The Handmaid's Tale

Locations
Call Number: BOCD Fiction, Adult BOCD / Fiction / Science Fiction / Atwood, Margaret
On Shelf At: Downtown Library, Pittsfield Branch, Traverwood Branch, Westgate Branch

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	BOCD Fiction	4-week checkout	Reshelving
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	BOCD Fiction	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Pittsfield Adult A/V 4-week checkout	Adult BOCD / Fiction / Science Fiction / Atwood, Margaret	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Traverwood Adult A/V 4-week checkout	Adult BOCD / Fiction / Science Fiction / Atwood, Margaret	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Westgate Adult A/V 4-week checkout	Adult BOCD / Fiction / Science Fiction / Atwood, Margaret	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Westgate Adult A/V 4-week checkout	Adult BOCD / Fiction / Science Fiction / Atwood, Margaret	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Malletts Adult A/V 4-week checkout	Adult BOCD / Fiction / Science Fiction / Atwood, Margaret	4-week checkout	Due 04-30-2024

"With tracks every 3 minutes for easy book marking"--Container.
Compact discs.
Narrated by Betty Harris.
Set in a society that has reverted to the repressive intolerance of the original Puritans. Offred, the handmaid whose job is surrogate mother to the sterile marriage of an elderly leader, longs to escape.

REVIEWS & SUMMARIES

Library Journal Review
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Summary / Annotation
Fiction Profile
Excerpt
Author Notes

COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Dark and unfortunately appropriate for our time submitted by lballard on June 15, 2018, 12:42pm This dystopian novel shows what would happen if the worst of our culture came into power. It’s hard reading it with the echoes of some current politicians statements in the air. Still, it’s painfully well written.

Pretty good submitted by zmclaugh on July 26, 2018, 12:44pm I like a lot of the concept of this book and the overall plot. I find it very believable, unfortunately. I do, however, find that it definitely drags in spots, which takes away from my overall enjoyment.

Excellent submitted by KOH on August 27, 2018, 3:12pm Really well written story of a dark dystopia which feels timeless. Or maybe too timely.

Handmaiden's Tale submitted by Jen Chapin-Smith on August 23, 2019, 3:01pm Although Margaret Atwood wrote this novel decades ago, the urgency of the book's message feels all the more important in our current political climate. The book portrays the hypocrisy of those who police women's bodies and pretend to uphold sexual morality. Due to pollution, many people cannot conceive at all and many children are born with disabilities. While pretending to be so pro-life as to kill abortion doctors, the upper class/morality police in this novel also label any child born with a disability as a "unbaby." Such children are disposed of, as if they never existed. The morality police restrict women's sexuality, while also providing women as baby-making machines (or, behind closed doors, as prostitutes) to the upper class. Eventually, the reader will come to realize that in both the novel and our modern-day reality, people who say they are pro-life and for sexual morality really just want to control women's bodies and lives.