The Handmaid's Tale

[MargeH]

Book or DVD (Elizabeth Moss version)? Which would you recommend?

Book first. Give yourself a chance to digest the themes and what's happening.

Make your own pictures, bring your own imagination and perspective into it. Really get to know the characters.

Then the TV show, which for once, didn't make me want to scream at the screen that it was all wrong after reading the book!

I was born in 1984 (the year the book was written) it saddens me so much that instead of moving away from Gilead we seem to be moving towards it!

As Atwood puts it herself

"women are interesting and important in real life. They are not an afterthought of nature, they are not secondary players in human destiny"

Both for sure.

I read the book a very long time ago, and loved it. Then watched the series as it was being shown, and have just finished rereading the book. Different, but both valuable, both brilliant.

I ordered the book as soon as I saw the adverts for the programme as I wanted to read it first, make up the scene in my own head and then watch the programme and compare.
Usually the book is better but in this case it would be difficult to choose one over the other as both are excellent and horrifying.

I read the book first - couldn't get on with the TV show at all and quit after episode 1.

It’s funny because in my THT2 there are no women left in Gilead. It looks like there are, but there aren’t. Total erasure (thanks for the inspo, Shon ). That would be an interesting sequel, but possibly not what Jessie Earl would be hoping for.