Book Beginnings quote:
Only dead people are allowed to have statues, but I have been given one while I am still alive. Already I am petrified.Friday56 quote:
The really bad thing happened on my birthday.Summary:
"When the van door slammed on Offred's future at the end of The Handmaid's Tale, readers had no way of telling what lay ahead for her--freedom, prison or death. With The Testaments, the wait is over" (Publisher). The story picks up fifteen years later and is told through the voices of three female narrators from Gilead. Each tell their part of the story until the three coalesce into a dynamic and satisfying conclusion, answering almost all of the questions that have bothered readers for over a decade.
Review:
"Dear Readers: Everything you've ever asked me about Gilead and its inner workings is the inspiration for this book. Well, almost everything! The other inspiration is the world we've been living in." --Margaret AtwoodI was satisfied after reading A Handmaid's Tale over ten years ago. I kind of like reading books which end on a question mark. They allow me to fill in the blank and play with different endings. Well, apparently I was alone and Atwood, who had never intended to write a sequel to her classic tale, succumbed to pressure from her fans to finish the story. And finish she did. The Testaments is a marvelous book on its own, showing the depravity in Gilead and which lends itself to applications to headlines from today's news. Atwood also helped out readers like me who didn't want to go back and reread the first book, by giving plenty of information and tips to fill in the story we may have forgotten over the years. She did it in a thoughtful way so our intelligence wouldn't be insulted, however. Atwood is such a good writer. If you haven't read A Handmaid's Tale, read it first. But if you read it a long time ago, you will be fine not rereading it.
I listened to the audiobook version of The Testaments read by five different voice actor. The female voices: Mae Whitman, Tantoo Cardinal, and Ann Dowd did very memorable performances. I especially liked Tantoo Cardinal's voice for Aunt Lydia, one of the female leaders in Gilead who has a statue made of her before she is dead.
-Anne
