Faith

It's official now, I've become a follower of Margaret Atwood, or I don't know which one sounds more rational: follower or fan. After The Blind Assassin and Oryx and Crake now I've read The Handmaid's Tale, partly due to its title.

The story is set in a strange world, the so-called Republic of Gilead, which is supposed to be the future form of the US, although I don't know when because the book was written in 1985. According to some clever person on the cover of the book it's supposed to be a parody of protestant US; though I have to admit I didn't feel like laughing at all. The story is told by a woman called Offred, which doesn't mean much as in this world women are defined through their relations (or should I say functions?) to men. Thus, Offred means the property of Fred. It's hard to talk about this story without actually spoiling it, but I'll try because it's full of surprising turns and I want you to be surprised.
Offred is a handmaid, which means her duty is to bear children to whoever she is assigned to. Her life is extremely limited, she doesn't even have anyone to talk to. Of course she is deprived of most of the things one would like to have, for example books, or things that could be used to commit suicide with. She has to follow all kinds of rules and regulations, not to mention the orders of her owners, the Commander and his wife. There are wives, too, but they aren't supposed to bear children. Probably the worst thing is that no-one can trust anyone, as there are spies and double agents everywhere. The next worst thing is this deprivation of one's self, which applies to clothing as well. Handmaids have to wear long red cloaks and white wings around their eyes so as to avoid temptation, which reminds me of Arabic countries.
The storyline is a bit complicated, as we are following real time as well as memories from the past. Gradually we get to know her past and the way this anti-utopy was created. The terrifying thing is that it was all so simple and clever I think this could indeed happen.
The main characters are those living in the household, namely the Commander, the wife, the handmaid, and the driver, Nick. (Good to know muscular, sweating guys exist in such cruel worlds, too.) Actually, there is an important dilemma raised in the book which is what we used to joke about as the nun/whore dilemma. Namely, if there were only these possibilities which one would you choose. And interestingly (or not?) most people I asked answered with the whore. There is some real sex in the book, which was quite reassuring after the depressing atmosphere, and by real sex I mean the thing based on mutual consent and desire.
Seems I made the whole thing get down to the importance of sex, but try to put that aside. It really is an amazing (and at the same time emotional) book, which was hard to put down, despite it being very cruel. And I don't mean physically cruel but rather like a thriller. Why and how could this happen were with me the whole time, and as I said, there is some chance that something similar might actually happen to our civilization; though I really would like to avoid it.

P.S. At least it wasn't as irreversible and hopeless as Oryx and Crake.
P.P.S. I've also found it as a movie; though of course I'm not able to handle anything that can download things.