When the world comes to an end...the dystopian novel

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

"We slept in what had once been the gymnasium. The floor was of varnished wood, with stripes and circles painted on it, for the games that were formerly played there; the hoops for the basketball nets were still in place, though the nets were gone. A balcony ran around the room, for the spectators, and I thought I could smell, faintly like an afterimage, the pungent scent of sweat, shot through with the sweet taint of chewing gum and perfume from the watching girls, felt-skirted as I knew from pictures, later in miniskirts, then pants, then in one earring, spiky green-streaked hair. Dances would have been held there; the music lingered, a palimpsest of unheard sound, style upon style, an undercurrent of drums, a forlorn wail, garlands made of tissue-paper flowers, cardboard devils, a revolving ball of mirrors, powdering the dancers with a snow of light."

One of the latest books I have just finished reading is "The Handmaid' s Tale by Margaret Atwood. Since I did not have too much time to read it, I've downloaded the audio version and listened to it on my phone. The story is read by Joanna Davis, a British actress best known for her television work: Sense and Sensibility, Bleak House, or the 1995 BBC TV series Pride and Prejudice. Listening to Joanna Davis (one of my favorite actresses) added so much credibility to the novel. I've decided to read (listen to) this novel first because it is a first-person narrative (and I love this kind of books) and secondly because I am interested to read more about dystopian novels, after reading “Never Let Me Go” by Ishiguro.

This story if one the best examples of dystopian novels, similar to George Orwell's 1984, or Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. Novels of this type present imagined worlds and societies that are not ideal, but instead are terrifying and restrictive. Atwood wrote this story in the mid 1980's after the elections of Ronald Reagan in the USA and Margaret Thatcher in Great Britain, during a period of conservative revival in the West, influenced by the so-called movement of religious conservatives who criticized what they thought were the excesses of the “sexual revolution” of the '60s and '70s.

In the novel Atwood explores the consequences of a reversal of women’s rights. In the new Republic of Gilead (former USA), a group of conservative religious extremists had taken power and a new society is founded on a “return to traditional values”.Women in Gilead are forbidden to vote, to read or write. It is a picture of a totalitarian society world undone by pollution and infertility.

It is the story of a handmaid named Offred (which means “of Fred”) who is the main narrator of the book. We never find out her real name but we have detailed descriptions of how she went from a partner (married to Luc) and mother to a surrogate, controlled and repressed by an extreme religious and patriarchal ruling elite. The handmaids are the class of women used solely for their reproductive functions.

What I have found very intriguing about this book, is the way the author makes use of biblical allusions and how she plays on the idea of basing a society's morality on the morality of the Bible. Gilead (coming from Genesis 31:21) is used in the Bible to refer to a mountain region east of the Jordan River. The handmaids were sent to the Rachel and Leah Re-education Center to train for the position of handmaid and it becomes clear that this Gileadean story of the handmaids comes from the story of Rachel and Leah found in Genesis 29:35. Rachel and Leah, the two wives of Jacob, give their maids to Jacob so can have more children through them. This biblical story is read by the husband to his wife and handmaid before they all engage in a strange fertility ritual (how ackward is that?)

So the book takes ideas from the religious right- that women should return to the home, that men are the rightful “head” of a household, that women shouldn't have access to birth control and that women’s right of an education and career are to blame for a declining birth rate and the corruption of society.

Offred serves the Commander and his wife Serena Joy (another symbolical name), a former gospel singer and an advocate for “traditional values”. Every month when she is near her menstrual cycle, she must have impersonal, wordless sex with the Commander, while Serena sits behind her, holding her hands. Offred's freedom is completely restricted. She can leave the house only on shopping trips and the Eyes (Gilead's Secret Police Force) watch her every move. Even her name consists of the word “of” followed by the name of the Commander. Another important detail about Offred is about her dress- she wears all the time a heavy red dress-a fact that denotes her rank in society.

The novel ends with an epilogue from 2195, after Gilead has fallen written by Professor Pieixoto. We find out that Offred managed to escape, but we are not given any details as to where she had gone or what she had done after her escape.

It is amazing how after more than twenty years after its publication there are elements of the story that have become true. The most obvious connection is with many issues regarding women's rights and religious fundamentalism that take place in the Middle East.

It was a heavy book, not a very pleasant one to read or listen to. It took me a while to get used to the narrative line. However, I strongly recommend it if you like dystopian novels and also because it is one of the fewest dystopian novels that actually depicts real life.

Reading now: "Life Before Man" by Margaret Atwood

"Life Before Man explores the lives of three people imprisoned by walls of their own construction and in thrall to the tragicomedy we call love.

Elizabeth, with her controlled sensuality and suppressed rage, has just lost her latest lover to suicide. Nate, her gentle, indecisive husband, is planning to leave her for Lesje, a perennial innocent who prefers dinosaurs to men. Hanging over them all is the ghost of Elizabeth's dead lover, and the dizzying threat of three lives careening inevitably towards the same climax." (text from the book cover of "Life Before Man" by Margaret Atwood, published by Vintage Books, 1996, 320 pages).

Waiting. Like it or not, it's a skill all spies have to master eventually

The Winter Palace by Eva Stachniak

"The spies you learn about are either those who get exposed or those who reveal themselves. The first have been foolish enough to leave a trail of words behind; the second have reasons of their own. Perhaps they wish to confess there is nothing else they have but the arid memories of their own importance. Or perhaps they wish to warn."

Eva Stachniak is a Polish writer who has been living in Canada since 1981. Her debut novel Necessary Lies published in 2000 won the Canada First Novel Award. Most of her novels are based on historical fiction.

The Winter Palace is a novel set in the mid 18th century Russia, mostly Saint Petesburgh. What makes this novel unique is its different perspective. The story is told by Varvara, a young Polish woman who rises to influence in the Russian Court of Thsarina Elizabeth as a spy. Varvara is the daughter of a bookbinder, who moves to Russia and restores a volume of prayers for Elizabeth, the future Empress of Russia. When Varvara’s parents die, she becomes a “ward of the Crown.” At first, she is set in the Imperial Wardrobe where she is cold, abused , hungry and lonely. Wandering the palace at night, she met Count Bestzhev, the Chancellor of Russia and he teaches her to become a spy. Thus, Varvara becomes very much involved in Palace and Court life: she meets the Empress Elizabeth and report sto both her and the Chancellor. Elizabeth has vowed to rule alone, planning to make her sister’s orphaned son Peter, the Crown Prince. She arranges his marriage with Princess Sophie, who later becomes Catherine. Catherine arrives at Court at the age of 14, a German Princess who becomes the Grand Duchess Catherine Alexeyevna. There are lots of affairs, marriages, crimes, sadness and plotting in the Court life where Catherine struggles to find her place. I did not know much about Catherine’s life before she was crowned Empress, so I really enjoyed learning about her trials and small triumphs at Court.

All along the way, Varvara becomes conflicted oveer her dulie as she finds herself truly liking the naive Grand Duchess and instead of helping the Empress, she begins to help Catherine become a power player in the Russian Court. While the story told is powerful and entracing, I found that it was more about Varvara and her life than about Catherine. In the novel, Catherine becomes a side note. We see Catherine change from a frightened, lovely young woman to a confident manipulator of her surroundings. However, all thoughts and emotions are Varvara’s. For seven years, after she displeases the Empress and is forcefully married off to one of the Court soldiers (Egor), Varvara is banished from the Court and the novel focuses on her time spent with her husband and daughter. At such, we hear about the actions of Catherine, who is supposedly meant to be the main thrust of the novel, from tertiary sources-letters, reports, rumors-passed on to Varvara. If this is a book about Catherine, why is Varvara the one we sympathize with, suffer with, ride along with? Shouldn’t it be Catherine? Maybe the book should have been entitled A Novel set in the Court of Catherine the Great.

Reading right now: "The Winter Palace" by Eva Stachniak

"When Vavara, a young Polish orphan, arrives at the glittering, dangerous court of the Empress Elizabeth in St Petersburg, she is schooled in skills ranging from lock-picking to love-making, learning above all else to stay silent - and listen.

Then Sophie, a vulnerable young princess, arrives from Prussia as a prospective bride for the Empress's heir. Set to spy on her, Vavara soon becomes her friend and confidante, and helps her navigate the illicit liaisons and the treacherous shifting allegiances of the court. But Sophie's destiny is to become the notorious Catherine the Great. Are her ambitions more lofty and far-reaching than anyone suspected, and will she stop at nothing to achieve absolute power?"
(text from the book cover "The Winter Palace" by Eva Stachniak, published by Black Swan, 2012, 512 pages.)

Fragments from "Gone Girl" by Gillian Flynn

"When I think of my wife, I always think of her head. The shape of

it, to begin with. The very first time I saw her, it was the back of

the head I saw, and there was something lovely about it, the angles

of it. Like a shiny, hard corn kernel or a riverbed fossil. She had

what the Victorians would call a finely shaped head. You could

imagine the skull quite easily.

I’d know her head anywhere.

And what’s inside it. I think of that, too: her mind. Her brain, all

those coils, and her thoughts shuttling through those coils like fast,

frantic centipedes. Like a child, I picture opening her skull,

unspooling her brain and sifting through it, trying to catch and pin

down her thoughts. What are you thinking, Amy? The question

I’ve asked most often during our marriage, if not out loud, if not to

the person who could answer. I suppose these questions

stormcloud over every marriage: What are you thinking? How are

you feeling? Who are you? What have we done to each other? What will we do?"

 

 

"‘Treasure hunt,’ I said.

My wife loved games, mostly mind games, but also actual games of

amusement, and for our anniversary she always set up an

elaborate treasure hunt, with each clue leading to the hiding place

of the next clue until I reached the end, and my present. It was

what her dad always did for her mom on their anniversary, and

don’t think I don’t see the gender roles here, that I don’t get the

hint. But I did not grow up in Amy’s household, I grew up in mine,

and the last present I remember my dad giving my mom was an

iron, set on the kitchen counter, no wrapping paper."

 

 

 

"I am fat with love! Husky with ardor! Morbidly obese with

devotion! A happy, busy bumblebee of marital enthusiasm. I

positively hum around him, fussing and fixing. I have become a

strange thing. I have become a wife. I find myself steering the ship

of conversations – bulkily, unnaturally – just so I can say his

name aloud. I have become a wife, I have become a bore, I have

been asked to forfeit my Independent Young Feminist card. I don’t

care. I balance his checkbook, I trim his hair. I’ve gotten so retro,

at one point I will probably use the word pocketbook, shuffling out

the door in my swingy tweed coat, my lips painted red, on the way

to the beauty parlor. Nothing bothers me. Everything seems like it

will turn out fine, every bother transformed into an amusing story

to be told over dinner. So I killed a hobo today, honey … hahahaha!

Ah, we have fun!"

 

"It is our one-year anniversary and I am fat with love, even though

people kept telling and telling us the first year was going to be so

hard, as if we were naive children marching off to war. It wasn’t

hard. We are meant to be married. It is our one-year anniversary,

and Nick is leaving work at lunchtime; my treasure hunt awaits

him. The clues are all about us, about the past year together:

Whenever my sweet hubby gets a cold

It is this dish that will soon be sold."

 

photo source:http://www.cineticstudios.com/blog/2014/10/finding-gone-girl-a-technical-breakdown.html