I read this when it came out, so it's been 30 years.
IIRC, it was inspired by the Iranian Revolution and subsequent subjection of women in the Islamic republic that followed the deposal of the Shah. Couldn't happen here, though. Right?
Ahem. It will be impossible to discuss this without reference to our current political situation. It seems scarily and eerily plausible.
It didn't quite live up to my memory of it. In part, that's because I couldn't experience again the growing horror of the gradual reveal of the handmaids' lives and function. And there's that pesky problem for a futuristic book where the technology didn't keep pace with actuality. Keeping tabs on the handmaids would have been much easier than pairing them with another as nark, among other issues. The date points such as magazines from the 70s, unfortunately, put this rather in the past than the future.
It's still a great read. I did have some issues and there were a couple of things I hated, but I'll get to those.