#49

Sometimes I'm reluctant to read universally praised novels. I'm not sure why--perhaps I fear disappointment, or being exposed as conventional in taste and opinion. Either way it's a disgustingly elitist attitude, and in the case of The Handmaid's Tale I delayed an enormous pleasure far too long for no good reason.

This book fucking rocks, and is easily a match for similar works by Huxley, Orwell, Bradbury. I couldn't put the damn thing down, and was consumed by a deliciously rare combination of dread and fascination; dread at the all-too-possible potentialities, and fascination at Atwood's skillful weaving of a terrifying future that's unfortunately not unimaginable. Magnificent!