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I don't want her to be like me. Give in, go along, save her skin. That is what is comes down to.

It wasn't until Chapter 17 under Section VI Household I became interested in the plot because it wasn't until then that the plot moved forward. I did not like the narrator. She is a navel-gazer and a coward.

I admired my mother in some ways, although things between were us never easy. She expected too much from me, I felt. she expected me to vindicate her life for her, and the choices she'd made... I didn't want to be the model offspring.

A primary reason why I could not tolerate the narrator was because she wishes she was more ignorant than she is, and even says it at one point. The objective quality to her narration worked well during descriptive scenes like the Salvaging, the Birth Day etc. but in exposition where she reflects on her past, or on the battle of the sexes, the story fell short. I got impatient with Offred's conclusions that stopped short of somewhere new. I rolled my eyes when she thought the Commander was boyish. And sometimes, it felt like the narrator would be one of those "I'm not a feminist but..." types.

I'm too tired to go on with this story. I'm too tired to think about where I am. Here is a different story, a better one.

The narrator doesn't want to finish the tale. She doesn't want to remember and will talk about other things. This is a clever trick on two levels. On one level, the reader assumes Offred simply doesn't want to remember what has happened, so switching tracks is distraction for her. There are indications that the narrator was speaking to someone she hopes will hear her story, but it is not clear in what capacity. When we find out the tale is a taped recording after the fact, the jumping around in time is like the missing puzzle piece. I did not think too closely about who Offred was speaking to. I was too focused on clues into where the story would go as it relates to Moira (is she alive?)/Luke (is he alive?)/Ofglen (is she part of the underground or not? Yes, I still had doubts.). I simply assumed Offred was speaking to herself, as she was slowly going crazy/summoning up the courage to escape.

But mostly I was curious to see where the natural progression of her private sessions with the Commander would lead to. I could only figure out where it was going as soon as he had her trussed up and packed her into the car. He'd obviously been grooming Offred to be the type of handmaiden to go incognito in an undergound night club for senior leadership.

I'm not sure if the ending classifies as a twist, but it does give you a happy ending. Gilead Age doesn't last too long if they are having a 12th Symposium on it in 2195!

If you are in the mood for Canadian fiction, literary sci-fi, women's rights and reproductive rights, this is worth the read. Quite timely with the TV show coming out and of course Trump.