The Handmaid's Tale Readalong

This week those of us participating in the read along of The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood read Sections XIII through XV and this was a greater than ever proof to me that the movie version of this book should never have been made.  It reminded me of most Stephen King adaptations to the big screen--there's no way to make the horror you feel when you read the book translate to the big screen.

I don't necessarily want a book to end with all of the issues settled and everything tied up neatly with a bow.  On the other hand, not doing that can feel very abrupt, as if the author just got tired of writing.  Atwood does not, by any means, give the reader all of the answers at the end of the book.  But she doesn't leave the reader hanging either; in fact, after all of the sadness and horror of the book, Atwood leaves the reader with the idea that there may be hope for Offred. Curiously, it's when the reader may start to feel better that Offred herself begins to feel badly about her actions and responses.  She begins to feel that she's the one committing a betrayal. 

If you haven't already read this book, read it.  Now more than ever, I think it's a really important piece of work that will make the reader think about the things that are happening in our own time.  To contemplate what happens in this book may just make you rethink your complacency.

The Handmaid's Tale Readalong

"The moment of betrayal is the worst, the moment when you know beyond any doubt that you've been betrayed: that some other human being has wished you that much evil.

It was like being in an elevator cut loose at the top.  Falling, Falling, and not knowing when you will hit."

Offred is talking here about the moment her family was trying to cross over the border into Canada and are discovered but she might as well be talking about what happened to all women in the new society.  Certainly there were some men that didn't fare well in the change but we really haven't seen a single woman that has fared well.  Even the Commander's Wives, who certainly appear to have it the best, are prisoners of their homes and, if they are unable to bear children, have to put up with having a Handmaid in their home and watch their husbands having sex with the Handmaids in their own beds while they also in the bed.

In these chapters we also find out that some of the women, particularly the older women, have been sent to The Colonies where they are on cleanup detail.  That is to say, they are exposed to radiation and have to clean up dead bodies.   Others are made to go into prostitution, something that is officially not allowed but which is an option for punishment.  Any of these women, as well as Handmaids that don't give birth to a viable child soon enough, have a very limited lifespan.

Since this book has all along felt like it was showing me a very real possible future, the idea that there are women out there already clamoring that a woman's place is in the home, looking after their man and having babies alarms me more than ever.

Thanks to Trish for hosting this read-along and to Margaret Atwood who has given me so much to think about in this book!

The Handmaid's Tale Readalong

This is the third week of our The Handmaid's Tale read along, hosted by Trish at Classic Reads Book Club.  I am finding it harder and harder to put this one down once I've read the assigned chapters for the week!  We've reached the point where it's becoming hard to tell you anything about the book without spoilers and, because I really hope that you'll pick this one up yourself, I don't want to do that.

The Commander and Offred are spending more and more time with each other and Offred is gradually realizing how to use the power that this affords her (such as asking for hand lotion) but is also acutely aware of the risk involved.  The Commander's Wives are in charge of all the women in their households so if she is caught, the Commander will have no say in what happens to her.  During their time together, the Commander has allowed Offred to read some of his secret stash of magazines--such racy titles as Vogue.

"What's dangerous in the hands of the multitudes, he said, with what may or may not have been irony, is safe enough for those whose motives are...

Beyond reproach, I said.

He nodded gravely.  Impossible to tell whether or not he meant it.

But why show it to me?  I said, and then felt stupid.  What could he possibly say?  That he was amusing himself, at my expense?  For he must have known how painful it was to me, to be reminded of the former time."

Offred discovers that there are others, like her, that are not firm believers in the new ways.  Just knowing this makes her nervous but hopeful. 

In these chapters, we learn more about how the world as it was became the world that it now is.  I'm almost certain at this point that Margaret Atwood, when she wrote this book, had a crystal ball and was looking into the future.  I can't tell you why; you'll just have to trust me that my jaw dropped when I read Chapter 28!

"I guess that's how they were able to do it, in the way they did, all at once, without anyone knowing beforehand.  If there had still been portable money, it would have been more difficult."

Aren't we already headed to a currency free society, what with the almost prevalent use of credit and debit cards?  What happened in this this book almost makes me happy that our most recent economic problems have pushed people back into using more paper money.

The Handmaid's Tale Readalong

This week we're discussing Sections Five through Eight for The Handmaid's Tale read-along.  Mercy, have we learned a lot this week!  The read-along is hosted by Trish at Classic Reads Book Club.

"We are for breeding purposes: we aren't concubines, geisha girls, courtesans.  On the contrary: everything possible has been done to remove us from that category.  There is supposed to be nothing entertaining about us, no room is to be permitted for the flowering of secret lusts; no special favors are to be wheedled, by them or by us, there are to be no toeholds for love.  We are two-legged wombs, that's all: sacred vessels, ambulatory chalices."

Sometime in the future, most women have become infertile and it has become the duty of the women who are still fertile to bear children for the elite.  The Handmaids' duty is to become impregnated by the Commanders during ceremonies that also involve the Commander's wives.  All passion and love is absent from these liasons.  Even when women become pregnant, there is a very real risk, because of environmental hazards, that the child will be born deformed in some way, an Unbaby.

"Women took medicines, pills, men sprayed trees, cows ate grass, all that souped-up piss flowed into the rivers.  Not to mention the exploding atomic power plants, along the San Andreas fault, nobody's fault, during the earthquakes, and the mutant strain of syphillis no mold could touch."

A birth is such an important part of life that all of the Handmaids in an area attend to assist with the birth and all of the Commander's Wives attend to support the Wife whose Handmaid is having the baby.  They even pretend that the woman is actually the one in labor.  The whole thing was so cold.

We learned that our narrator is Offred.  All of the Handmaids are named as if they are the property of their Commander, which, of course, they are.  To the extent that when the Commander asks Offred to come to his office, a forbidden place, she goes even though she knows he will not support her if she is caught.  But it begins to give her an opening to ask for a favor or make her escape.  I'm eager to see where this will lead.

In our conversations about this book, one of the things that we've talked about it "freedom from."  In the society in this book, residents are largely free from decision and, for the most part risk.  Offred and the other women are able to walk down the street and feel entirely safe, free from worry.  But is this kind of freedom women want?

The Handmaid's Tale Readalong

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
Published 1985 by McClelland and Stewart
Source: I bought it--I even have the receipt still in the book to prove it

I've been meaning to read this book for years; it was even on my plan to read it this year. But it took Trish (of Hey Lady, Whatcha Reading) hosting a readalong at Classic Read Book Club to get me to actually pick it up.

Several months ago, I happened to come across the movie, which stars Natasha Richardson, Faye Dunaway and Robert Duvall. Didn't like it a bit. I couldn't believe you could take a book that is supposed to be so great, add in that many great actors and come out with such a dull movie. Which made me really wonder about the book. I immediately hoped that the number one would not come up as my next read for the Random Reading Challenge. Four sections into the book and I'm ready to throw all of the blame on the script. Or the director. Anything other than the source material.

Because even though I've now read fifty pages of the book and have really only been given glimpses of what is really happening, I'm really enjoying Atwood's writing.

"A bed. Single, mattress medium-hard, covered with a flocked white spread. Nothing takes place in the bed but sleep; or no sleep. I try not to think too much. Like other things now, thought must be rationed. There's a lot that doesn't bear thinking about. Thinking can hurt your chances, and I intend to last. I know why there is no glass in front of the watercolor picture of blue irises, and why the window opens only partly and why the glass in it is shatterproof. It isn't running away they're afraid of. We wouldn't get far. It's those other escapes, the ones you can open n yourself, given a cutting edge."

The world as we know it has changed dramatically and our narrator, who is, at this point nameless, finds herself in the position of being a Handmaid. We don't really know yet what exactly that means except to know that she lives in the house with a Commander, the Commander's Wife, some Guardians and a couple of Martha's (essentially house staff). Handmaids have their own room in the homes but nothing about them is personal, the Martha's don't seem to like the Handmaid and the Commander's Wife is openly hostile. Our narrator is sent out on daily walks but must always be with another Handmaid, is not allowed to show her face, and can't talk to anyone other than the Marthas and other Handmaids. She's having recollections of a child, clearly her own, and a man but we don't yet know what happened to them. Or what has caused the world to change so dramatically.

And there is the Wall. It's hundreds of years old but it's gates now have sentries, there is barbed wire at its base, broken glass on it's top and floodlights mounted on metal posts.

"No one goes through those gates willingly. The precautions are for those trying to get out, though to make it even as far as the Wall, from the inside, past the electronic alarm system, would be next to impossible. Beside the main gateway there are six more bodies hanging by the necks, their hands tied in front of them, their heads in white bags tipped sideways onto their shoulders. There must have been a Men's Salvaging early this morning."

Doctors, lawyers and scientists seem to be the primary target of the Men's Salvaging but why? And why does the Handmaid wear nothing but red? So many questions at this point--I can't wait to read on for the answers. I know, I know--I saw the movie. But, honestly, I disliked it so much, I've all but put it out of my head. I'll let Atwood lead on.