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The Handmaid's Tale  By  cover art

The Handmaid's Tale

By: Margaret Atwood
Narrated by: Claire Danes
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Publisher's summary

Audie Award, Fiction, 2013

Margaret Atwood's popular dystopian novel The Handmaid's Tale explores a broad range of issues relating to power, gender, and religious politics. Multiple Golden Globe award-winner Claire Danes (Romeo and Juliet, The Hours) gives a stirring performance of this classic in speculative fiction, one of the most powerful and widely read novels of our time.

After a staged terrorist attack kills the President and most of Congress, the government is deposed and taken over by the oppressive and all-controlling Republic of Gilead. Offred, now a Handmaid serving in the household of the enigmatic Commander and his bitter wife, can remember a time when she lived with her husband and daughter and had a job, before she lost even her own name. Despite the danger, Offred learns to navigate the intimate secrets of those who control her every move, risking her life in breaking the rules in hopes of ending this oppression.

Cover Art by Fred Marcellino. Used with permission of Pippin Properties, Inc.

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©1985 Margaret Atwood (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

“Claire Danes sparkles in this performance…Danes’s Offred is complex, and her flashes of intense strength highlight her vulnerability. This is a consuming listen, thanks to Danes’s emotional subtleties.” (AudioFile)

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What listeners say about The Handmaid's Tale

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Cretinous babble

I’m very disappointed in my self for having wasted precious time listening to this cretinous babble.

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2 people found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Not good

Was not good. The entire story is nothing but descriptive scenes. nothing really happens and there is no context given about why the characters are in their circumstances.

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    3 out of 5 stars

Not a book I enjoyed...

I expected to enjoy this book much more than I did. However, that was not the case and I couldn't wait for it to end.

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Essential and Important

A riveting reading of the classic dystopian world of Gilead where women are enslaved and subjugated and worse. Yet Offred’s spirit keeps the listener engaged and at times breathless.
Claire Danes performance was perfection.
All women should read this novel so it never happens!

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Why all the hype???

I personally did not like this story; too much like post Bernie Sanders’ “social democracy” experiment!

First, I’m not much into futuristic stories, that I can’t imagine (or choose not to contemplate) as realistic, especially including masochistic or emotionally sadistic themes. I prefer to think about why things are as they are and how they came to be that way- and how we can overcome them!

I admit I didn’t finish - stopped about 1/2 to 2/3 - almost a year ago- and I’ve not been compelled try again (Much like trying to get through “the English Patient” but for other reasons. It’s just too weird for me. I didn’t watch the televised series either!
I hope it ended happily for some worthy character; the main one?

Maybe I’ll pull it up again and finish it out of curiosity - I haven’t forgotten what I did read so maybe that’s an indication!

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    3 out of 5 stars

Probably better watched than listened to

Good story, but the premise/background is not clearly explained until near the end, leaving the listener somewhat confused. I also found the time jumps hard to follow. If you didn't know that there were time jumps you'd be totally lost. I'm sure that the narrator's flat tone is meant to convey the tone of era in which the book is set, but it made it a bit boring to listen to. I would like to see the tv series. I think that would be a better medium for this story.

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Disappointed

Had so looked forward to this, but was very disappointed. I couldn't get past the narrator. Just, no. (And, yes, I listened to the whole thing!)
I waited to watch the show, since the book is (almost) always better. Am hoping the show is great.

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Hated it

Listened through the whole thing. Kept hoping there would be humor, rebellion, any form of fighting, or at least some coherent timelines. The way she kept jumping from what is going on now to thoughts of things in the past was making me motion sick. Narrator also did not really impress me. Couldn’t tell when it was a man speaking or a woman. No change in tone or inflection.

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Slow, and Boring

I went with this book based on the reviews, unfortunately it did nothing for me. I kept listening, hoping the book was going somewhere, would get better but it never did.

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I don't understand the hype.

Maybe I was expecting something more from the book. I love dystopian novels, but this was so flat.

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