The Handmaid's Tale - Bleak but brilliant!

I can't quite believe it has taken me so long to read The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood. Shortlisted for the Man Booker in 1986, this dystopian tale is set in The Republic of Gilead, a great swathe of what was once the USA. The book is narrated by Offred, a woman who has been ripped away from her husband and daughter and been trained as a Handmaid for one of the ruling "Commanders".  Her sole role, as a fertile woman, is to produce children for childless couples of the people in power in this totalitarian state which was created in response to increasing levels of infertility in the population. Did she have a choice? Well, the choice was humiliating subjugation as a Handmaid or be shipped off to "the colonies" where life expectancy is short-lived. Now assigned to Fred Waterford (hence, Offred), we sit inside her head as she tries to stay alive and sane while being raped each month by her Commander in the presence of his wife, in the hope that she will conceive. Should the child be taken to full term, and survive the birth, the Waterfords will raise the child as their own, and the Handmaid will be shipped off to a different couple and repeat the process as Ofstephen, Ofbill, or Ofwhoever. This is a shocking and bleak tale, where power has totally corrupted those who had it. No one can be trusted. No one is safe. And the only escape is suicide. However, there are lighter moments as Offred reminisces about her life before Gilead, and then also finds comfort in her relationship with another man from the household. This book is very different to the recent TV series. It is slow paced, and almost dream like in quality, but it is heart wrenching and gut punching at the same time. The daily cruelty and dehumanising of people is unpalatable, but, scarily, doesn't feel that far fetched in today's world. Not a comfortable read, but one that will stay with you.

My STAR rating: FIVE.

Length: 324 print pages.

Price I paid: free, borrowed from the library.

Formats available: print, audio download, MP3CD, ebook.

Prague Spring - I Wanted More!

And so onto Prague Spring, by Simon Mawer is set in the summer of 1968. At first there appear to be two different stories. The first sees two English students, Ellie and James, set off on a hitch-hiking adventure across Europe. They are from very different backgrounds, but there is a mutual attraction, although James seems the keener of the two and doesn't try to push things. He is hoping that the journey will end in their relationship blossoming into something more tangible. The other story involves Sam Wareham, who works at the British Embassy in Prague, where the Czechs are enjoying more freedom and the youth, especially is making hay. He falls into the company of Lenka, a local student who embodies the hope for the future of this country. But their budding romance is suddenly encumbered by two Russian musicians who want to defect and Sam becomes responsible for them. The two stories seem to have nothing to do with each other until Ellie decides, on a whim, to go to Prague, with James in tow. Their paths start to cross and they begin to enjoy the culture and the people, but a threatening undercurrent from the Red Army massing on the Czech border becomes increasingly hard to ignore and danger of invasion and the inevitable repression becomes a reality. This is a well written, fictionalised account of a moment in history, and it is easy to see why the author has been shortlisted for the Man Booker prize in the past - although not for this particular title. I found it a book of two halves - I really enjoyed Sam and Lenka's story, but found Ellie and James really irritating. This could well be on purpose, showing how oblivious the majority of the work was to what was happening in Prague that year. I would have loved to have gone deeper into the details of what the Czech people were going through,  and have been able to get under the skin of some of the characters, but instead, I was left feeling a bit like a voyeur and uninvolved. The narrative does draw you in and there are some surprises along the way. This is a good read, but not a great read. I just wanted a bit more.

My STAR rating: THREE

Length: 400 print pages.

Price I paid: free, given to me as a birthday present.

Formats available: print, unabridged audio download, ebook.

Everything Under - kind of exhausting!

Everything Under by Daisy Johnson was shortlisted for the Man Booker in 2018. This is the story of Gretel, who was raised on a houseboat in a backwater canal by her mother, Sarah. They don't have much contact with others and develop their own private language. But when her mother disappears when Gretel is 16 and she is taken into foster care, she tries to move on. Now, 16 years later, she is a successful lexicographer, updating entries in the dictionary. But a phone call from her mother sets in motion not only a hunt to find her, but also to finally understand the events leading up to her abandonment. The narrative slips between the past and present, and has a dreamlike (or rather nightmare like) quality at times when you aren't really sure what's real and what's imagined. Everything revolves around Marcus, a youngster who took shelter with Gretel and Sarah and became part of their lives. Things seem a bit more normal, but all three are haunted by "the bonak" - a "creature" who is the personification of the thing you most fear. And maybe the bonak caught up with them, when both Marcus, and then Sarah disappear. Gretel is convinced that Marcus is the key to finding her mother, and sets out to find him. What unravels reads like a Greek tragedy. It is painful and heartbreaking and sometimes a little frightening. The build up of dread as the book goes on is palpable. I really didn't like what happened, and it certainly isn't for the faint hearted - but it is a book that I found hard to put down. It's a true tragedy on so many levels, although I suspect it will divide the audience, but books should challenge us from time to time! 

My STAR rating: FOUR.

Length: 272 print pages.

Price I paid: free, borrowed from library.

Formats available: print, unabridged audio download, MP3CD, ebook.