At this point in the theocracy/dictatorship/oligarchy that is brewing in the US, I figured it was well past time for me to read this book. It’s been on my TBR pile for a while and with a 4 day trip without internet, and with lots of down time, it was a good opportunity for me to finally make it happen. This is an important book and everyone should read it. I’m classifying it as hard SF. Because, really, it could already be inevitable.
Given that there is a show out and that most people have probably seen people dressed as Handmaids at various protest events over the last decade (decade!) since democracy started unraveling here, I don’t think there is much to this conversation that I can add. The version I read has a prologue by the author from 2017 (so within the first but before the current incarnation of evil) in which she states that she is often asked if the story is a prediction of the future. Her answer is that she hopes by writing this one down, it can be prevented. And, Gilead, as presented in the book, is not going to happen. Because it turns out that you don’t need religious fanatics to assassinate the president and all of congress in order to set up a theocracy/oligarchy. It turns out you can just vote it in.
I found the story captivating, and there weren’t many surprises. I don’t think there were supposed to be. We know from the beginning what a Handmaid is from the scripture quotation before the main text. And because of the way the story is told (single POV, flashbacks and narration) time skips around a lot. We see her in the present day before we see her “training” by the Aunts, and her “protection” by the Angels. And there are so many references to her thinking about ending it all, but instead pushing through with strength, to survive another day.
Survival is what it is all about, sometimes. And while I wish there was something I could /DO/ a lot of the time, some aspects of my life, just by doing my job, showing up for my family, and creating art, I am surviving. More than that, I am resisting. I am one person, but I am doing what I can. I hope that we are able to avert our fall into Gilead. The men are not sympathetic characters in this book, but even they are trapped in the overreach of what they wanted and fought for (and are still fighting for). Gilead shows a trapped society. No one is free, but some are certainly more free than others, and that, it seems, is what the current political party in charge seems to want. Power, for them, and screw everyone else. Oh, and morals are for other people.
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