Now that I've read this second part of Ms. Atwood's story, I can't help comparing it with the Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire. The Handmaid's Tale focuses on the rise of a totalitarian regime, while The Testaments is all about its fall.

And while I truly objected to the unrealistic means, the downright nonsense by which such a regime rose, I really appreciated the way it fell.

Much of my appreciation is due to Ms. Atwood's capable use of different point of views from that of The Handmaid's Tale. They gave the author a more objective perspective, and this in turn benefitted the reader's experience by making it less obsessive and less improbable than The Handmaid's Tale. Or maybe the 35 years' distance between the two novels gave Ms. Atwood a depth and an insight she lacked before.

Either way, I definitely liked this book!

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After the disappointment of The Handmaid's Tale, I started this book by the same author with some trepidation hoping ìt wouldn't turn out as badly as the other one did.

Fortunately, it did not!

In fact, I'm glad to say I found it engrossing and enjoyable. I loved the descriptions of Toronto, a city I don't know but that has come alive after Mrs. Atwood's poignant descriptions.

But what really fascinated me was the tale of two sisters, apparently so different yet united by the common bond of family and blood. Their tale swept me away, and I couldn't stop reading until the very last page.

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I know that many readers consider it as a warning to women' in the face of rising chauvinism and puritanism in our society, but something doesn't feel right.

For one thing, there's no real explanation of how and why things deteriorated so fast so definitely. There's no explanation about the life and conditions of the lowest ranks of that society. Do the women who are at the bottom of the social ladder continue to have babies? Or does society as a whole rely only on the handmaids? And furthermore, how can the author even think that healthy young males would meekly accept the no-sex ban for a considerable length of time? Even in the Muslim society, which closely resembles the fantasy world Mrs. Atwood created, men manage to have outlets to their sexual drive even if rules and prohibitions are strict.

Seems to me like the author doesn't know men at all. As for the women portrayed here, they're meek, petty, jealous, envious and in constant competition with each other. This isn't who I or my women friends are, which leads me to believe that this author's misunderstanding includes women as well as men. …

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