I don't normally read dystopian or science fiction but read this for bookclub. Written in 1986 and sometime around then the world ends and is taken over by men. The Caucasian birth rate is falling in part due to birth control and in part due to excess toxic waste. So the male ruling society creates a world where women are not allowed to work or read and have no freedoms and where fertile women become handmaids - given to the ruling men and their older wives for the sole purpose of bearing children for them.
This book is dark and sinister. It is well written though and is the story of one handmaid and her life with her commander (male ruler) and her flashbacks to her past life which included a husband and child. She misses love and the emotion of love which no longer exist in the new world. There is a female underground railroad which is a spark of hope but overall no one knows in this society who they can trust and punishments are severe. The end was interesting and well-written - the discovery of the handmaid's story in an old army trunk a couple hundred years in the future.
Even though I don't normally read dystopia I am glad I read this book which is a classic. It is also an interesting read given today's political climate.
This book is dark and sinister. It is well written though and is the story of one handmaid and her life with her commander (male ruler) and her flashbacks to her past life which included a husband and child. She misses love and the emotion of love which no longer exist in the new world. There is a female underground railroad which is a spark of hope but overall no one knows in this society who they can trust and punishments are severe. The end was interesting and well-written - the discovery of the handmaid's story in an old army trunk a couple hundred years in the future.
Even though I don't normally read dystopia I am glad I read this book which is a classic. It is also an interesting read given today's political climate.
