Welcome to Binge-worthy Books, where we review the title for that month's edition of our new Streaming Book Club, a book club around those titles that were later turned into hot new streaming shows or movies. So sit back and relax. We're getting ready to binge another book: The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood.
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The Handmaid's Tale
by Margaret Atwood
Book Summary
The Handmaid's Tale is a novel of such power that the reader will be unable to forget its images and its forecast. Set in the near future, it describes life in what was once the United States and is now called the Republic of Gilead, a monotheocracy that has reacted to social unrest and a sharply declining birthrate by reverting to, and going beyond, the repressive intolerance of the original Puritans. The regime takes the Book of Genesis absolutely at its word, with bizarre consequences for the women and men in its population.
The story is told through the eyes of Offred, one of the unfortunate Handmaids under the new social order. In condensed but eloquent prose, by turns cool-eyed, tender, despairing, passionate, and wry, she reveals to us the dark corners behind the establishment’s calm façade, as certain tendencies now in existence are carried to their logical conclusions. The Handmaid's Tale is funny, unexpected, horrifying, and altogether convincing. It is at once scathing satire, dire warning, and a tour de force. It is Margaret Atwood at her best. -- Publisher Description
The Hulu Series: The Handmaid's Tale
A stark world with rigid boundaries reminiscent of the Puritans if the Puritans went a few miles further (or took some lessons from other ultraconservative religious doctrines) and severe issues of infertility threatening the whole world often compared to that of The Before (our complicated modern world with women in the workplace, gender and sexual politics, global warming, social media, and all the host of other concepts and complications that make up our every day life. Meet Offred, handmaid to a rich and powerful commander in the new world order. Forced into service as breeding stock to the all-powerful, ripped from family and friends, and now she must make a choice, one of the few given her: Will she go along with this new world order or will she fight back?
Discussion Questions
Included are the official Penguin Random House discussion questions as well as my original show questions. Simply click on the list you want to explore.
Official Book Questions
Unofficial Show Questions
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