Review: Disappointing
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 03 22, 2012
Having recently read The Handmaid's Tale, I was very intrigued when I saw this on the Kindle Singles list.  Though I've owned a Kindle for some time, I'd yet to try a Single, so what better than one by the author of the phenomenal Handmaid's Tale?  Unfortunately, this story doesn't live up to its predecessor.  Spoilers to follow.I really loved the initial concept of this book.  The way Atwood frames it, it seems like the perfect dystopian setting.  Take some people, deceive them into believing that a prison exchange scenario is brilliant and voila!  As with The Handmaid's Tale, Atwood does a good job of taking something that seems a little far fetched but manipulating it in such a way that it eventually sounds pretty reasonable.  I really bought this aspect of the work because I could imagine that, with the proper branding, people who are struggling might just buy into such a concept.However, I think the work lost focus from here.  It seems to be two things at once: a dystopian view of the solving of social inequalities that is also a work about obsession.  The more Stan fixated on Jasmine, the more this work lost me.  I could see where Stan's longing for Jasmine was symbolic of his longing to break out of his seemingly perfect world, his longing for a spice that was lacking from his bland existence.  But the balance seemed off to me, to the extent that the work ending up feeling more like a work of sexual obsession than one making a statement about society at large.