1001 Novels: A Library of America
The Handmaid's Tale (1985)- inexplicably listed as 1997 on the official website
by Margaret Atwood
Harvard Library, Cambridge, Massachussets
Massachussets: 25/30
The Handmaid's Tale is the last of the 1001 Books to Read Before You Die/1001 Novels: A Library of America crossover titles in New England. There were a total of five- the only non-Massachussets crossover title is A Prayer for Owen Meaney (1989) by John Irving- which didn't even make my top 10 for the Northern New England section. The Handmaid's Tale is a stone cold lock for any canonical list anywhere- it was already at that point when the editors included it on the 1001 Books list in 2008, and it certainly hasn't gotten less relevant since then, what with the television show starting in 2017 and growing after 2019, when the SEQUEL to The Handmaid's Tale won a split Booker Prize. Hard to imagine a sequel winning such a major literary award, but I surmise there was some embarrassment on the part of the Judges panel that Atwood didn't win back in 1986 when it lost out to The Old Devils- still in the old white guys era back then.
If I'm not mistaken Atwood is the first non-American author on the 1001 Novels list. I can tell from the review I wrote back in 2018 for the 1001 Books project that I was already over The Handmaid's Tale. I don't remember when I read it for the first time, but I certainly can remember the paperback copy that was on a variety of my book shelves over the years.
1001 Books to Read Before You Die Review
Published 4/10/18
The Handmaids Tale (1985)
by Margaret Atwood
I wasn't hugely surprised when Hulu announced a Season 2 for their smash hit television version of The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood. The book, of course, has no sequel, so presumably they'll be writing a new chapter. I haven't finished the television series yet, but the idea that they would write a whole second season out of nothing doesn't offend me as I thought it might. The book itself is more or less genre fiction, Margaret Atwood's literary pedigree. What is unusual about The Handmaid's Tale is the anti-feminism which animates The Republic of Gilead, the authoritarian dictatorship which has replaced the United States of America in Atwood's alternate present of the book.
The key, animating fact in Atwood's dystopia is a precipitous decline in the birth rate, brought about by a poorly understood intersection of chemicals and ungodliness. This decline spurs a shadowy network of "think tanks" called the sons of Jacob, to come up with their new model society, which combines elements of New England Puritanism and Mormon pluralism with more far a field influences like Asian-style quietism and an economy that functions without money.
Offred's gilded cage is contrasted both with her life before Gilead, where she married a divorced man (illegal under the new regime) and gave birth successfully to a child who was taken by the new regime; the other alternative is being dispatched to "The Colonies" (roughly the south and south east) where a series of nuclear explosions and chemical attacks have rendered large swaths of territory uninhabitable. Offred isn't stoked about her role as a breeding object, but she isn't exactly leaping at the prospect of a nasty, brutish and short existence in the Colonies.
There is no denying the visual power of the imagery- which is well take by the television version. The book, I think, is clumsier, in a way, particularly in the way Atwood included a thirty page addendum written from the far future, presenting the book as an authentic historical manuscript. I understand why you would do that in the context of dystopian fiction, but it seems like a genre move.
The Handmaids Tale (1985)
by Margaret Atwood
I wasn't hugely surprised when Hulu announced a Season 2 for their smash hit television version of The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood. The book, of course, has no sequel, so presumably they'll be writing a new chapter. I haven't finished the television series yet, but the idea that they would write a whole second season out of nothing doesn't offend me as I thought it might. The book itself is more or less genre fiction, Margaret Atwood's literary pedigree. What is unusual about The Handmaid's Tale is the anti-feminism which animates The Republic of Gilead, the authoritarian dictatorship which has replaced the United States of America in Atwood's alternate present of the book.
The key, animating fact in Atwood's dystopia is a precipitous decline in the birth rate, brought about by a poorly understood intersection of chemicals and ungodliness. This decline spurs a shadowy network of "think tanks" called the sons of Jacob, to come up with their new model society, which combines elements of New England Puritanism and Mormon pluralism with more far a field influences like Asian-style quietism and an economy that functions without money.
Offred's gilded cage is contrasted both with her life before Gilead, where she married a divorced man (illegal under the new regime) and gave birth successfully to a child who was taken by the new regime; the other alternative is being dispatched to "The Colonies" (roughly the south and south east) where a series of nuclear explosions and chemical attacks have rendered large swaths of territory uninhabitable. Offred isn't stoked about her role as a breeding object, but she isn't exactly leaping at the prospect of a nasty, brutish and short existence in the Colonies.
There is no denying the visual power of the imagery- which is well take by the television version. The book, I think, is clumsier, in a way, particularly in the way Atwood included a thirty page addendum written from the far future, presenting the book as an authentic historical manuscript. I understand why you would do that in the context of dystopian fiction, but it seems like a genre move.
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