Up until this book got chosen as a ‘book of the month’ for one of my book clubs, I was pretty sure that I was one of the few people left on this planet who hadn’t yet read this award-winning classic by master storyteller Margaret Atwood. Personally, I really had no interest reading this book, as it’s not a genre I like, plus I already knew from everything I had heard about the book that it wouldn’t be an enjoyable read for me. However, I still decided to give it a try, as I knew I would never read this book otherwise so might as well do it now. While I’m glad I finally read this book and I completely understand why it shot back up to such great popularity in recent months given our country’s current political climate, I have to say that this book did not affect me on as personal a level as it might have for others. What I mean by this is that whatever opinions I had on politics, religion, feminism, marriage, etc. did not change after reading this book. I guess the best way to put it is that, knowing what I did about the book prior to reading it, I approached this book from as neutral a standpoint as possible – basically, as purely the work of fiction that it was.
I definitely agree with those who have said that this book is disturbing and unsettling but at the same time thought-provoking and cleverly written. Even though I didn’t enjoy reading this book one bit, I do respect its literary merit, which is why I gave it an absolutely well-deserved 4 star rating. While it didn’t change my opinion or perspective on anything, this book did make me think and wonder beyond what I normally would with most books. Also, Atwood’s stunningly detailed descriptions of everything made it impossible not to feel as though we (as the readers) were physically there with Offred, witnessing and experiencing what she did. Not everyone is able to pull off this type of vivid description style without making it feel unnatural and laborious – Atwood is definitely at a different level when it comes to this style of writing, which is why I’m not surprised that she pulled it off so well with this book.
Since I feel like there is nothing I can really say about this book that others haven’t already said (and better than I have I should add), I am going to make this review short so as not to waste people’s time reading it. The only other comment I would like to make is that I actually listened to the audio version of this book (mostly because I got the Audible download for free with my Kindle Unlimited version) and while I felt that Claire Danes did an excellent job narrating the story, the audio version just didn’t really work for me. Nothing to do with this particular audio version per se, it’s just that I’ve never been a fan of audio books in general and despite this one being well done and near perfect on audio, the whole ‘start and stop’ process, especially at places in the story that were mid-sentence or mid-paragraph, made the reading experience too tedious for me. In hindsight, it would have been better for me to actually “read” the book rather than listen to the audio – I think I might have gotten more out of the experience if I had.
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