and scenes from the book began appearing to her for 3 years, according to Contemporary Authors
Online (Nov. 9/2017). Atwood observing
anti-female measures in the present, questioned was Gilead that far from reality? A Canadian law requires
a husband’s permission before a woman qualifies
for an abortion. Atwood sites laws in Romania,
a totalitarian state that denies abortions, denies
birth control, and requires compulsory pregnancy
testing once a month. Donald Trump ran on a platform to defund Planned Parenthood, impacting
women’s health care. What happens when woman
are denied control over their bodies and their
minds?
The Handmaid’s Tale was written in 1986, 30 years ago. In 2017 the book was turned into a 10 part
mini-series on Hulu, earning 8 Emmy awards.
The mini-series has impacted the sale of the
book, as well as the election of Trump into the
White House (The Handmaid’s Tale was #1, Orwell’s
1984 was 2nd -- of books sold on Amazon
last January). It has never been out of print and
has sold more than 500,000 paperback copies
this last year. A new hardcover edition was released in 2017 & has sold more than 35,000 copies; the
e-book sold more than 736,000 copies.
In an NPR interview (Feb. 7, 2017) Atwood recalls
the 3 reactions she has received from writing
the book: “The English said, jolly good yarn. They
obviously weren’t too worried about it.
The Canadians, in their nervous way, said, could
it happen here? And the Americans said, how
long have we got?”