The Handmaid's Tale

*** I love dystopian literature almost as much as I love my beach reads and maybe as much as I like sci-fi, mysteries and true crime. I think what I like best is a good story with good strong characters in any genre. The Handmaid's Tale was on my list of books that "every one else but me read" so I'm glad I made time for it. I didn't love it and that could be because I did love When She Woke. It also might be because I read it 30 years after everyone else. I didn't like the Handmaid so I found myself always annoyed at her and I wished she had more fight in her. I suppose I understand that she was afraid and had almost no support but I felt like she gave up the fight before it started. The Commander was a coward and his wife a bitter woman in her own private hell. They were all prisoners of their own situation. While on the surface it might have seemed that the Handmaid was the only one held captive in her circumstance; they were all prisoners of this new regime. I'm glad I read it just to get it off my list but I didn't go seeking out any other of Ms. Atwood's works right after. I may at some point but not today.