|Literary Speculation| - Margaret Atwood's "A Handmaid's Tale" - Book Review

It was time for me to read this book for once and for all. I refuse to start watching the show without first reading the book.

I’ve heard so much about this story before it was even adapted into the small screen, and how apparently the ending was slightly upsetting.

So, I finally chose to read this book by Atwood’s rather than Onyx and Crake and DAMN were they right when they said the ending left you upset!

Oh, the ambiguity. Sometimes I love it but sometimes I hate it. This time’s the latter.

What a sick, sad future the Republic of Gilead is.  

I enjoyed the book for what it is, but one can’t deny how miserable life is and how it’s hard for anyone to maintain positivity when even Offred can’t even remember her real name and how her life could’ve been before she was a handmaid.

Even so, there’s still a spark of hope in Offred. And most of all, humanity. When she’s forced to be the handmaid of “The Commander”, she tries to feel empathy for his wife, Serena. She knows nobody is enjoying what must be done to keep up the population. There’s still a sense of compassion and relation towards women no matter if they’re divided by the color of their clothes and their position in this messed up dictatorship.

I am in no way saying the ending is bad, because it’s definitely not. As a hopeful optimist, I want to know that Offred is fine. That she was not on her way to her deathbed. I want to know that she was able to escape with the help of the Mayday resistance and that she was able to return to her daughter and her husband. That her friend Ofglen actually didn’t commit suicide and she got to escape, too. But my heart and my hopes were stopped by the possibility that maybe what I just read is all I am going to get, just as the people that found the mysterious tapes that led to the Handmaid’s Tale.

The air and the vibes that are given off of the book are as toxic and somber as the polluted air of Gilead. To know that in this fictional dystopia women are not even allowed to read makes me realize of the sad reality of our present. That even in some countries right now there’s virtues I have been taking for granted. How this story could be truer than I would like to believe.

The desire for the future is barely there. Even in the lowest of points and at the worst-case scenarios, but Offred finds hope in the future, a future where she will no longer suffer and women will be able to choose their partners. They will be able to read magazines, wear lipstick of whatever color, wear whatever lingerie they want, and choosing if to ever have a child or not. Never serving annoying but themselves.

Even if I don’t know what was of the faith of Offred, readers like me know she remained optimistic until the end.

And with that I shall be satisfied.  

Thankfully, I’ve heard the TV-series adaptation of this book does have a clearer ending. With that, I have nothing but excitement to finally get a Hulu account to watch the series.

FINALLY.