Everything she reads....this month: THE TESTAMENTS

While I was at university writing my thesis on female characters in dystopian literature written by female authors, I discovered this wonderful Canadian author Margaret Atwood. She wrote more than fifty books that were translated into many different languages., among which Alias Grace, The Blind Assassin, and The Handmaid's Tale. She also won several awards for her writing, including the Booker Prize, Arthur C. Clarke Award. A number of her works have been adapted for film and television, increasing her exposure, among which The Handmaid's Tale.

This book, first published in 1985, became a symbol of resistance against the disempowerment of women, and with the 2017 release of the award-winning Channel 4 TV series put this novel back on the shelves. I have my worn-out copy on my bookshelf. I strongly advise you to read first this novel before jumping on the sequel. It is a fantastic reading but the end of the story leaves so many questions open that a sequel was needed. So, 34 years after the publishing of The Handmaid's Tale, do we get the same vibes from this sequel?

The sequel, The Testaments, was published in 2019 and was a global number one bestseller and won the Booker Prize. The novel is set 15 years after the events of The Handmaid's Tale. It is narrated by Aunt Lydia, a character from the previous novel; Agnes, a young woman from the upper-class living in Gilead; and Daisy, a young woman living in Canada as Gilead missionaries continuously drop by and protest against them rage on. With this sequel, we go deeper into the dystopian world imagined by Atwood and the perspectives alternate throughout the book between the 3 main characters, Aunt Lydia, Agnes/Nicole and Daisy. 

   

Aunt Lydia is a powerful figure in Gilead and one of the three founders of Gilead. She wrote the laws pertaining to women, essentially stripping them of human and reproductive rights. However, we very quickly learn that she is no longer convinced that Gilead represents a better, Christian society. She is secretly writing an anti-Gilead manuscript and has in her possession incriminating anti-Gilead documents. 

Agnes begins the story as a young upper-class girl from Gilead. As a child, she learns that her mother was a disgraced Handmaid. When Agnes is 13, she begs to be allowed to become an Aunt in order to avoid a forced wedding. In the present day, she has been an Aunt for 9 years now.                                      Daisy is a young woman living in Canada and after the murder of her parents, she learns that they were not her real parents, but operatives for Mayday, an anti-Gilead organization. She later learns that she is a famous icon known as Baby Nicole, a Gilead baby who was smuggled out by her mother, a Handmaid. Gilead has been demanding her return ever since. Mayday recruits Nicole/Daisy to pick up documents to help bring down Gilead from a source they have on the inside. That source is Aunt Lydia.

Nicole/Daisy is able to get inside Gilead by pretending to be recruited by Gilead missionaries. Once inside, Aunt Lydia reveals to Nicole that Agnes is her half-sister. Lydia asks Nicole, Agnes and Agnes's friend Becka for their help in bringing down Gilead. They agree to help to sneak out the incriminating documents. 

Agnes and Nicole then set out on a dangerous journey back into Canada, and Becka sacrifices herself to help them avoid detection. Despite the difficulties, they succeed in reaching Canadian territories. Mayday confirms they got the documents, and the girls are reunited with their mother. Once the news about the documents hits, Lydia kills herself since she knows she's dead either way.

In the epilogue, Professor Piexoto presents findings of Gilead many decades after its fall. They have recently found Lydia's manuscript as well as Agnes and Nicole's records. They speculate that Offred may be Agnes and Nicole's mother. The book closes by displaying a memorial statue for Becka that was erected by Agnes, Nicole, their parents, children and grandchildren.

I enjoyed reading the book even if some parts are rather hard to read. We talk about forced intercourses, rapes and paedophilia but the various characters are strong characters and the narrative with the 3 perspectives is interesting. It is a novel about women fighting, a pure dystopian world.