The New Canon is a regular feature, contributed by Ted Gioia, focusing on great works of fiction published since 1985. These books represent the finest literature of the current era, and are gaining recognition as the new classics of our time. In this installment of The New Canon, Gioia looks at The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood.

Every so often, a sci-fi scenario finds its way into the serious fiction shelves. The Handmaid’s Tale is one of those works. So even if the name of the author is Atwood, don’t expect to find it next to Asmiov on the bookstore racks. You will have better luck looking adjacent to Jane Austen.

Why are most of the high lit sci-fi novels based on dystopian future societies? If you look at 1984 by George Orwell or The Road by Cormac McCarthy or Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, they all build their emotional force by painting the future in dark, foreboding tones. The Handmaid’s Tale is much the same, and it is not out of place when considered alongside these classics of the genre. And not just for the gloomy totalitarian nature of the world it depicts. Atwood is a forceful, nuanced writer, and mostly avoids the clichés and banalities associated with fiction of this sort.

Her novel presents a Taliban-type society in which a centralized theocracy controls all aspects of day-to-day life, and is especially oppressive in the restrictions it imposes on women. Imagine the type of political and social structure most anathema to subscribers to Cosmopolitan or viewers of the E! cable network and you will have some idea of what Atwood is conceiving. In other words, this is a world in which old issues of Vogue magazine are contraband, makeup is strictly prohibited, high fashion non-existent and sex limited to the needs of procreation. . . . Well, maybe not completely. There are still some kinks in the process, and the world’s oldest profession has adapted to the new world order.