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Posted on Mon, Dec 28, 2009 : 1:01 p.m.

This Week's Recommended Read: "A Handmaid's Tale"

By Melissa LR Handa

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Margaret Atwood's 'The Handmaid's Tale' is one of many fascinating books that falls under the dystopian umbrella.

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Preview… In the theocratic republic of Gilead—America's new form—Margaret Atwood introduces us to Offred who tells us “The Handmaid’s Tale”. Due to rampant pollution and chemical spills, much of the population has become infertile. To save the species, Gilead dramatically cuts back on women’s rights. Any woman testing fertile is enslaved as a handmaid to high-ranking political couples. All women are forced into either this role or other demeaning functions such as that of a domestic Martha or a obsequious wife, who must cradle the handmaid’s head in her lap as her husband plunges himself into the maid in attempts to repopulate the earth. Deep in this torrid world, we experience the monotonous details of Offred’s everyday. We wait and wonder if Offred’s pregnancy will take, knowing that if she is unsuccessful she will be banished from society. We follow her into secret affairs, both of the heart and otherwise. We meet the quiet resistance silently attempting to undermine the authority without drawing the notice of the eyes. We learn more about Offred’s life before Gilead and the tragic fall of the old democracy. What we never glean is knowledge of how Offred’s story ends. A cliffhanger ending leaves the reader wondering if Offred was able to successfully escape from Gilead or if she was recaptured and sent to the colonies where all political exiles must await their sure and early deaths.

You may like this book if… you enjoy dystopian literature, you are a feminist or at least interested in feminist issues, you have a working knowledge of the Bible, in order to better understand the multitude of references, you like imagining your own ending to the story, you enjoy quick reads, you like literature that follows political rebels, you are familiar with Harvard’s campus and the area around it, you appreciate the delicate beauty of a hard-boiled egg

You may not like this book if… it is too difficult to imagine such a dark future, you are not much for science fiction, you do not wish to read a book steeped in biblical references, you just have to know how the story ends—no cliff hangers, thank you!

Heads up! The Ann Arbor Classics Book Group will be hosting a Dystopian Book Fest Literary Genre Highlight Event on January 27 at 7:30 PM, where “The Handmaid’s Tale” along with many other books will be discussed as part of the literary trend. You can come having read one of the featured books or all of them. Please visit this link for more information or to join up!

Be sure to look for This Week's Recommended Read by Melissa LR Handa every Saturday online and Sunday in the AnnArbor.com print edition!

Melissa LR Handa is the founder and organizer for the Ann Arbor Classics Book Group and the lead books contributor for AnnArbor.com. If you would like more information or to join the group, please feel free to send an email her way.