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More than fifteen years after the events of The Handmaid's Tale, the theocratic regime of the Republic of Gilead maintains its grip on power, but there are signs it is beginning to rot from within. At this crucial moment, the lives of three radically different women converge, with potentially explosive results. Two have grown up as part of the first generation to come of age in the new order. The testimonies of these two young women are joined by a third voice: a woman who wields power through the ruthless accumulation and deployment of secrets. As Atwood unfolds The Testaments, she opens up the innermost workings of Gilead as each woman is forced to come to terms with who she is, and how far she will go for what she believes. --Publisher description.… (more)
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Try this: Only read Aunt Lydia's sections, flipping quickly past the character-as-mouthpiece young women. You'll get an interesting sidebar to the amazing The Handmaid's Tale. Aunt Lydia's story is, in fact, better than the original book.
I'll only get yelled at if I say more so that's it.
What it is, however, is closure. For all of us who have yearned to know what happened - did she make it out - did Gilead ever
Atwood uses three voices to tell Gilead's continuing story, and while I found them all engaging, the voice of the Aunt was the most compelling for me. I found this novel to be a quick read - I was entirely engaged from page one, and didn't want to put it down until I had reached the end.
I think, for those of us who have loved this novel over the years, The Testaments will be satisfying. It doesn't reach the same levels as some of Atwood's previous work, but it is still a solid and welcome work of fiction.
Knowing what an impact The Handmaid's Tale the novel has had, and having fairly fresh in my mind just how powerful and disturbing and relevant the TV series felt, it was hard not to have high expectations of this sequel. Which is too bad, because...
Well. It's not a bad book, to start with. I'm not sure Atwood is capable of writing a bad book. The writing in his one flowed along nicely, and it was an engaging enough read. The plot isn't much, but the depictions of life in Gilead are always interesting, in their own depressing way.
But it's impossible not to feel like it ought to have been something more. That there ought to be a lot of new things for this sequel to say to us, in this world we're living in today. But mostly it just all felt... familiar. More of the same. Readable enough, yes. But powerful? Not really.
I suppose it does try to say some interesting things about complicity and collaboration and the possibility of bringing down the system from the inside, with what it does with the character of Aunt Lydia. But none of it feels particularly deep, I'm afraid. And while this version of Lydia is interesting... Well, I almost feel bad saying it, but I think I find the version from the TV series more so.
Rating: It's hard to know how to rate this, because it's almost impossible to divorce the reality of it from the expectation. And maybe divorcing the two isn't really the right thing to do, anyway. With that in mind, I'm giving it a 3.5/5.
Made into a Hulu series, The Handmaid's Tale has reached new generations, both on the screen and on the written page. That first book took us
Fifteen years have passed when The Testaments opens. There are three narratives. I as quite surprised to see that Aunt Lydia (if you've read The Handmaid's Tale, you'll know who this is) is the primary voice. "But among these bloody fingerprints are those made by ourselves, and these can't be wiped away so easily. Over the years I've buried a lot of bones; now I"m inclined to dig them up again - if only for your edification, my unknown reader." And turned what I had thought about this character upside down.
There are two other testaments - that of Witness 369A and Witness 369B - both young women from different sides of the 'border' - one living in Gilead, one safe in Canada. "We were the beneficiaries of the sacrifices made by our forebears. We were constantly reminded of this, and ordered to be grateful. Bbut it's difficult to be grateful for the absence of of an unknown quantity."
How those narratives weave together and what will happen will keep readers up late at night. And as more and more is revealed and the underlying plan becomes visible, I couldn't put the book down. And, as I don't want to provide any spoilers, I'll leave it at that. But suffice to say, I loved it.
Atwood's imagining of such a world is not so far fetched. I leave you with this....:Atwood reiterated that "each detail is plucked from reality" so nothing she wrote has not occurred already, whether it be in this climate or previously before." Scary huh?
We have the story of Aunt Lydia, pretty much the leader of women in Gilead and the most powerful
I liked this read, and I was glad it didn't sully the brilliance of the first novel. If anything, it added to it by fleshing out what like was like in Gilead, what happened as it was founded, and what factors led to its undoing. Atwood expertly tells the tale from all three perspectives in this book, and now we have four stories of this horrible country. A country that seems all too real in this age of Trump and his cronies that continue to degrade and belittle women at any and all opportunities. I hope his downfall is as swift and complete as the men of Gilead!
In particular, this new volume focuses on three women: Aunt Lydia, the most powerful female figure in the Gilead hierarchy; Agnes Jemima, the young daughter of a mid-level Commander; and Daisy, a teen-aged girl living in Canada whose past will soon connect her to the other two. The nation is crumbling, done in by the ongoing corruption and oppressive actions of its leaders. Nevertheless, those in power are desperate to hang on and they are becoming increasingly ruthless in their behavior. Aunt Lydia is actually working covertly to bring about the regime’s demise, keeping a secret journal of the many transgressions she has witnessed (and taken part in herself). It is the complicated scheme she launches to bring her writings to light that gets the three women together and gives the novel its dramatic tension.
Of course, the danger in producing a sequel to such a revered and influential book—especially more than three decades later—is extending the story in a way that readers will view as disappointing or ineffectual. Fortunately, that is simply not a problem with The Testaments, which I found to be an extremely satisfying end to the Gilead saga. Atwood’s writing continues to be effective and affecting, taking the reader right back into the cloistered world of that sinister society. She also adopted a much wider viewpoint in this novel, telling the story from three alternating points of view, none of which being that of a Handmaid as in the earlier work. The Handmaid’s Tale remains one of the best books I have read and this one is not too far behind on that list.
The narrative is split between three characters: a pampered* daughter of Gilead; a self-absorbed Canadian teenager who may as well have "Chosen One" flashing above her in neon; and Aunt Lydia, that ruthless torturer from The Handmaid's Tale.
Aside from Aunt
The Testaments worst gaffe is giving facile answers to the questions we were left with in The Handmaid's Tale; question which, in most cases, didn't need to be answered.
What keeps me from totally dismissing this one is Aunt Lydia's tale. Learning her backstory and seeing her navigate her way to a position of power is fascinating. And it's in this section we are given another horrifying literary villain in Commander Judd, a nightmarish cross between Bluebeard and Humbert Humbert. However, it feels like Atwood got bored writing the most interesting part of the book and didn't think it necessary to allude to any sort of motivation for Lydia's final actions.
I won't say I was let down by The Testaments because I didn't really have any expectations for it, but I will say that it's kind of sad that Atwood took thirty-odd years to come up with something so mediocre.
*Well, as pampered as any female in Gilead can be.
A solid follow-up to The Handmaid’s Tale and although it’s been years since I’ve read The Handmaid’s Tale, I did not need a refresher before reading this one.
The Rest of It:
Gilead. A place where women are assigned to a certain order based on their “talents”. Some are
The Testaments focuses on Baby Nicole, who was whisked away from Gilead years ago. Much effort is spent trying to find her but the people involved in her disappearance have organized to the point where her disappearance and her eventual re-introduction is all part of a much larger plan to take Gilead down.
This novel would have been captivating all by itself but reading it during the Supreme Court confirmation process, and realizing how much is currently at stake in the area of women’s reproductive rights, was chilling to say the least.
I enjoyed this read. Atwood is a great storyteller and quickly pulls you in. My only complaint is that it was a little hard to keep track of all the “Aunts”. I often had to go back a few pages to remind myself who was who. My club chose this for our discussion this month and I think it’s a book that needs to be discussed so I am hoping for some good conversation.
For more reviews, visit my blog: Book Chatter.
I enjoyed this follow-up to the Handmaid's Tale more than The Handmaid's Tale. This is told mostly through Aunt Lydia and involves Gilead and Canada and the interaction between the two by May Day, Pearl Girls, and the search for Baby
Atwood has never been my taste in reading, though her content definitely is. Sometimes it just takes making it a bit more accessible to have more people well, access it.
Instead of continuing Offred's story where it left off, Atwood jumps forward in time about 15 years. I thought this was VERY smart. In fact, Offred only exists in this book in the reader's assumption and/or imagination. Instead there are three narrators, writing their own stories. The familiar Aunt Lydia, a young girl named Agnes growing up in a privileged family who is slated to be a Wife, and a young girl named Daisy who is growing up outside of Gilead in Canada. Politically, the Mayday resistance to Gilead is growing and Gilead is starting to deteriorate. Right away, we find out that Aunt Lydia is actually part of that resistance and has been all along. We get her back story and see how she is working the system from the inside. I won't give any plot away, but Agnes and Daisy's stories end up intertwined as well, with each other and with Aunt Lydia.
The book ends, again, with a conference on Gileadean studies where some possible connections presented in the documents are discussed. I actually loved the very last statement of the book, that is a gravestone tribute to one of the characters. This short inscription managed to really color a lot of how I felt about this book in a positive way. It's the sort of moment that can deepen what you just read in an instant.
I've tried to be very careful not to give away any plot and that's difficult here, because this is a very plot-driven novel. I'm not sure what the reaction to this book will be from Atwood fans. I enjoyed it and thought it was well done, but at the same time, if it didn't have the connection to [The Handmaid's Tale], I don't think I would have found it special or memorable at all. I hope that many people on LT choose to read it, though, because I'd love to hear everyone's opinions!
This is a page turner and a gripping tale.
The most important and interesting chapter IMHO is the last chapter which takes place at an academic conference of Gileadean studies in in 2197. It discusses the testimonies of two girls, Daisy/Nicole and Agnes and the Ardua Hall Holograph written by Aunt Lydia.
These three “testaments” form the bulk of the narrative of the life and times inside and outside of Gilead.
Each testament provides details of each person’s life as they maneuver their way through Gilead or outside (Daisy). Women and girls are streamed into Handmaids for procreation, Marthas for slave labour, Pearl girls for indoctrination and Aunts for management. Men of course are in charge as Commanders, Eyes are spies.
Aunt Lydia does a good job of describing the corruption, incompetence, depravity and homicide of various classes of people.
With the exception of Aunt Lydia, I found the character development to be one dimensional, the dialogue flat and the outcome simplistic.
Aunt Lydia is cunning, evil, manipulative and treacherous. We soon determine that she is a double agent working with Mayday to destroy Gilead.
I do not recommend
Once I had it, I could not put it down.
Again, this was found testimony of people living through Gilead, this time two young women and one aunt. The insight into the world, both
Read in conjunction with Season 3 of the series, this was even more powerful for me.