The long sought-for sequel, set about 15 years later, to the brilliant "Handmaid's Tale"...

... and I'm not sure we actually needed it.

Gilead has fallen - and how that came to be is told from 3 points of view: Aunt Lydia, Agnes/Hannah who grows up in Gilead and Daisy/Nicole who learns of her origins after her adoptive parents are killed and is sent to Gilead on a mission for mayday.

And while the story that is told is certainly interesting and gripping, there are certain parts that are either repetitive or simply unbelievable (and/or unbelievably naive).

The first question is how much of the TV-series "The Handmaid's Tale" is canon. Atwood is part of the series' consulting team, but there are inconsistencies: Lydia's background for example (in season 3 she's a discontent teacher who's sort of disgusted by her own female nature and sexual urges - here, she's a judge till Gilead takes over and she's faced with the choice to either submit or be killed), how Nic(h)ole's name's written, the way Hannah doesn't remember her mother at all (she wasn't so young as to not remember meeting her in season 2)...

Anyway, the book taken for itself, Lydia keeps meticulous records of everything that goes on in Gilead and is sort of the person who sets everything in motion once Daisy is finally found. It's she who built the whole aunt-sphere in the first place, she who has dirt on everyone, she who arranges marriages, she who admits girls as aunt-supplicants. Of course, the details almost mentionned in passing are as gruesome as ever: commanders killing their wives, pedophilia, arranged child-marriages, murders, perjury... all just to have all the pieces in their places to finally be able to overthrow this corrupt system.

To be honest, once I decided to keep books and TV-series apart, Lydia's story became more relatable. I can distantly see that she doesn't buy completely into the idea of Gilead but sort of positioned herself to be able to act later on when opportunity would present itself. This doesn't make her acts any more palatable or excusable, not at all. But I can see her path as one option out of the pitiful collection she had when Gilead took over.

That Hannah and Nicole would serve as the messengers to the final destruction... seems more convenient name-dropping than true plot-driven necessity. Especially the fact that mayday chooses Nicole who just learned of her true origins, learned about Gilead at school or through the refugee work of her adoptive parents... in short, is absolutely not trained to fit in at all in a misogynistic system, making the whole mission sort of a hail-Mary adventure... and then both sisters meeting... it feels contrived and scratches the edge of credibility or cliché. Why would Lydia's meticulous plans rely on such an untested girl? Moreover, using her and simultaneously implying that June eventually escaped and has worked for Mayday raises the question of why she never approached her daughter. Hannah, on the other hand, could have been substituted by any other Gilead-educated girl. And she remains bland to the end.

Overall... it was a good book, yes... but it leaves more questions than it answers... questions that didn't need to be raised, not even in the hype over the TV-series.

At this point I have written two different reviews for this book and I just can't summon the energy to start over yet again.

The Handmaid's Tale is amazing and horrifying, even as a reread after thirty years.

The Testaments is also amazing and horrifying, but where the first was a cautionary tale the second is the product of a different perspective. There is agency and volition about some of the ways women of different ages, classes, and circumstances can find to rebel against an oppressive regime.

The Testaments is a rallying cry, and really, just what I needed this year.

Library copy

The Testaments: The Sequel to The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood, author; Derek Jacobi, Mae Whitman, Ann Dowd, Bryce Dallas Howard, Tantoo Cardinal, and Margaret Atwood, narrators

This sequel to The Handmaiden’s Tale fell short of my expectations. Of course, in the three and a half decades since the first installment was published, my perspective on literature may have changed as a result of experience, but the book seemed a bit silly in its plot and seemed more for a YA audience than the general public to which the original book appealed.

In a world in which females are second class, there are undercurrents of stress fractures. Gilead may no longer be as viable as was once believed. There are some who are secretly rebelling against the powers that be. Underground resistance organizations have begun to spring up in Gilead and in Canada, which is depicted as the safe haven for those who have escaped and found a place to hide, men and women alike. (It may remind the reader of the days of the draft dodgers who fled to Canada.)

As the story plays out, three women are witnesses telling their stories about the part they played to bring about change and reform to Gilead. One woman is the powerful Aunt Lydia who is in charge of all the Aunts. Behind the scenes, she manipulates others, rewarding or meting out punishments as she sees fit. She seems to be the only female with any ability to hold sway over the powerful Commanders, the men. She has a cadre of women called the Pearl Girls who spy on people in Canada and attempt to proselytize, and practically kidnap unhappy, weak females by promising them safety and nirvana in Gilead.

Then there are two young aunt novices, Agnes and Daisy/Jade who were the offspring of handmaidens. Since handmaidens (women forced to be surrogate mothers) are not held in high esteem, neither are their progeny, and sometimes these children, depending on the status of their adoptive parents, are not able to make exceptional marriage matches. When a match is made, there is one way out for a young girl who is unhappy with the choice. Since Aunts never marry, if they can prove that they want to join them because they find marriage untenable, they may be taken into the fold. They must, however, pass the screenings of the other Aunts. In this way, they avoid marriage to men they do not choose, to men who are chosen for them because of their power and status, because of the status the marriage will confer upon the their family, as well. These two girls will play a pivotal role in the ultimate conclusion of the novel.

The story never quite develops into one that transcends fantasy. Unlike The Handmaiden’s Tale which one could imagine as real, if not surreal, at times, this book seems like pure science fiction. At times, it even seemed a bit silly as when an injured sick young girl with one usable arm, and a girl who had no physical prowess or experience rowing, are suddenly abandoned in a small boat in the middle of the Bay of Fundy under treacherous conditions, and are forced to row to safety. Suspending disbelief did not work for this reader.

If you want a quick read and have been waiting for the sequel, have at it, but don’t expect the level of imagination and creativity that was exhibited in the first novel.

Maybe because I had already been introduced to Gilead and its social/political structure in The Handmaid’s Tale, I did not find The Testaments as shocking. Instead, it confirmed what I already suspected, that a totalitarian regime built on religious fanaticism was established by nonbelievers and enforced by cynically playing on the idealism of the true believers. And yet, this story is somehow more hopeful than Handmaid. We knew from the final chapter of Handmaid that Gilead would eventually fall, but in Testaments we see the cracks in the foundation.

This is still a grim story, though. Probably the darkest moment for me was in the author’s afterword, when Atwood tells us that she invented nothing new with it, that every bit of Gilead was drawn from real human history. At some point, we have done these things to each other, to ourselves. This is genuinely human nature, just distilled into a single story of a few generations. We should never complacently think to ourselves, “this could never happen now”.

Format – both audio & hardcover. I alternated between the two. The audio performance by the full cast was excellent. But Ann Dowd absolutely made Aunt Lydia come alive. I didn’t even realize she plays that character in the TV series. This might push me over the edge into getting a Hulu subscription to see it.

I read this book for the Booklikes Halloween Bingo 2019. I originally planned to read it for the square Poe/The Raven, but I’ve had to rearrange my squares a little, and I’m now going to use it for Dystopian Hellscape: Any book that relates to a dystopian society. This one isn’t on my bingo card, so I’m going to use my second Transfiguration Spell on the Fear the Drowning Deep square. I just couldn’t find anything that I already owned for FtDD, and I really wanted to read this one, anyway.

Prior Updates:

Oct03 9%

Oct03 14%

Oct04 25%

Oct04 60%

Gilead takes a stern view of bearing false witness, though it is nonetheless done frequently.