I picked this book up because I found it at a thrift store, so it was pretty low-priced. I've always loved reading books that take place in Ireland, so the title appealed to me.
I'm so thankful I grabbed it!
First, this was an easy read, perfect for a vacation book. I finished it in a few days, and it was easy to pick up and put down as time came. There weren't any moments where I felt like I just couldn't put the book down, which was nice at the time, as I had just finished reading a thriller and was ready for something more light and easy.
I absolutely loved the setting. The world created by Taylor is so amusing and beautiful and appealing. I want to pack my bags and head to Ballybucklebo, and I'm very sad that it's fictional. Taylor made the world come to life through his multitude of characters. Bringing in an outsider is a great way to subtly describe the setting without overwhelming the reader, and Barry provided me with enough details to still leave some up to my imagination. Other details of the world of Ballybucklebo were provided through the dialogue, attitudes, and relationships of the other characters in the town. Having lively, human characters come to life on the pages brought the world they lived in to live even more.
I loved meeting all the characters and learning all of their quirks and how that impacts the surgery. Taylor created some fantastic characters with some of the most outrageous issues, and it was fun to read about them, and watch them develop (or not develop at all, which is also great because they're so entertaining and lovable as they are). He made each character human, with flaws that were funny but very serious at the same time, causing me to laugh while reflecting on myself and how that flaw can be seen in myself.
I quite enjoyed the relationship between O'Reilly and Barry, and it was fun to watch that grow after the rather unconventional first meeting. It was fun to see whose "team" I was on throughout, and I often found myself rooting for O'Reilly and his crazy ways rather than Barry and his by-the-book school of thought. It made me happy when Barry jumped on board with O'Reilly, and by the end, I felt like he would definitely be a great fit in Ballybucklebo.
I'm excited to read the next books in this 11-book series, because I can't wait to get more about these people: I want to grow with them.
This was a great book to read on vacation, sitting on the front porch, drinking a cup of coffee, and watching the sun rise. The sun warmed my skin, but this book warmed my heart. That's really what this book was: a heart-warming, laugh out loud, fall in love with the setting and characters kind of book, and I highly recommend it.
Wednesday, July 25, 2018
H is for The Handmaid's Tale: Margaret Atwood
I read 1984 by George Orwell in high school, and I remember that it was an easy read for me (as in I got through it really quickly) and I remember liking it, but I couldn't remember many details about it. When I picked up The Handmaid's Tale and saw on the back cover that someone was liking it to 1984, I admit, I was a bit hesitant. I thought that what was done in 1984 couldn't be reproduced. I should have realized, though, that the comparison didn't mean equality of themes, plots, and ideas. The two works are very different in the best ways.
The Handmaid's Tale does warn about the potential future of our lives, but it takes a different spin from 1984. In this world, women are given the sole purpose of reproducing, and if you fail to do that, you're banished.
I wish I could have read it when it was first published, because I think I might have taken the premise a bit more seriously. Things have greatly changed now, and so I can't even imagine the world turning into this. It's such a stretch, it seems, that we would revert back to the things the world has been fighting for for so long: granted, much of that I don't agree with: right to choose and abortion. However, these women aren't allowed to read. They aren't allowed to drink coffee or do anything that might hinder their chances of reproduction. Most of them don't get to be married and have to live bouncing between houses hoping to provide a baby for the couple they're serving at the time. These are things that sound so barbaric to me in this day and age, and it doesn't seem like anything we could expect.
This brings up another point: I'm torn up about the lack of backstory in this novel. Part of me really appreciates the fact that Atwood can weave a tale and create a world so fully without providing any background on how the world came to be. She mentioned a few small points like which country invaded America to enforce this lifestyle on them, but she gives no reason as to the how and whys. And the other part of me hates that she gives no how and whys. Had I known the history, I might have been more convinced of these changes. It's so difficult for me to believe all of the changes that the world had to go through in order to become what it is, when I see where we are now and can't see how the changes came about.
It obviously didn't take too long as Offred could remember her childhood being nothing like this, and she was married and had a baby before everything fell apart, and she was only in her 30s. The process from normality to this new life under the Eye must have only taken five years? Maybe less? That seems a bit unreasonable to me, but again, because I don't have the full story or the history, I don't really know.
The book itself was really easy to read. Because of the content, though, it took me a bit longer to get through it than to just read it. It was full of very heavy concepts, themes, and ideas. I was continually shocked by the neutral way all of the people in the story talked about the rapes and slavery and murder that was going on around them, especially as this generation knew life before the Eye took over. At one point in the story, one of the teachers mentioned how it would be easy with the next generation because all they'll know is this life and they won't know what it was before, in the past. Which is true in theory, but for Offred, she simply accepted what she had. It was just what she had to endure. She even had a husband and a child to fight for. I'm sure it wasn't easy to fight, but even when she had the chance to join the rebellion, she didn't.
I was very stricken with the themes Atwood wrote on, and the story caused me to think quite a bit about the life we have now and everything we've fought for. It's great that this story causes readers to stop and think about the freedoms and choices we have today and imagine the possibilities should those freedoms be taken away. I wasn't scared by reading this book, though, as some critics said would be the case. As mentioned earlier, this was too far-fetched seeing where we are today.
The Handmaid's Tale does warn about the potential future of our lives, but it takes a different spin from 1984. In this world, women are given the sole purpose of reproducing, and if you fail to do that, you're banished.
I wish I could have read it when it was first published, because I think I might have taken the premise a bit more seriously. Things have greatly changed now, and so I can't even imagine the world turning into this. It's such a stretch, it seems, that we would revert back to the things the world has been fighting for for so long: granted, much of that I don't agree with: right to choose and abortion. However, these women aren't allowed to read. They aren't allowed to drink coffee or do anything that might hinder their chances of reproduction. Most of them don't get to be married and have to live bouncing between houses hoping to provide a baby for the couple they're serving at the time. These are things that sound so barbaric to me in this day and age, and it doesn't seem like anything we could expect.
This brings up another point: I'm torn up about the lack of backstory in this novel. Part of me really appreciates the fact that Atwood can weave a tale and create a world so fully without providing any background on how the world came to be. She mentioned a few small points like which country invaded America to enforce this lifestyle on them, but she gives no reason as to the how and whys. And the other part of me hates that she gives no how and whys. Had I known the history, I might have been more convinced of these changes. It's so difficult for me to believe all of the changes that the world had to go through in order to become what it is, when I see where we are now and can't see how the changes came about.
It obviously didn't take too long as Offred could remember her childhood being nothing like this, and she was married and had a baby before everything fell apart, and she was only in her 30s. The process from normality to this new life under the Eye must have only taken five years? Maybe less? That seems a bit unreasonable to me, but again, because I don't have the full story or the history, I don't really know.
The book itself was really easy to read. Because of the content, though, it took me a bit longer to get through it than to just read it. It was full of very heavy concepts, themes, and ideas. I was continually shocked by the neutral way all of the people in the story talked about the rapes and slavery and murder that was going on around them, especially as this generation knew life before the Eye took over. At one point in the story, one of the teachers mentioned how it would be easy with the next generation because all they'll know is this life and they won't know what it was before, in the past. Which is true in theory, but for Offred, she simply accepted what she had. It was just what she had to endure. She even had a husband and a child to fight for. I'm sure it wasn't easy to fight, but even when she had the chance to join the rebellion, she didn't.
I was very stricken with the themes Atwood wrote on, and the story caused me to think quite a bit about the life we have now and everything we've fought for. It's great that this story causes readers to stop and think about the freedoms and choices we have today and imagine the possibilities should those freedoms be taken away. I wasn't scared by reading this book, though, as some critics said would be the case. As mentioned earlier, this was too far-fetched seeing where we are today.
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