In my opinion The Handmaid's Tale has some truly thought provoking ideas, but the characters and scale of the book don't really allow for an exploration of those ideas.
To me it was reminiscent of Fahrenheit 451: both stories are set in dystopian worlds that are not too far from ours, both play with some big ideas, both universes cry out for expansion, and both stories end on a bit of a dull note.
There is some expansion on the world and some of the characters in The Testaments.
I assumed there would be, but I haven't read it yet. It's on my list, but it keeps getting bumped down.
Imo it is always hard to go from a movie/TV show to the book. Books create a universe inside your head, but now you’re already going into it with expectations. And when it doesn’t meet expectations, it’s disappointing.
I read The Handmaid’s Tale back around 2016, when Trump was elected. I was actually stunned that he had won - because like many others, I had missed the warning signs of a wave of populism. To me, this set the stage for The Handmaid’s Tale to feel like a very real possibility - if this guy is now in power, then what next?
It was easy to insert myself into the rather basic world of The Handmaid’s Tale especially with the humdrum details of everyday life. This dystopian world does not always look like outright torture or murder. It looks like fear, distrust, and control that has been normalized.
And quite frankly, I found that the Handmaid’s sole societal purpose of being continuously raped and impregnated is disturbing to the core. In your post, you’ve accepted that this is just part of the narrative. The abuse of female genitalia and reproduction is often overlooked in depictions of a dystopian world, so I think we’ve sanitized this brutal reality from the realm of possibilities. And yet, this is still a lived-reality for girls and women across the world today.
You make a good point, abuse of women is normalised. I think in this particular case (book vs show), the show was a lot more visceral, whereas in my opinion it was kinda of 'glossed over' in the book. It might be part of the writing style - I usually read books in first person, so it's like you are the character. This story was written so detached, I didn't feel much for anyone.
I've never seen the show, but I did read the book a few years back, and yeah, it gets a resounding meh from me. I didn't hate it, but it wasn't anything mindblowing.
You have to remember, it was written in a time when all of this was just a warning of a possible future, not everyday reality. The Gilead people haven't won yet in the US but they're damn close.
It must be terrifying living there (in the US) right now, which probably makes it scarier if you're that close to it as well.
It wasn’t my favorite read. Like you, I found myself disappointed, with a thread of “what the hell did I just read?!”