Happy Thanksgiving! And the most depressing book ever

[thistlechaser]

Happy Thanksgiving to American-types! Happy Thursday to everyone else! It was a quiet, relaxing day for me, even though I ran to the grocery store in the middle of the day. Talk about mobbed!

I finished another book for the year. Book #26: The Handmaid's Tale, which is one of the most depressing books I have ever read. Dark book? Yay! Dystopian novel? Woot! But a book where nothing but bad is heaped upon bad upon bad upon more bad? That is way, way, way too possible to happen RL? I worried this book was going to make me kill myself before I could finish it.

It started with a staged terrorist attack to kill off the president and most of the congress (all happened off-screen in the past and just got a one-line mention), and a new theocratic government was formed. Slowly rights were taken away from women until they had none at all, they were property and nothing else, to be used or killed as men saw fit.

What made the book so depressing was how reasonable each step was, believable, all this could easily happen in our country.

I never recaptured that one time I heard the "music" of the book, either. So too soon it started to annoy me how there could be page after page of literally nothing happening, page after page of talking about word choice or some meaningless memory or pages about a shade of red or arg!

By the time I was three-quarters through the book, it felt like we had had about a chapter of plot progress (which is too bad, as I was interested in the world and where the story would go). It's almost like she was challenging herself to write as much as possible about nothing.

The book made me want to tear my hair out, because the story wasn't bad, the world building was too real and believable, and she did write in some clever tricks, but it was just so damned endlessly depressing. There was not one bright spot in 300+ pages (except maybe once when she was looking at a flower... but even then it was all darkness and depressingess around it).

With the subject matter, I don't expect sunshine and unicorns, but there's no way I'd recommend this book to anyone other than someone I hope would kill themself. ;)

'Themself' should be a word. I hate that it isn't.



In any other book, I'd be fine with an open ending. But after 310 pages of nothing but darkness, we get a glimpse of possible light... and then no idea if it happens. I made an annoyed sound out loud!

And then the second ending, from the future? That annoyed me and was rather pointless, other than to get out a few 'clever' tricks from the story (I missed where the Aunts' names came from until then).

I did like how the women got their name ('Ofglen', for example), and I caught that one myself.



It didn't help that I wanted a light book. Sometimes picking your next book to read by randomly pulling from your To Read pile doesn't work out.

Comments

[donnaimmaculata.livejournal.com]

This is one of the books that I've never managed to read. I started to leaf through it in the bookstore, but I didn't like the language and I felt it wouldn't pull me in. Which is a shame, because I'd love to read it. I saw the film several times and it always succeeded in pulling me in. I like the depressive hopelessness of the story.

I remember reading somewhere a few years ago, around the time when the right-wing groups in the US began to gain more prominence, that The Handmaid's Tale presented a truly inconceivable dystopian scenario at the time when it was written. But then, suddenly, it no longer was quite so inconceivable - the perception of the female body as sacred vessel, ambulatory chalice has begun to ring true.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Usually I like dark and depressing stories too, but this was just too much. I'm getting a copy of the movie though, so hopefully I'll like that a lot more!

I think I read the same thing, though I don't recall where. When it was written, it didn't seem as possible as it is now. (Scares me so much, just thinking about it...)

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

The film was SO much better. A two hour movie felt like such a better fit than a 300+ page book. It's amazing how close they stuck to the book for the most part (even things like the Commander asking for a glass of water).

All in all, I enjoyed the movie, which is more than I could say about the book.

[donnaimmaculata.livejournal.com]

Ah, I'm glad you liked the film! I should rewatch it some time soon - I don't know when I saw it last, but I only ever caught it on telly so it always happened by chance.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

As much as I love dystopian novels, and as much as the kink in the book should ping my deepest buttons, the kink's decidely non-kinky in the book, and you're right, it feels so...removed from the reader. Nonetheless I liked the concept well enough to read the book and think about what I'd wanted it to be. And then? They made a film of it, and it was everything I had wanted--it no longer felt removed, there was some drama (including a change in an element of the ending), and the kink was kinky. :D I recommend the movie!

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

You know, now that you mention it... if it had been written as a kink, it would have been a 100% better book! (I just started rushlight75's House of Silence series, so my mind is quite firmly headed in that direction. :D )

I'm in the process of getting a copy of the movie now! Hopefully I'll have time to check it out tomorrow. :D

Edit: Fixed the LJ username.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the rec! The movie was SO SO SO much better.

It pulled me in right from the start, which is way more than could be said about the book. I'm not sure if I 100% liked the new ending, but it was so much better than the book's ending, so I wouldn't complain.

It must have been made in the 80s, those hairstyles were fun to see! Hrm, wiki says 1990. Close enough!

[halogin.livejournal.com]

Hey, to each their own. :) It's still one of my favorite books, and I actually didn't really like the movie. XD I liked the seeming 'slowness' because to me it painted a very vivid picture of just how much life had changed in such a short span of time for her, and focused on the minor things that really add up to a lot, even little things like not having any lotion because of just how much she'd taken for granted before the dramatic shift in everything.

I liked the naming, and with Offred's, the play on words. Of Fred or off red. :)

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yes! Even if I didn't enjoy it, I'm glad others did! :)

And huh! I hadn't noticed the Of Fred/off red part, clever!

[teaandfailure.livejournal.com]

Be warned here: Margaret Atwood LOVES her some Lady and the Tiger endings. LOVES THEM. Like, uses them in everything she writes EXCEPT FOR ORYX AND CRAKE WHICH HAS A SEQUEL LOVES THEM. She loves her some open ended endings, and she's gonna use them.

I take back the recommendation for Oryx and Crake, if this one made you want to kill yourself YOU SHOULD DEFINITELY NOT READ THAT ONE. OR THE SEQUEL.

I love it, but my favorite book is A Day In The Life of Ivan Denisovich, so...

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Usually I don't mind open endings, sometimes I even like them, but in this case I would have liked to have ended on a high note.

I think I'll pass on more books from her for now! :P