The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood
Review by: acaciaplum

This is a dystopian novel about a woman's life in Gilead, what used to be the United States -- until it was taken over by fundamentalists. When I first read the reviews, I thought the idea that this sort of thing is even remotely possible was very silly. As I read the book, I realized that something like this did happen and the Afghan women probably thought the same thing before they actually had to live through it. Atwood's point is not can this really happen, though; rather "do we still see the ideas used to oppress these women in the book still present in our society?"

There are a lot of other issues. Imagining a totalitarian regime here -- now, how women (or any oppressed group) can react to an abusive system in a way that makes them only hurt each other, and about the things we take for granted. An excellent book.

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