Appearance
Alfred Hitchcock Presents 12 Stories For Late Night
Offred remembers life before the Gileadeans took power. After all, she was a grown woman - a college graduate, married to a man she loved, and the mother of a small daughter - when that happened. Sometimes the memories seem faded, though; and sometimes she can't afford to let herself dwell on them. This reality is so very different, and so very dangerous for those who don't submit to its demands.Her husband was divorced, so in the eyes of Gilead's God (who doesn't recognize second marriages) she's a loose woman in need of rescue. Since she still has viable ovaries, that rescue takes the form of retraining for life as a handmaid. A baby machine, assigned to one of Gilead's powerful "Commanders" whose Wife cannot bear children. Even Wives are no longer allowed to hold jobs, control money, or read and write. Women in this society exist only to service men, in one manner or another. Handmaids are nothing more than walking wombs. With even her name taken away ("Offred" being literally "Of Fred" - an appellation she'll leave behind when her posting to this particular Commander's household ends), the narrator of this bleak and frightening novel struggles to keep herself alive on all the levels that matter.Although I'm told the author denies she intended to write a work of speculative fiction, I can see why THE HANDMAID'S TALE is sometimes called a companion piece to Robert A. Heinlein's REVOLT IN 2100. However, Atwood's dystopia combines elements of several different Fundamentalist movements (including clear Muslim echoes); while Heinlein's future U.S. traces direct roots to Christian Fundamentalism. There are many more differences than the obvious one of viewpoint, between Atwood's 30-something female protagonist and Heinlein's innocent young hero.I often wanted to put this book down, but couldn't. Disturbing yet brilliant, it calmly charts the many ways in which women can be set against each other once their personhood had been taken away. That, more than anything else, makes this one of the scariest works of fiction I've read.
Alfred Hitchcock Presents 12 Stories For Late Night
Great read. Looking at a scary future that could happen. Thje only criticism, I wanted more. It ended to abrupt.
Alfred Hitchcock Presents 12 Stories For Late Night
This book she be included with some of the great sci-fi books of our time. It shows a scary dystopic future in which fundamentalism is allowed to flourish here in America. It is a great warning tale about the subjugation of women under such fundamentalism as that in the Western Judeo-Christian tradition when taken to extremes.
Alfred Hitchcock Presents 12 Stories For Late Night
A great story although quite unsettling at times. A story, set in the future, about a want to be perfect society gone wrong. About the control of many by a few. An unknown society for most Americans (other than our political system) but probably not so far off for other current societies around the world.
Alfred Hitchcock Presents 12 Stories For Late Night
Very good narration, taking the reader back and forth to the past and present of the protagonist and also to the facts and the feelings. Also an approach to an ethical dilemma faced by certain societies, not only in fiction...
Alfred Hitchcock Presents 12 Stories For Late Night
When we were assigned this book for my English class, my first thought was one of interested. I, like many, have always heard of the "Great Canadian Author Margaret Atwood", and I eagerly began to read the book. As I waded my way through awkward prose, and over symbolic plot devises, I came to realize that if this was a `great Canadian author' I shudder to think what the not so great are like. I found it rather odd that the only form of rebellion the `enslaved' women took was swearing, thinking and committing sexual activities, and dreaming about beauty products. To think that in a book with such strong feministic undertones that these would be the only dreams, thoughts, and activities of women who are denied such things as reading, and the pursuit of knowledge, seems almost as flawed as the prose she uses to declare them. I was greatly disappointed at Margaret Atwood's writing, and wonder why the truly great Canadian authors, such as say Robertson Davies, are not made a larger part of the education system. In short this was one of the largest disappointments I have come across in my lifetime, and look with fear towards the next of her books I will be forced to read.