No, 'The Handmaid’s Tale' Is Not 'Unexpectedly Timely'

We are all necessarily prisoners of our own place and time, and thus, I was in my youth necessarily a fan of "The Handmaid’s Tale." I read it; I discussed it very earnestly with like-minded friends; I copied author Margaret Atwood’s muted style and dystopian preoccupations in my own, less competent fiction.

But that youth has fled, alas; it has been two decades since I last waxed indignant about the drinking age, or picked up my copy of the book. Even that copy -- paperback, dogeared and waterstained and threatening to come apart at the spine -- has been left behind somewhere, presumably the same place I lost my velvet chokers and my Suzanne Vega CDs.