It’s a terrible thing to admit that so far, the best thing about this book is that I got a signed copy of it after attending a book release event with Margaret Atwood (via Zoom, covid, blah).  The whole time she was speaking, I was trying (and failing) to read the titles on the bookcase behind her.  (What does SHE read?)  She was a sweet lady, old, gentle, completely comfortable with herself and confident in her talent.  Someone to aspire to…

Anyways, the book is good so far.  One of the characters was a shock, and I’m still not sure I want to hear this story told by this particular “protagonist”—seems a bit of a sympathy for the devil twist, and I’m not quite convinced.  There’s certainly an element of banal terror as it’s revealed how easily ordinary people were converted to monsters with minimal effort.  I’m also intrigued at the idea of an origin story for Handmaid’s Tale, and the prose is lovely, as always, we’ll see…