Margaret Atwood

Everyone in my family seems to enjoy Margaret Atwood books, so when I came across The Handmaids Tale in my LA classroom I was encouraged to read it.

You've probably heard of if not read the book. It's about a woman named Ofwarren, in future world ruled by Chrsitian fundamentalists. There she is placed in the class of the handmaids, a group of women whose only purpose is to breed for the upper class.

My father, who'd read it before, asked me when I was finished if I found it depressing, as he did. My overall emotion wasn't depression, rather thankfulness we don't live in a world where women are treated in such a way. Or where being a feminist meant you had to clean up toxic waste for the rest of your life. Where resisting the leaders ideals meant you were accused of being a rapist and subjected to torture and beating.


Just after I finished that book my sister (who's a writer/book reveiwer) got tickets to a lecture Margaret Atwood's having here on Thursday. Somewhere between 2000 and 3000 people are going and we managed to get what looks like some of the last copies of Oryx And Crake, the book she's speaking about. I'm a pretty fast reader, but this might be a bit of a stretch! Oh well, I know people who are going without even having read the book! It should be fun, though.