The Handmaid’s Tale is another classic where, just because it’s written by a literary author and enjoyed by more than ‘typical’ genre fans, it promptly gets relabelled out of science fiction: sorry, snobby Booker fans, just because it got nominated doesn’t make it any less classic dystopic SF.
The book is set somewhere in America’s future, after the establishment of a fundamentalist governing state. The narrator is a handmaid, whose job it is to bear children for infertile wives (pollution has rendered many women sterile). The novel is an exploration of the society she now lives in, as she is drawn into both a resistance movement and the hypocritical underground life of party leaders. It particularly focuses on the roles of women in the new structure.
I love the subtlety of this book, the plays on words and depth of meaning, and the sarcastic black humour of the somewhat passive narrator. It’s a dark book, but not a grim book, and the way it gradually lets the reader work out how this society works is masterfully done. I like Atwood, but none of her works has touched me quite the same as this one.
More information about Atwood can be found here.
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My absolutely favorite Margaret Atwood, nothing else of hers grabs me as that one did. I always wanted to know the next bit… Wendy, do you know of any other books that follow that theme?
The first author who jumps to mind is Sherri S Tepper who writes quite a bit of feminist SF exploring how the lives of women might be in dystopic futures (eg The Gate to Women’s Country).
However, with the few I’ve read of hers, I’ve found Tepper likes to beat the reader over the head with her message, whereas the nice thing about Atwood is that she is subtle and likes to let the reader draw their own conclusions (my very favourite attribute in any writer).
I haven’t read any Octavia Butler, but I believe her books may touch on the same themes. Another one I haven’t read yet but have heard good things about is Marge Piercy’s Woman on the Edge of Time.