No, I agree with you that people don’t read it, or at least don’t seem to take it into account with regard to the rest of the book. I think a lot of people have only seen the tv series, or have read parts of the book but never finished it.
My background is very different because in addition to reading the book years ago I also used to teach it to college students. (This was several years before the recent Hulu series.) I taught a discussion section for a course on dystopian societies in literature. We read several books, including The Handmaid’s Tale.
So I sat through lectures on dystopian literature for over a year and re-read the book several times, in addition to teaching the discussion section…I also had to comment on the lecture, in addition to coordinating the discussion. It wasn’t even my specialty in grad school, but I went through it so many times that compared to some of the people reading it now, I could probably write a book about The Handmaid’s Tale.
It’s kind of like The Handmaid’s Tale was my full-time job. : )
