I’ll be honest with you, I had no intention of reading The Handmaid’s Tale, especially after watching the first four seasons of the Hulu series. I have yet to take in the most recent season because June annoys me with her bad decisions. Anyway, I decided to give it a listen with hopes that I wouldn’t have the same love/hate relationship with the June in the book. I don’t, but I think Hulu’s June is more of a heroine than Atwood’s.
Unlike the series, the book begins when Offred – her real name isn’t mentioned in the book because women aren’t allowed to have an identity – and the other women are already at the Red Center being trained. Her life pre-Gilead is told in flashbacks.
I was not expecting to laugh so much. Claire Danes’ delivery while describing the appearance of the commander in charge of the women’s prayvaganza in chapter 34 made me howl with laughter.
“He’s dressed in his uniform, sober black with the rows of insignia and decorations. It’s hard not to be impressed, but I make an effort: I try to imagine him in bed with his Wife and his Handmaid, fertilizing away like mad, like a rutting salmon, pretending to take no pleasure in it. When the Lord said be fruitful and multiply, did he mean this man?”
I don’t think I would have laughed so hard if I was just reading those words. There are a lot of great quotes throughout, and Danes does them all justice.
I know the book is supposed to be satire, but what makes satire satire is there has to be some truth to it. The story is as funny as it is horrifying because a lot of what it describes have already come to pass in real life since its 1985 publication. I’m not going to pretend that Gilead isn’t possible in the U.S.
Pay attention!!!
The ending left me reeling. I needed to know where June was going, so I’m glad Atwood wrote a sequel that was published in 2019. I feel bad for the people who had to wait 34 years for June’s story to continue, but I downloaded the audiobook immediately after finishing this read.
Have you read this classic AND watched the series? If so, which June do you like more?
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