The Handmaid's Tale is the third of Atwood's novels that I've picked up within the past year and a half, and I can see why this novel probably picks up the most recognition amongst her other works. While I can't comment on the Blind Assassin -- a novel still sitting on my shelf, waiting to be read -- both Alias Grace and The Edible Woman were novels that I thoroughly enjoyed. While The Edible Woman gives us a quirky black comedy, Alias Grace gives us a thought-provoking historical narrative. Conversely, The Handmaid's Tale deals with the fragmented memories of Offred -- a "farmed" woman (a Handmaid) only valued for her viable ovaries in a haunting patriarchal totalitarian state.

While I won't give away too much of what the novel is about, it is told in a way that makes you want to read as voraciously as possible to find out what actually ends up happening. I've heard people say Atwood at times is predictable, but nothing in this novel is easy to guess. It may deal with the same well-trodden themes found in Atwood novels, but really I didn't expect anything completely new when reading the jacket.

The Handmaid's Tale may not be a totally "new" idea; in our present day the landscape of fiction is almost overwhelmed with the dystopian, Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale easily ranks in the upper echelon of what is available.