artist|study : MARGARET ATWOOD / 'THE HANDMAID'S TALE'

'THE HANDMAID'S TALE' by ATWOOD is a cautionary tale of dystopia, objectification and out and out feminism.  The tale deals with a vision of America (renamed Gilead) ravaged by nuclear fallout, falling birth rates and a religious state of dictatorship.  A story with a strong moral message, Margaret Atwood brilliantly and tantalisingly weaves a nightmarish vision of a world wherein women and sexual reproduction have become a commodity and objects of political manipulation. The strongest aspect of the novel is the way in which personal realisation and self value are picked apart and brutally pieced back together again. A truly great read.