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Do you remember a time when women were meant to be shy violets hidden from prying male eyes? Do you recall how they would bear it all stoically, smiling, perhaps laying down and thinking of England?



No? Then perhaps you remember the roaring 70s when brave women marched on the streets to demand equal rights for women and men? Widely referred to as the bra burning incident? Though you should know that the bra burning part of it never actually happened.



Personally I remember neither. Having been born well over a decade after the latter, I've never experienced any particular hardships. I've never been barred from doing anything just for being a woman.

But what if it all changed overnight? What if my bank account were suddenly frozen? Or if my boss would fire me without any explanation? What if I was suddenly forced to rely on a man to get even a measly pack of cigarettes? What if every single thing, even my name, were taken away from me? It doesn't even bear thinking.

Our heroine, Offred, doesn't get the luxury of opting out of this reality. Her feminist mother has vanished, her husband was arrested, her daughter confiscated by the authorities, and she has been relegated to a human incubator... Objectively speaking, she's got it relatively good. While others are forced to work from dawn till night to earn their keep, she gets to walk about town once a day, and gets fed quite well. After all, she needs her strength to conceive and give birth.



Reading The Handmaid's Tale was an odd experience. The whole story is basically made up of the heroine's stream of consciousness. Another aspect that makes it difficult to properly follow the events, is the heroine's own admittance that she intentionally changes certain aspects of the events that happened. The fact that these admissions come AFTER she describes a set of events in painstaking detail, doesn't really help things.

What's most notable in the end is Offred's ultimate acceptance of her situation. She may fantasize about her old life, ask God about her crazy new world, but in the end she's well aware that there is nothing she can do. You would not find her bravely volunteering for execution in place of another. Oh no, she wants to live alright, though thoughts of suicide are never very far from her mind either.

Score: 4.2/5 stars

Due to the disjointed manner in which Offred recounts her story, I found it very difficult to properly immerse myself in the book. I would frequently have to reread entire passages, because I just didn't get the relation between certain events, only to realize that the topic had changed.



Given the current political context, the story left a particularly lasting impression on me, as I found myself dwelling on various aspects of it even days later. A must read for anyone who's never had to fear for their basic human rights.