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Dystopia morphed with Puritanical oppression, I've got no idea how it took me this many years to read this outstanding story. 2019 Today I finished a second reading of it in prep for book club and also after having seen all three seasons of the series. Obviously, a new interpretation of a book will always give us something extra to think about, but this book-three seasons-book immersion of mine gave me a fantastic appreciation for the crafting of this story. I appreciated aspects of the writing that were incorporated into not just the first season of the TV show, but wrapped into all three. For those of you who are writers, I’m so happy to see an adaptation take on a new life but honor little tidbits and details that you were the one to imagine. I’ve seen some awful film adaptations of tremendous books, so this was a delight. Still five stars for the craft here.
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2017 I had accidentally tagged it as “read� but had only seen portions of an old movie version. We don’t subscribe to Hulu but guess who is seriously tempted to do so just to see the new series?

This is the third work of Atwood’s I’ve read, and had it not been for how well Hag-seed was written, I may have still procrastinated on submerging into the awesomeness of The Handmaid's Tale. This reminded me, mood-wise of M. Night Shyamalan's "The Village" but without the monster-based horror. The evil here is all man made and deliciously rendered. It is geared to women readers, not in that cheesy romantic way, but in highlighting the derogatory way in which our gender has been disvalued.

One small thing that gave me chills was that the opening coup d'etat for this bizarre new society was a mass shooting of congress. My congressman (who is also a friend of friends) is in pretty serious condition in the hospital right now after he and others were badly injured in a mass shooting by some politically motivated nut job. No, massive rates of infertility and mobile prostitution vans are not rampaging society, but I do think that this dystopian story was somewhat relatable to present day. I also think that setting the tale in Boston and on the grounds of Harvard were a nice tie to the Puritans.

My fave tidbit? When the fertile women were named for the men with whom they were supposed to reproduce, the females verbally called 'Of Warren' and 'Of Roger' would have their names spelled Ofwarren and Ofroger. I think it is clever that Atwood made the two-word names into a single moniker. Our protagonist, Fred's female, was Offred - which I saw as a hidden protestation. OFF Red - she was ready to shuck the red costume and the role that it required.

If you haven't, read this! Five stars, on my favorites' shelf.