Handmaids Tale

[One Girl In All The World]

I just blew threw this yesterday while sitting around for Jury duty. I'd been wanting to for a while after seeing the discussions here. It completely sucked me in - I'm still not sure how I feel about how it ended (or didn't end).

I think I need to reread because I'm weird like that, but what should I read next?

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[Melissa W.]

I felt like it just all the sudden ended. It didn't seem to come to a conclusion. It just stopped.

[ttt]

I hated the ending. I like conclusions. I can't deal with ambiguous endings.

[secretlyevil]

I'm re-reading the Expected One trilogy. Love it.

[One Girl In All The World]

May 15, 2012 14:34:00 GMT -5 secretlyevil said:

I'm re-reading the Expected One trilogy. Love it.

ooh Thanks!

And yea, that's what's bothering me - it was like SLAM - all of a sudden it was the epilogue. I don't mind a little mystery to an ending but I was already envisioning what might happen on the next page and then... nothing.

[aurora]

I loved The Handmaid's Tale, and am planning to re-read it soon after getting through a few other books on my shelf. I don't want to say much and spoil the ending, but I think the way it's written makes the book a lot more powerful and gives me the shivers. I do usually like conclusions, but I think Atwood did a good job with this one.

Some of Atwood's books are kind of difficult, but if you liked this one you might also enjoy Alias Grace. It's not quite as peculiar as others. I also enjoyed The Penelopiad way more than I thought I would - it's a retelling of The Odyssey from Penelope's perspective and is very easy to read.

[mominatrix]

May 15, 2012 22:10:38 GMT -5 aurora said:

I loved The Handmaid's Tale, and am planning to re-read it soon after getting through a few other books on my shelf. I don't want to say much and spoil the ending, but I think the way it's written makes the book a lot more powerful and gives me the shivers. I do usually like conclusions, but I think Atwood did a good job with this one.

Some of Atwood's books are kind of difficult, but if you liked this one you might also enjoy Alias Grace. It's not quite as peculiar as others. I also enjoyed The Penelopiad way more than I thought I would - it's a retelling of The Odyssey from Penelope's perspective and is very easy to read.

Ditto this...
Also, Cat's Eye, which was her next novel after Tht, and is really good.

[Deleted]

Is something wrong with me, because I couldn't get through Cat's Eye, even though I loved Handmaid's Tale? It was, I don't know, pretentious and didn't go anywhere.

[bottleofwhite]

May 15, 2012 22:10:38 GMT -5 aurora said:

I loved The Handmaid's Tale, and am planning to re-read it soon after getting through a few other books on my shelf. I don't want to say much and spoil the ending, but I think the way it's written makes the book a lot more powerful and gives me the shivers. I do usually like conclusions, but I think Atwood did a good job with this one.

Some of Atwood's books are kind of difficult, but if you liked this one you might also enjoy Alias Grace. It's not quite as peculiar as others. I also enjoyed The Penelopiad way more than I thought I would - it's a retelling of The Odyssey from Penelope's perspective and is very easy to read.

I agree. I thought the abrupt ending added urgency to the story it wouldn't have had with a drawn out resolution.

[rupertpenny]

I read this last weekend because of seeing it discussed so much here as well. I didn't mind the ending, but maybe because I'd already read the plot summary on Wikipedia so I knew what to expect?

[One Girl In All The World]

May 16, 2012 9:23:40 GMT -5 bottleofwhite said:

May 15, 2012 22:10:38 GMT -5 aurora said:

I loved The Handmaid's Tale, and am planning to re-read it soon after getting through a few other books on my shelf. I don't want to say much and spoil the ending, but I think the way it's written makes the book a lot more powerful and gives me the shivers. I do usually like conclusions, but I think Atwood did a good job with this one.

Some of Atwood's books are kind of difficult, but if you liked this one you might also enjoy Alias Grace. It's not quite as peculiar as others. I also enjoyed The Penelopiad way more than I thought I would - it's a retelling of The Odyssey from Penelope's perspective and is very easy to read.

I agree. I thought the abrupt ending added urgency to the story it wouldn't have had with a drawn out resolution.

I don't disagree with that, it just kind of stunned me there for a bit because I had gotten so drawn into the story. And I think all along in the back of my mind I knew there couldn't be an effective resolution that would really fit the story. But at the same time I really wanted some glimmer that Offred would get something back if that makes sense.