What Atwood has managed to do with this novel is to somehow overcome time and space in such a way that no matter when or where this book is read - whether this century or the next, this country or the one across the sea - it continues to be relevant. It is, in the end, a story about the roles of men and women and how they relate to each other, and the story of women's roles, and how women relate to each other. And until something truly revolutionary takes place on this globe (I'm talking to you, Aquarian Age!), this novel will continue to be disturbingly relevant.