Published in 1985 and translated into French two years later, "The Handmaid's Tale" is the sixth installment of the novelist, poet and critic Margaret Atwood to whom we owe such titles as "The Edible Woman," "The Blind Assassin" or " The Last Man. "
" The Handmaid's Tale "is as Defred's testimony, a woman in the prime of life who like many of his fellows is held in a household located in the Republic of Gilead.
At the head of each household is a Commander with his wife. At that time crossed by pollution and alarming birth rate, the mission of the Handmaid's Tale is to serve their country by putting their body at the disposal of the Commander.
Women and Having all of their rights denied to be reduced to mere instruments of procreation ...
" Il se peut que rien de tout ceci n'ait à voir avec l'autorité. Il se peut qu'il ne s'agisse pas vraiment de savoir qui peut posséder qui, qui peut faire quoi à qui et s'en tirer indemne, même si il y a eu mort. Il se peut qu'il ne s'agisse pas de savoir qui a le droit de s'asseoir et qui doit être à genoux, ou debout, ou couchée, jambes écartées et ouvertes.
Peut-être s'agit-il de savoir qui peut faire quoi à qui, et être pardonné.
N'allez pas me dire que cela revient au même. " p.227
C'est à travers les yeux de Defred que le lecteur découvre cet univers effrayant dominé par la religion qui en définit laws.
It accurately describes the hanging of the community turned in on itself, and hyper-organized hierarchical (color codes, ration cards, coded language), a microcosm in which each individual undergoes the constant pressure of being terminated for any breach of regulations.
Eyes are everywhere. Everything is measured, watched, subject to controls. Lovers of "1984" or "Equilibrium" will see the same terror vis-à-vis power wishing to contribute to "welfare".
Humiliated, indoctrinated, dehumanized and reduced to their simplest device ... reproductive, each these women aspire to become pregnant Commander, a situation that would allow them to escape the status of "anti-women" and the Colonies.
" I used to think my body as an instrument of pleasure, or means of transport, or a tool to fulfill my wishes.
I could use it to run, push buttons of various natures, to make things happen. There were limits, but yet my body was light, single, solid, was one with me.
Now the flesh has a different way. I am a cloud, frozen around a central object, shaped like a pear, which is harder and more real than I am, and shining, red, inside its transparent envelope. In this object there is a space, huge as the night sky, dark and curved like him, but a dark red rather than black.
The pinheads of light to swell, then curl sparkle, countless as the stars.
Each month there is a moon, a giant, round, heavy, an omen. It goes, stops, takes its course and disappears and I see the despair fall upon me like a famine. Feel
this vacuum again, and again. I listen to my heart, wave after wave, salt and red, which continues relentlessly chanting time. "p.127
The pressure generated by this control of the female body is such that it arouses much envy among one and other. In the race for the baby, jealousy takes over as brides maids unable to give themselves a child of their husband.
Defred tells processions, secret, clandestine meetings, prohibitions, punishment, days of birth, those intended to "fulfill their biological destiny," the newspaper these women deprived of knowledge, love and desire.
She also returned to his past which included a friend, a husband and a daughter whom she has more news, so many memories that allow him to keep his head above water by clinging to the little things to hang on.
Because the narrative is delivered by Defred, the elements are coming as they (re) appear in his memories.
The player enters the heart through Gilead Defred own eyes, which allows the author to focus his story on what happens inside and behind the scenes at the house occupied by women.
A war is on but the information is voluntarily filtered, which inevitably leads to a lack of contextualization (not disturbing to me because ins and outs of this totalitarian regime contained in the epilogue).
I will not beat around the bush, I just loved this novel from beginning to end! I was both appalled and fascinated by the fate of Defred and many women relegated to simple matrices. The author
sows-and detail as to measure in a colorful style, visual. Descriptions are often troubling because plausible. Admittedly, the author deftly combines the indelible marks left by history to current problems to instil fear of such a situation emerges under another form.
" Sometimes I can not think of myself, my body, not seeing my skeleton, what I am, as seen by an electron. A cradle of life, made of bones and internal dangers, deformed proteins , crystals failed, chipped like glass.
women were taking medications, pills, the men sprayed the trees, the cows ate the grass, all that spicy piss flowed in rivers. Not to mention the explosion of atomic plants along the San Andreas fault, without human error, at the time of earthquakes, and the mutant strain of syphilis, no mold could not stop.
Some have done themselves, have been tightly sewn with catgut or ravage with chemicals. How could they said Aunt Lydia, oh, how could they do such a thing? Jezebels! Despise the gifts of God! "p.189
In this world where everything is prohibited, every sensation evoked seems to take on another dimension, the more exacerbated its subject is often scarce and dangerous.
The narrator attempts to put into words everything she sees and experiences and feels through his words all the restraint it must demonstrate to suppress his emotions and desires.
No need to add to Defred layer. If the tone has become more neutral, cautious, the facts speak for herself and descriptions betray a solitude that one can only sympathize.
A big big big favorite that I recommend to all not only women but also to every reader interested in the insidious progression and evolution of a totalitarian regime that revolves around a goat -a power outlet and unscrupulous.
A must read!
Other opinions among Mango and Cecile QD9 and among BOB!
"The Handmaid's Tale" is part of the selection Foreign Price QD9 launched by Cecile . 
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