It took me more than a couple of attempts to finish this book. While dystopian books generally are intended to leave the reader with a sense of unease, the discomfiture brought about both by the experiences of the protagonist and the erudite writing of Atwood is extreme.
The story is set in the Republic of Gilead, an extreme far-right Judeo-Christian state, which is centred around what is today Boston. The government makes laws based on a diabolically literal reading of the bible. Women are reduced to strict categories: Martha for housework and cooking, Jezebels for… well, Eyes, Angels (soldiers for the state), infertile Wives and potentially fertile Handmaids. Handmaid here is not as in the ordinary meaning of the word, i.e., a domestic worker, but in thr biblical sense, viz. Hagar, Ziplah or Bilhah.
Offred, the protagonist, is a Handmaid in this world. She may leave the home of the Commander and his wife once a day to walk to food markets whose signs are now pictures instead of words because women are no longer allowed to read. She must lie on her back once a month and pray that the Commander makes her pregnant, because in an age of declining births, Offred and the other Handmaids are valued only if their ovaries are viable. Offred can remember the years before, when she lived and made love with her husband, Luke; when she played with and protected her daughter; when she had a job, money of her own, and access to knowledge. But all of that is gone now…
It is certainly the most explicitly feminist dystopian book I have ever read. It was thought-provoking cover to cover.
All in all, a very well-written feminist text that should serve as a clarion call for defending women’s rights to maintain control over their own bodies and lives now and forever.
“Nolite te bastardes carborundum.” (Don’t let the bastards grind you down.)