Interesting

This is a nice accompaniment to the original book.

I enjoyed the lecture style and found it very interesting from an academic point of view.

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Skip Chapter 1 if you listened via the library

I've heard the original book (exactly the same production as offered on here) via my local library lending service, so thought this was an extended-extended interview. It isn't.

So if you listened to the main book via Bolinda Digital (who supply most libraries with audiobooks) then the first 50 minutes with the prof. (Chapter one) you will already have heard as part as the original book, they simply add it as the last chapter.

However, Chapter Two, is new, and well worth listening to.

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2 people found this helpful

Saving Grace

I was lost and confused on first reading the original novel. my lack of understanding has been much helped by the subsequent essay by Margaret Atwood and by Valen Martin. I now feel challenged to go back to the original with more confidence

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The Handmaid Tale

Really well written and read, it has made it a bit easier to understand the book and understand the series on channel 4.

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3 people found this helpful

Great addition.

A short but great addition to the story which adds a lot to the tale and explains a bit about the thinking behind it.

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Worth a listen

Gives some excellent analysis and background. Really interesting, I have always loved the book, glad I took the time to hear this.

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Fantastic narration.

So enjoyed listening to this book. Story is told by three characters and each is read by a different actress. Also loved how Mrs Atwood has concluded her classic well loved story.

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boring

Not worth the download or time, it's pretty boring and nothing like the actual book like it seems

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It’s hard to know what to express now; questions abound!

I want to know how/why the TV series of recent years (it now being 2021) elaborated/ extended upon the history of The Handmaid’s Tale, and neatly dovetails into Margaret Attwood’s, ‘Testaments’?

Did MA furnish a script for these further uncoverings of the horror of Gilead? A script that added the viewers with hope, or just more frustrations about reality?

Seems timely that the tv screening was synchronised with more strange uncertainties and fears about Dystopia visiting us so closely as Trump arose and declined, which only alerted this reader-viewer to feel that one had gone; was done with! Phew; what a relief, let’s try to mend the damage!!! But only to come up short - after the gasp of relief - to recognise that there are plenty others still to be defeated. Is it not an endless cycle with peaceful interludes conditioning a whole other sense of peace and goodness in our minds. Yes, indeed, the future is right behind us in the World’s history waiting to rise again in a recognisable form to be feared, or welcomed.
The civilising of our primeval part of our brains still tethered to its other mass seems not to adapt with evolution even though we judge there to be a continuum of existence improving steadily. I hope, I hope this is the case but….Margaret is a great writer providing for me the best in this World - food for thought adinfinitum.

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bonus material

Great insight into the book from the author, helping the reader to understand the inspiration behind this classic read.

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