The Heart Goes Last
We had a very lengthy and interesting conversation about this book in my mini book club. The writing seems quite light and almost silly, especially when considering a few of Atwood’s more concentrated books, like The Robber Bride and The Edible Woman. However, on reflection, we all agreed that she packed a ton of thought-provoking insight into few words, and hid it in plain sight in simple language and sentence structure.
Her lead characters, Charmaine and Stan, are difficult to like at first, putting possessions and status above honesty and true happiness. In following this path they find themselves installed in an artificial game-show-style community where dissenters may or may not be being killed off and fed to livestock (many things are left as innuendo for readers to draw their own conclusions). Eventually Charmaine and Stan are both forced to re-evaluated their choices and make tough decisions about their new lifestyle which will ultimately fee them from their (literal) prison.
The ending is probably the most controversial part of the book. Does Atwood, a staunch feminist, write an ending in which Charmaine agrees to be programmed into the perfect, adoring wife? Or does she free her from being trapped by societal expectations into merely playing a role?
Rating: Buy it, and add it to your Atwood collection. Love it or hate it, you will want to revisit this book again in the future.