Handmaid's Tale

I was warned this book is not a fun one. Indeed it is not.

You get to see the omnipresent fear and violence of a patriarchal surveillance state. You get to see how it got there, little by little, and how it got accepted. The disturbing part is that it is very much believable...

I hadn't seen since Orwell's "1984" the effect of a totalitarian system on an individual so well described, especially at an individual level. You get to see how a single mind resists or breaks when faced with such overwhelming brutal and oppressive environment.

It is definitely worth reading, especially when you keep in mind the fact that Atwood has been censored in several US states.

A must read in the current political climate. I like the Hulu TV show better than the book though... the book is good, but I just don't care for: 1) the confusing, random flashbacks in time that don't seem to be triggered by anything in the book's present time; 2) some of the deep, detailed dives into things such as the appearance of a flower. While Hemingway had an excessively sparse writing style for me, Atwood had a bit of an excessively flowery, purple-prose style at times for my taste; 3) the sensation that from the start of the book to the end of the book, nothing progressed. There didn't seem to be a plot, rather just a description of how awful life in Gilead was. Perhaps you can piece together a plot from some of the pre-Gilead flashbacks, but I prefer more linear storylines.

I read this classic just two years ago. It felt more relevant to the present than it may have been when it was written. This book is a revolutionary milestone in speculative fiction and probably feminist literature as well, but I found equally interesting that the text is based on progressive loss of innocence. The final chapter is incredible and left me very satisfied.