The Handmaid’s Tale
There are some books such that when you read a couple of pages you want to read the next page, and the next page, and the next page until the end or until it is late night or early morning. On the other hand there are some books such that reading the beginning pages is like a roller coaster climbing slowly to the starting high point. If you finish reading the book half way then you want to read the next page and the next page until the end. But it is hard to go through the first few pages or chapters until you build enough momentum to whisk thorough the remainder.
For me, The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood was like the latter. I have started reading this a few months back. But it didn’t create enough momentum to carry me through the end. But today I started anew and finished up the book.
The Handmaid’s Tale is a narrative by a woman about the life in a totalitarian government. It is like 1984 by George Orwell. The Government of the United States was overthrown. The president and all the congress were murdered allegedly by a terrorist organization. The Constitution was suspended. A male-chauvinist, theocratic, military dictatorship was formed called the Gilead. The woman tried to run away out of the country with her husband and her daughter. But she failed. She got separated from her family. She was put into a camp and forced to be a child bearing slave to a commander of the new regime. The book ends with a future conference proceeding on Gileadean studies. The story is like the Anne Frank’s diary. This is one of the best books I’ve read.
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