Margaret Atwood: Testaments

INITIAL COMMENT

As you would expect extremely excited by this. First intriguing point; the colours used on the front cover...

UPDATE

Over halfway through. Very good indeed. In a way better than the original. Superbly powerful and views of characters one thought one knew made to change fascinatingly. ..and as this novel progresses too. SO not just a 'lets just do a sequel as the original was such a success'. Hello...infinite other books and TV series!

FINISHED

Well now finished and it turned out to be a fine as it initially promised - and the clarity of it NOT being an obvious sequel was more than confirmed as being one of its greatest strengths.The use of three different narrative strands - which do all come together, often in a a very tense and dramatically surprising way, was excellent and involving. We gradually learn more and more of one character through one of those who reveals that there is very much more to them than we first thought - very radically so but convincing too - this easily could not have been with a less masterly writer.

The society that was revealed was one that was both familiar from the earlier book but somehow more intimate -and I think that this intimacy is another one of the books great strengths as the social background and environment is somewhat taken for granted and so we focus on the individual stories. yes that was the case to a considerable degree in HT but here it is more central and more powerful.

I think too that, once its advent was known, many thought that there would be strongly contemporary parallels in the story - which would not have been a strength - a weakness rather - but this was not so. One could make connections if one wished but this was not the 'point' of the work - it was more important than that: it showed the effect on individuals of this sort of society that had been allowed to be created. Atwood is far to smart and subtle a writer (and thinker) to do anything that crass and obvious.

The voice of one of the narrators in the Ardua Hall Holograph was very strong and distinct but I did feel that the voices for the other two narratives - Testaments 369A and 369B were somewhat less so - but then the characters were less rich, evolved, experienced and mature than Ardua Hall. (I am trying very hard not to give anything away in these comments!)

As I have suggested earlier, there is more physical action in this book than in HT where the action was much more internalised. This is not to say that this is just an action-packed thriller (although it does, very excitingly, have those elements towards the end). There is much internal action and self-analysis, again in the Ardua Hall narrative - not least because of the conflict between the role and status of the narrator in Gileadean society and her personal thoughts and beliefs.

the ending does provide closure, but before the final section, it is not totally 100% complete and it is only in the final section (another spoof of an academic conference many years in advance about Gilead) that we do get pretty form final conclusions - although, as this is done in the context of an academic conference, the academics comments are always hedged with alternative possibilities -and we have to make up our minds based on the full evidence which we have - a nicely active way of involving the reader and a smart and thoughtful end to the two works.