Offred is a national resource. She is a handmaid; viable ovaries make her a precious commodity in the Republic of Gilead, where the birthrate has plummeted to dangerous levels. Assigned to a Commander whose wife cannot produce, Offred's purpose is onefold: to breed.
Dressed in red from veil to shoes, apart from the white wings which cover her face, Offred walks in silence each day past the Guardians of the Faith, who man each barrier. She exchanges tokens for food. She visits the Wall, where gender traitors and war …
Offred is a national resource. She is a handmaid; viable ovaries make her a precious commodity in the Republic of Gilead, where the birthrate has plummeted to dangerous levels. Assigned to a Commander whose wife cannot produce, Offred's purpose is onefold: to breed.
Dressed in red from veil to shoes, apart from the white wings which cover her face, Offred walks in silence each day past the Guardians of the Faith, who man each barrier. She exchanges tokens for food. She visits the Wall, where gender traitors and war criminals hang for atrocities, once legal, committed in the time before.
At night in the bare room, Offred remembers: quaint, outdated customs such as gossiping, using paper money, jogging. Illegal thing: women having jobs, reading, her real name, love. Love used to be central to everything. Now it is irrelevant.
Margaret Atwood, who has shown her formidable insights into the complexities of contemporary woman in Life Before Man and Bodily Harm, now turns her vision to the future. Through the eyes of Offred, we are shown the dark corners behind the calm facade of the Republic of Gilead: a regime which takes the Book of Genesis absolutely at its word, with bizarre consequences for women, and for men as well. Brilliantly conceived and executed, this powerful evocation of 21st-century America under post-feminist totalitarian rule gives full rein to Margaret Atwood's devastating irony, wit, and acute perception. The Handmaid's Tale confirms her reputations a major novelist. --front flap
Copertina rigida, 350 pagine
lingua English
Pubblicato il 06 Novembre 1986 da Jonathan Cape.
Je ne savais rien de ce roman – je n'avais pas vu la série – si ce n'est que c'était une dystopie. Et j'ai été impressionné par la qualité et la profondeur de l'écriture. Ça confirme ma conviction qu'il vaut toujours mieux lire un livre avant d'en voir une adaptation.
I read the Handmaid's Tale yesterday, finally. I'm disappointed. I did not like the writing style at all, there was no real story, just descriptions. And then it just ended. No conclusion or anything.
My best guess it's because the TV show was so intense and well made (at least the earlier seasons), and the book was... Not? Episodes would stay with me for days, but I'm struggling to recall the book.
Maybe the book is supposed to be unsatisfying to go with the theme. Nothing much happened after Gilead was created, every day just kinda goes by. Sure there was some torture and death, but... Eh.
Maybe I was expecting too much after all the praise it got. It's my first Atwood book, and way way outside of my usual genre (fantasy, scifi, horror).
I read this classic just two years ago. It felt more relevant to the present than it may have been when it was written. This book is a revolutionary milestone in speculative fiction and probably feminist literature as well, but I found equally interesting that the text is based on progressive loss of innocence. The final chapter is incredible and left me very satisfied.
I read this classic just two years ago. It felt more relevant to the present than it may have been when it was written. This book is a revolutionary milestone in speculative fiction and probably feminist literature as well, but I found equally interesting that the text is based on progressive loss of innocence. The final chapter is incredible and left me very satisfied.
Anche qui forse 4,5 e non 5 - ma comunque un libro davvero bello, forte e evocativo. Una distopia adulta, vista dall'"interno" (non dal punto di vista di un eroe) dove l'associazione di cui avevo sentito parlare con 1984 non suona così improbabile.
Prima di questo libro (precedente e non poco come stesura) avevo letto Vox (che affronta aspetti simili, con un tono e uno stile però davvero molto differenti) ma se di quel libro avevo avuto riserve de Il racconto dell'ancella il consiglio di lettura è assolutamente certo e scontato.
Molto bello. Scritto con pacatezza, quasi distacco, affronta temi importantissimi sulle donne e i regimi totalitari e avvince il lettore con l'attesa di qualcosa che aleggia nell'aria e sembra sempre in attesa di colpire. Tutto scorre lento e scandito da ritmi precisi. Il racconto descrive un tentativo quasi delirante di creare una società migliore, descritto dalla stessa protagonista, quasi come se lo vivesse dall'esterno o in un altro tempo. E in un certo qual modo ciò è vero, come si scopre alla fine del racconto. Ci vogliono un pò di pagine per farsi coinvolgere, ma il risultato è raggiunto!
