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Richard Derus's Reviews > The Testaments
The Testaments (The Handmaid's Tale, #2)
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UPDATE OCTOBER 2019 The Coode Street Podcast goes into the SFnal roots of this title.
My hold came in today!! The librarians saw my name on the holds list and our library bought one, instead of relying on the system's many multiple copies. That way I got my hold immediately instead of being wherever I was, deep in the triple digits.
They like me. They really like me.
***
All three stars are for Aunt Lydia's sections. Agnes is annoying, a lump of nothing as required by her upbringing; it didn't make her any fun at all to read about. Daisy is intolerable, both for her backstory and her impossibly selflessly perfect nature; we're unsurprised at her actions because she is The Chosen One.
Try this: Only read Aunt Lydia's sections, flipping quickly past the character-as-mouthpiece young women. You'll get an interesting sidebar to the amazing [The Handmaid's Tale]. Aunt Lydia's story is, in fact, better than the original book.
I'll only get yelled at if I say more so that's it.
My hold came in today!! The librarians saw my name on the holds list and our library bought one, instead of relying on the system's many multiple copies. That way I got my hold immediately instead of being wherever I was, deep in the triple digits.
They like me. They really like me.
***
All three stars are for Aunt Lydia's sections. Agnes is annoying, a lump of nothing as required by her upbringing; it didn't make her any fun at all to read about. Daisy is intolerable, both for her backstory and her impossibly selflessly perfect nature; we're unsurprised at her actions because she is The Chosen One.
Try this: Only read Aunt Lydia's sections, flipping quickly past the character-as-mouthpiece young women. You'll get an interesting sidebar to the amazing [The Handmaid's Tale]. Aunt Lydia's story is, in fact, better than the original book.
I'll only get yelled at if I say more so that's it.
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Tracey
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rated it 3 stars
Sep 11, 2019 12:10PM
Hope you enjoy it Richard. I'm 49% in and.... review to follow. Lol
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Dig in, pal. I don’t have mine yet. FUCKING Amazon...
How funny William 2 I was sent 2 copies on Monday afternoon before the launch !
Tracey wrote: "Hope you enjoy it Richard. I'm 49% in and.... review to follow. Lol"I hope that's a *happy* "lol".....
Rosa wrote: "Enjoy it, Richard!"Thank you, Rosa! I plan to.
Teal wrote: "Being liked by librarians is a blessing."No. Joke.
I had a book out for three days past due with a hold on it so I couldn't renew it...I showed the librarian my wounded paw, explained that the novella in question was at the bottom of a pile, and she force-renewed it for me for two weeks! It took three days for me to get it out of its pile and then I returned it, so all was not *too* awful for the poor holdee.
William2 wrote: "Dig in, pal. I don’t have mine yet. FUCKING Amazon..."Tracey wrote: "How funny William 2 I was sent 2 copies on Monday afternoon before the launch !"
Good gooby, they shipped a thousand or so early and they can't get ONE to you on time?! OIC...they sent yours to Tracey...rotters
I love Margaret Atwood anyway Richard so it was already a winner.I'm liking the fact that it isn't a direct sequel, I liked the ambiguity of The Handmaids tale. Not 100% sold on one of the young narrators, but the character that is a crossover from the first book is written very well.
I find her menacing even though she is portraying herself with more humanity in this one.
Hope you could de code what I've tried to say without giving spoilers. :)
Tracey wrote: "I'm liking the fact that it isn't a direct sequel, I liked the ambiguity of The Handmaids tale."That's the reason I wanted to read it right away instead of going back to Handmaid's Tale. I approve of allowing the same amount of time to pass in the world as did in reality and telling the story as the world develops instead of forcing herself back into a thoughtstream that ended a long time ago. As you'd expect from a superpowered novelist!
I like the way Atwood is telling this backwards to the start of Gilead and forwards beyond Offreds time.
Tracey wrote: "I like the way Atwood is telling this backwards to the start of Gilead and forwards beyond Offreds time."Me too...but that's perilously close to a spoiler, though it isn't *quite* since the PoV is not discussed...
I'll shush now then but thanks for the chat. I love discussing books as I'm reading them.
It's hard to balance that with the staggering number of vocal spoilerphobes who'll Roast Your Chestnuts if you emit something they consider a spoiler. I've gotten better at second-guessing what's likely to cause eructations of outrage, though certainly not perfect. I simply don't care about the spoilers anymore. I do not, however, wish my Chestnuts to be Roasted over such a minor thing so I try to remember to belt up sooner than later.
A screed to Bezos is being cobbled.
William2 wrote: "A screed to Bezos is being cobbled."[image error]
Delicate touch is the way Richard. :)
Loved by the library. Wow. What a privilege.
Cecily wrote: "Loved by the library. Wow. What a privilege."It works out well indeed: The Best American Short Stories 1962 was an ILL with no renewals. I asked pretty please with pollinator-friendly sweetness on top ask if I can have this 448pp antique they yanked outta storage in Connecticut one more month?
Due in October. I am The Golden One.
Richard I'm just doing my review, which will be shorter than yours, but essentially say the same. This would have been a stronger book had it just been Lydia's story in the same way the first one was Offred's.
Justine wrote: "Richard I'm just doing my review, which will be shorter than yours, but essentially say the same. This would have been a stronger book had it just been Lydia's story in the same way the first one w..."I so wish Atwood had done that. I suspect that book would've earned a four-plus from me!
I feared this might be the case, as soon as I heard Atwood planned (was forced into because of $$$?) a sequel. The insidious, creeping male academic take on the future tapes at the original novel's end was more than enough to pound a nail into the proverbial coffin for me. I'll give your reading suggestion a shot, though.
I'm not sure Atwood was forced into anything. She's certainly not lacking in funds or prestige, especially here at home. I wasn't bothered by the academic commentary part; that's exactly the same way the original book was done too, with the "symposium" comments.
Yes, here's an interview she did with CBC."Even with the success of the 1985 original that elevated Atwood to the bestseller list, she said publishers never put any pressure on her to write the sequel."
https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&S...
Ah, you got it. And now that I've read it, I agree with your assessments of each of the narrators. Daisy... gah!
