Space Station Mir

I finished The Testaments  by Margaret Atwood! I didn't ever expect to read a sequel to The Handmaid's Tale. Part of the book's strength is the mysterious epilogue at the end, placing Offred's testimony in the context of the short-lived Republic of Gilead. The suppression of the protagonist's voice is the point. However, The Testaments majestically balances the audience's desire for the continuation of Offred's story without sacrificing verisimilitude within the imagined historical context of Gilead. The three points of view remind me of the latter two books in the MadAddam trilogy. Each viewpoint is equally sharp, distinct, and converges masterfully to the whole. This time, we get a perspective from outside the Republic of Gilead, in Canada, and how that society has evolved and been influenced by its neighbor. The perspective within Gilead is that of a privileged child rather than a reviled Handmaid, and what sticks is that it is ultimately almost no ...