vista, espeluznante… una distopía machista, donde se retrocede en cientos de años, cuando el rol de la mujer casi era solamente de crianza de niños. Sin embargo, está muy bien hecha, llama a pensar y sacar conclusiones tanto a hombres como a mujeres.

4 / 5 estrellas ...more

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Nov 22, 2017 Ana Luisa rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: digital, not-my-language

3.5 estrellas
Leer esta novela fue una travesía adictiva pero que no me deja con un buen sabor de boca. Finaliza de una manera abierta, dando pie a que el lector imagine los sucesos futuros. El estilo de narración me gustó mucho ya que pone en palabras lo que sucede en la mente de las personas, divagar entre tiempos y pequeños destellos del pasado sin notarlo es más frecuente de lo que pensaríamos. Offred es así, no de armas tomar pero que reflexiona en lo que perdió y qué puede hacer para cambia ...more

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Jan 21, 2017 Isabel Jazmín rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Una distopía que espanta por su cercanía. Una historia contada a retazos que se completa con los propios elementos. Una protagonista como cualquier mujer que se ve expuesta a una situación extrema.

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Aug 25, 2018 Emejota rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: unfinished

No he podido terminar este libro, he leído el 75% del libro y no ha pasado nada reseñable. La sociedad distópica que propone la autora me gusta pero ya está, eso es todo... He leído páginas y páginas esperando que pasara algo que me sorprendiera pero ha llegado un momento en el que ya no podía más, sentía que perdía el tiempo y que esta lectura no me aportaba nada más.

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Jul 26, 2018 Javier Aguilera rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: distopia

Dystopian futuristic world story at the same level of 1984, Brave New World or Clockwork Orange, so if you liked that ones then you should not missed this one.

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