THE TESTAMENTS, by Margaret Atwood

Dystopian -- 3 1/2 stars



Set 15 years after Ms. Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, this is a story told in three voices--Aunt Lydia's, a novice Aunt's, and a teenager's who was smuggled out of Gilead as an infant.  The book begins with the destruction of the United States of America as we know it, and the establishment of a fundamentalist religious nation.  But now, Gilead is rotting from within, and a secret plot to destroy it is in play. -----  This novel moves out of the direct realm of the Handmaids, who become only minor background, and delves more into the everyday home life of the citizens of Gilead.  The characters fail to "sing" as in the previous novel also.  This is more like fluff, albeit well written fluff, though the three view points are interesting, if not as arresting as anything in The Handmaid's Tale.  It is perhaps most frightening in light of today's evangelical hold on our present political scene. The epilogue gives an historian's view of the fall of Gilead and the testaments left behind by the main characters in the book; and serves as a reminder that history--or at least our interpretation of it--is transient.