I found the idea of this book very interesting. However, once I started reading it I found it difficult to suspend disbelief. In thinking about this I believe the reason was because I couldn't relate to Offred's lack of action. She seemed to follow along with whatever authority figure was in front of her at the time... the aunts, the Commander, the Commander's wife. Even her rebellions were at the direction of those in authority. When she read it was because the Commander wanted her to read, when she went to the driver's room to try to conceive it was at the direction of the Commander's wife, etc. At no point did she act of her own accord when offered opportunities. She did not become more active with the first Ofglen. She did not participate in any of Moire's rebellions. She seemed to fall into being rescued simply by having been forced into the situation she was in with her rescuer. I found it difficult to relate to her compliance with her situation.
I did find the following passage very interesting. It is Offred describing her life before when she was still with her husband. She is describing the first night when everything changed:
That night, after I'd lost my job, Luke wanted to make love. Why didn't I want to? Desperation alone should have driven me. But I still felt numbed. I could hardly even feel his hands on me.
What's the matter? he said.
I don't know, I said.
We still have... he said. But he didn't go on to say what we still had. It occurred to me that he shouldn't be saying we, since nothing that I knew of had been taken away from him.
We still have each other, I said. It was true. Then why did I sound, even to myself, so indifferent?
He kissed me then, as if now I'd said that, things could get back to normal. But something had shifted, some balance. I felt shrunken, so that when he put his arms around me, gathering me up, I was small as a doll. I felt love going forward without me.
He doesn't mind this, I thought. He doesn't mind it at all. Maybe he even likes it. We are not each other's, anymore. Instead I am his.
Unworthy, unjust, untrue. But that is what happened.
It was powerful to me because it illuminated how fast the switch was for her from feeling like a partner to an object.
Jackie