When the Waterless Waters Rise

I started reading a new book the other night: Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale.  In college I read another one by her, The Year of the Flood, and quite enjoyed it.  This one though is her most well-known and acclaimed.  Like The Flood, it is set in a futuristic dystopia, focusing on a woman's experience through the harsh, but at that point regular, reality and everyday life.  Survival is a big theme.

Seventy pages in, I still like The Flood better.  Both are set in totalitarian worlds that don't seem that farfetched, but the way they got there is different in both.  Handmaid hasn't really explained why the world is the way it is yet, but Flood was much more focused on the environmental destruction and sicknesses of humankind.  I remember there being much more detail and imagery in that book, although Handmaid seems a little more closer to our current reality, like it could actually happen in the future.  

Both are well-written and it's nice to be reading again.  Ever since reading books for high school and analyzing them into the ground, I've lost interest in reading books for pleasure.  I've read a few here and there (the Harry Potters, Lord of the Rings, Chocolat, and a couple others), but it's never been an enjoyable hobby like it was when I was growing up.  Maybe this will start a new trend for me.

(photo by e.hunt)