“I wish this story were different. I wish it were more civilized. I wish it showed me in a better light, if not happier, than at least more active, less hesitant, less distracted by trivia. I wish it had more shape. I wish t were about love, or about sudden realizations important to one’s life, or even about sunsets, birds, rainstorms, or snow. I’m sorry there is so much pain in this story. I’m sorry it’s in fragments, like a body caught in crossfire or pulled apart by force. But there is nothing I can do to change it.”
― The Handmaid’s Tale
― The Handmaid’s Tale
“I want to be held and told my name. I want to be valued, in ways that I am not; I want to be more than valuable. I repeat my former name; remind myself of what I once could do, how others saw me. I want to steal something.”
― The Handmaid’s Tale
― The Handmaid’s Tale
“As they say, history does not repeat itself, but it rhymes.”
― The Testaments
― The Testaments
“I avoid looking down at my body, not so much because it’s shameful or immodest but because I don’t want to see it. I don’t want to look at something that determines me so completely.”
― The Handmaid’s Tale
― The Handmaid’s Tale
“Can I be blamed for wanting a real body, to put my arms around? Without it I too am disembodied. I can listen to my own heartbeat against the bedsprings...but there’s something dead about it, something deserted.”
― The Handmaid’s Tale
― The Handmaid’s Tale
Chantal’s 2024 Year in Books
Take a look at Chantal’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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