This is my first English Book Review, on this blog I usually
publish book reviews and some different thoughts, that makes this
space more than a book blog. It makes it personal, my space. I have
published some articles in English before: about my Youth Exchange
experiences in Europe and first thoughts about my move to
Florida.
I wrote two years ago about The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret
Atwood, the review is in Romanian language, but now I have the
opportunity to cover the subject in English language too.
The Handmaid's Tale is a dystopian novel by Canadian author
Margaret Atwood, originally published in 1985. It is set in a
near-future New England, in a totalitarian state resembling a
theonomy that overthrows the United States government.
The novel focuses on the journey of the handmaid Offred. Her
name derives from the possessive form "of Fred"; handmaids are
forbidden to use their birth names and must use names derivative of
those of the male, or master, whom they serve.
The Handmaid's Tale explores themes of women in
subjugation in a patriarchal society and the various means by which
these women attempt to gain individuality and independence. The
novel's title echoes the component parts of Geoffrey Chaucer's
The Canterbury Tales, which is a series of connected stories
("The Merchant's Tale", "The Parson's Tale",
etc.).
Offred is struggling to survive in a totalitarian system where
the individuality and individual has no importance, but the
importance is on the masses that follow the rules of the
Government.
Her role is to give life in a society that is struggling to
reproduce, she has to serve a man named Commander and his wife, the
book follows the Genesis 30:18 from The Bible:
Then Leah said, "God has rewarded me for giving my servant to my husband." So she named him Issachar.
She details her life starting with her third assignment as a
Handmaid to one such Commander. Interspersed with her narratives of
her present-day experiences are flashback discussions of her life
from before and during the beginning of the revolution, when she
finds she has lost all autonomy to her husband, their failed
attempt to escape to Canada, her indoctrination into life as a
Handmaid by the government-trained Aunts, and the successful escape
of her friend Moira.
I can easily resonate with the story of the book as I come
from a country where was Communism before.
A totalitarian system where the Government ruled everything,
especially the private life of the people.
The food was rationalized, the abortion was illegal, there
were no contraceptive measures allowed to increase the number of
population, and the freedom of speech and thinking were all
banned.
The illustrator of this book is Renée Nault, I love her
interpretation of the story and her way of making the
illustrations. The graphic novels are easier to read and the visual
part of them makes you to get faster into the story, I love this
part.
The other graphic novel that I reviewed on the blog is
Persepolis ( you can find the post here and here), the posts are
also in Romanian language, I didn't have the opportunity to read
them in English yet.
How are you?