{"id":2493,"date":"2019-10-18T14:12:53","date_gmt":"2019-10-18T20:12:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wilsonld.com\/weblog\/?p=2493"},"modified":"2019-11-02T14:52:40","modified_gmt":"2019-11-02T20:52:40","slug":"the-handmaids-tale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wilsonld.com\/weblog\/?p=2493","title":{"rendered":"The Handmaid’s Tale"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Margaret Atwood, originally published in 1985, Audiobook read by Claire Danes, released in 2012, Audible Studios<\/p>\n

As we began listening to this audiobook, I initially didn’t think I was going to like it.\u00c2\u00a0 The beginning of the book is a series of short, low-key sentence fragments amid a few complete sentences.\u00c2\u00a0 Claire Danes, a very accomplished actor, reads the book in a very subdued voice, not generating much emotion or\u00c2\u00a0 excitement.\u00c2\u00a0 As the story unfolds, however, the mood is in keeping with the creepy dystopian society that Atwood has created.\u00c2\u00a0 It was a little difficult for me to piece together all the events that had occurred as there are many flashbacks, but eventually the full picture comes together.\u00c2\u00a0 When it does, it is horrifying.<\/p>\n

Many years ago we had listened to an audiobook that Margaret Atwood had authored.\u00c2\u00a0 I believe it was\u00c2\u00a0The Blind Assassin<\/em> but I don’t remember the story.\u00c2\u00a0 What I do remember is the excellent command of the English language that Atwood displayed in that novel.\u00c2\u00a0 I often thought I should partake of another of her works, but I felt that the themes of some of her books were either too depressing or too fantastical.<\/p>\n

Lately, there has been renewed interest in\u00c2\u00a0 The Handmaid’s Tale<\/em> due to the release of her sequel,\u00c2\u00a0 The Testaments<\/em>, so I decided to pick up it up so we could listen to it in the car on our trip.\u00c2\u00a0 I later discovered from an article in my college alumni magazine that there is a TV series on Hulu (which we don’t get) that is written and produced by Bruce Miller, a Brown University graduate.\u00c2\u00a0 The article also indicated that some of the renewed interest is related to our current political environment which some feel is beginning to feel like a dystopia.<\/p>\n

In contrast to my previous experience with one of Atwood’s novels, when I was impressed with the writing, in the case of the\u00c2\u00a0 Handmaid’s Tale<\/em>, I was mostly impressed with the story itself and the world that Atwood creates.\u00c2\u00a0 The book definitely lends itself to a sequel as it left so many questions unanswered in the end.\u00c2\u00a0 I look forward to reading\u00c2\u00a0 The Testaments<\/em>.\"4.0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Margaret Atwood, originally published in 1985, Audiobook read by Claire Danes, released in 2012, Audible Studios As we began listening to this audiobook, I initially didn’t think I was going to like it.\u00c2\u00a0 The beginning of the book is …<\/span> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,14],"tags":[15],"class_list":["post-2493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-four-star","tag-fiction"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilsonld.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilsonld.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilsonld.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilsonld.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilsonld.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2493"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wilsonld.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2493\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2494,"href":"https:\/\/wilsonld.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2493\/revisions\/2494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilsonld.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilsonld.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilsonld.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}