The Handmaid's Tale
The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
March 2009
When I found out that The Handmaid's Tale won the first Arthur C. Clarke science fiction award, I was surprised. I can see how it could be classified as science fiction, but I agree more with Atwood's opinion that it is more speculative fiction rather than science fiction. Regardless of what it is classified under, I loved this book.
The way in which Atwood builds her dystopian future piece by piece is very effective. The narrative is told as a memory of a person within the society and it jumps back and forth through time, leaving the reader to slowly piece together what happened to create such a world. The beginning of the book is a bit confusing because the reader does not know the circumstances which the narrator takes for granted. Because of this, there is a constant mystery surrounding the narrative, and even at the end, the reader is left pondering the events that led up to the present moment in the narrative. Because of this, the reader is also left to make more connections between the events in the book to the world we live in. The social critique is obvious, but does not feel overbearing.
Every Atwood book I read I enjoy more than the last. She is definitely one of the best authors I've been introduced to recently.
March 2009
When I found out that The Handmaid's Tale won the first Arthur C. Clarke science fiction award, I was surprised. I can see how it could be classified as science fiction, but I agree more with Atwood's opinion that it is more speculative fiction rather than science fiction. Regardless of what it is classified under, I loved this book.
The way in which Atwood builds her dystopian future piece by piece is very effective. The narrative is told as a memory of a person within the society and it jumps back and forth through time, leaving the reader to slowly piece together what happened to create such a world. The beginning of the book is a bit confusing because the reader does not know the circumstances which the narrator takes for granted. Because of this, there is a constant mystery surrounding the narrative, and even at the end, the reader is left pondering the events that led up to the present moment in the narrative. Because of this, the reader is also left to make more connections between the events in the book to the world we live in. The social critique is obvious, but does not feel overbearing.
Every Atwood book I read I enjoy more than the last. She is definitely one of the best authors I've been introduced to recently.
posted by brookstar | 9:08 AM
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