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The Blind Assassin

by Margaret Atwood (Goodreads Author)

3.9 of 5 stars 3.90 · rating details · 60,487 ratings · 3,378 reviews

The Blind Assassin opens with these simple, resonant words: "Ten days after the war ended, my sister Laura drove a car off a bridge."

They are spoken by Iris, whose terse account of her sister's death in 1945 is followed by an inquest report proclaiming the death accidental. But just as the reader expects to settle into Laura's story, Atwood introduces a novel-within-a-nov...more

Paperback, 521 pages

Published August 28th 2001 by Anchor (first published 2000)

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Jul 20, 2011 Paquita Maria Sanchez rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: literature, favorites

This is the first book I have dog-eared since I was a child. I generally find such behavior to be shameful in a major way, as I a) cherish the hard text of a book, and see the decline of its role as a sacred object, the slipping away of its tactile comforts of touch, of smell, of PRESENCE, and our new-found, technologically-driven disregard of its certainty and necessity in the face of the newest electronic thingamajigs and whatchamahoos as a shame and b) am cheap, and constantly rotate my books...more This is the first book I have dog-eared since I was a child. I generally find such behavior to be shameful in a major way, as I a) cherish the hard text of a book, and see the decline of its role as a sacred object, the slipping away of its tactile comforts of touch, of smell, of PRESENCE, and our new-found, technologically-driven disregard of its certainty and necessity in the face of the newest electronic thingamajigs and whatchamahoos as a shame and b) am cheap, and constantly rotate my books out to where (with a few exceptions for favorites) I never own a collection of books that I have actually read. I almost immediately trade them for new ones, you see. We have our little dance, and I am gentle and kind as I am able, being certain that I have left as few dings in it as possible so that it may be salvageable for the next reader. I keep nothing but the fondest, sweetest memories of the books that I let go of. Of course, there is an element of loss involved, a sense of regret as I hand it over to whatever book re-salesman will have it. Setting something free from your clutches is never easy for thinking, feeling creatures, no matter the size of the “thing,” and regardless of its importance to you and your sense of being.

This rant has reminded me of one of my favorite lines from the Woody Allen film Sweet and Lowdown, where one of the characters is describing her thoughts on the lead’s love of the locomotive: its power, its virility, its certainty…he responds most simply with "You sound like you want to go to bed with the train." Maybe I am personifying this book, but it did take on a very real presence as I read it, and for the first time in many years, I beat the thing to shit. I cried on it, I threw it around, I spilled coffee and wine and beer all over it, I accidentally tore a section of the dustjacket and used it as a bookmark in the midst of immense frustration, I reread passages while resisting the urge to spit on them; it was hard. In fact, it has been some time since a book that I started in one stage of life so effectively coincided with the tides of mine, until finally merging with me at the finish line. I thank it. I hate it. It made me feel sane and insane.

I stood outside my house, my former house, waiting to have an emotion of any kind at all. None came. Having experienced both, I am not sure which is worse: intense feeling, or the absence of it.

This tale is one of hushed voices, of regret, of horrible timing for the meeting of otherwise serendipitous souls, and of false-starts and poorly situated culminations which swell up into a frenzy of pain. Pain, right? Well, pain is not without its lessons, and is not necessarily restricted to the bounds of being painful alone. It is never without a shimmering truth which can mean more than love or loss, than pride and readjusting. From this book, I came to a solemn yet serene conclusion: the pain I have dealt with in life, the misguided steps, the selfishness and selflessness combined, are not symbolic of a pattern. They are, rather, the infinite self (you, everyone you have met, everyone who has mattered a lot or very little to you, and you to them) breathing in and out, in and out, at various speeds, in varying depths, and when those depths are actually deep, you should look back and breathe a contented sigh. These are your experiences, and live though you may within the realm of what-ifs, there are still glorious fits of sincere awakening to be gleaned from these moments. The important thing is to hold on to them. To keep them in your heart (your brain, of course), and never cast them off as fickle. Love is a vortex, or so says this book in its sideways, coiling fashion. Circumstance is the same. Take what you can from it, and let it be useful and important to you as a human. True connection is rare, and convenient circumstances for such are even rarer. All you can pull away is warm, gratifying associations of memory, of sensation. In this novel, they took on the form of a sci-fi novel within a novel within a novel within a novel…a deceit within a deceit within a deceit…a culmination of enunciated dreams bursting like the bubbles in a pot of boiling water, searing everything around that dares to reach out. Fantasies met with the cruelties of reality, with friends, family, money, station, sense, and notable nonsense. All the same, they are still there, embedded in your skull to be elevated or demonized at will. I choose to stash mine away and honor them, much like the photograph of the lost love which is held to the chest of the narrator of this sorry, hopeful story. I choose to keep them dear to me, to keep them close. All of them.

Complexity in the face of true communion with another human is a lot of what this book is about. Atwood spells it out well, acrid though it may be. In a way, she tells you to keep trying, to cradle the good parts even if they are intangible and unspoken. And she’s right. Follow your heart, dork, even if it tells you to be really, really stupid sometimes. Life is short and love is a bitch, but isn’t it all pretty fascinating? Aren’t you thankful? I am. I welcome pain and see it as potential awakening. As your folks or grandfolks may have said: "I walked fifty miles barefoot in the snow uphill both ways and blah blah blah"…yeah, it's a pretty decent analogy. Here’s a beautiful quote, as this review is too long, and I want you to have at least some feel of the novel from it:

"Was this a betrayal, or was it an act of courage? Perhaps both. Neither one involves forethought: such things take place in an instant, in an eyeblink. This can only be because they have been rehearsed by us already, over and over, in silence and darkness; in such silence, such darkness, that we are ignorant of them ourselves. Blind but sure-footed, we step forward as if into a remembered dance."

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Aug 20, 2012 Jenn(ifer) rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Jeff Tweedy

Recommended to Jenn(ifer) by: Paquita

Shelves: own, summer-of-women-2012, female-authors, gr-friends-recommend, read-in-2012, you-should-read-this, my-reviews-that-dont-suck

"Let's forget about the tongue-tied lightning.Let's undress just like cross-eyed strangers.This is not a joke, so please stop smiling.What was I thinking when I said it didn't hurt?"

****

I need to stop reading on trains. I could feel the tears welling, the water rising, brimming, and then spilling over before anything bad even happened. But I could feel it coming. And I braced myself for the inevitable.

Heart break. Loss. Old age. Why can’t we start old and get younger?

****

Tennyson wrote, ‘tis be...more

52 likes · like · see review

Feb 04, 2011 Tatiana rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Tatiana by: Megan

Shelves: booker, 1001, 2011, favorites, contemporary, b

As seen on The Readventurer

I have to admit, I often do not get Margaret Atwood's books. But I am pretty sure I got The Blind Assassin. Otherwise how can I explain the feeling of sadness that is overwhelming me right now?

It's so hard to express what exactly this book is about - any synopsis you read doesn't do it justice and explains nothing. Mine probably will be as misleading and pointless as all others. The Blind Assassin is a puzzle of a story, with multiple tales within tales. It starts with...more As seen on The Readventurer

I have to admit, I often do not get Margaret Atwood's books. But I am pretty sure I got The Blind Assassin. Otherwise how can I explain the feeling of sadness that is overwhelming me right now?

It's so hard to express what exactly this book is about - any synopsis you read doesn't do it justice and explains nothing. Mine probably will be as misleading and pointless as all others. The Blind Assassin is a puzzle of a story, with multiple tales within tales. It starts with the main character, Iris, telling us of the day when her sister Laura drove off a bridge, then shifts to Laura's posthumously published novel The Blind Assassin about two unnamed lovers who meet clandestinely and in which the man entertains his lover with pulpy science fiction stories, mostly about a blind assassin and a sacrificial virgin who fall in love against all odds. Then the story shifts again to Iris who, now an old woman, recalls her early years and the events leading to Laura's death. What is it all about I wondered? Why did Laura die? Why novel within a novel? Who are these secret nameless lovers? I didn't understand the significance of Laura's The Blind Assassin for a while - awful sci-fi junk and all, and yet it turned out to be the most symbolic, the most intimate piece of (bad) fiction I have ever read.

Atwood always writes about women and this novel is no exception. Ultimately, The Blind Assassin is a story of two young sisters who were unlucky to be born at a wrong time when women were expected to be wholly satisfied with shiny things and not much else. There is plenty of stories that explore submissive status of women in this world, the constraints they live under, but this one, I am sure, will stick with me for a long time. IDK how she does it, but Atwood writes it so well - these two girls raised not to be independent, who, although they are full of life and vigor, are locked inside the prison of their own home. It doesn't really matter if they dare to escape their golden cages or not. They are powerless, either outwardly or inwardly.

I know I am rambling here. I find it difficult to rave and explain what I loved about The Blind Assassin. It's just I am so full of feelings right now - of understanding and compassion for Iris and Laura's plight, of frustration over their weaknesses and pride over their moments of strength. Not many books can make me feel so much. (less)

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Jul 20, 2011 mark monday rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: into-the-past

atwood's Booker Prize-winning novel is a slow and melancholy downward movement, one in which the melancholy becomes cumulative. despite the sad and tragic tone, there are many paths to pure enjoyment present: through the precise, judgmental, drily amusing recollections of the narrator as she recounts her current life and her past life between the world wars; through the intense, intimate, yet almost metaphorical scenes of two lovers connecting, not connecting, reconnecting; through the wonderful...more atwood's Booker Prize-winning novel is a slow and melancholy downward movement, one in which the melancholy becomes cumulative. despite the sad and tragic tone, there are many paths to pure enjoyment present: through the precise, judgmental, drily amusing recollections of the narrator as she recounts her current life and her past life between the world wars; through the intense, intimate, yet almost metaphorical scenes of two lovers connecting, not connecting, reconnecting; through the wonderful pastiche of golden era science fantasy tales featuring mute sacrificial victims, blind child assassins, erotic peach women, deadly lizard men. but despite those paths to enjoyment, each narrative strand is based in despair, in missed opportunities, in moribund ritual, in the end of things. there is no wish fulfillment available on any level, and the novel's main mystery - although surprising and having a revenge-filled punch at the end - is still such a sad one to contemplate. motivations are revealed, characters you thought you knew become transformed, reversals of fortune happen in the space of a paragraph, and yet what i was left with by the end was a sadness at recognizing the impossibility of true happiness, true love, true fulfillment. well, at least in the world of Blind Assassin!

the novel is bleak. and yet it is beautiful as well, and truly compassionate towards the two women at its heart. the writing itself is, in a word, awesome. i'm not sure there is an English language writer living who can construct so many artful, evocative, poetic passages without sliding into over-writing. time and again i would stop to re-read a phrase or a paragraph just to enjoy the beauty and depth of what was written. nor does Blind Assassin beat the reader down with despair; much of the time i was so absorbed with the careful description of life in port ticonderoga between the wars and with enormously well-developed characters that i was able to not feel as if i was in a boat slowly drifting towards a waterfall. but in the end, that waterfall was there, and the characters and the reader all eventually tumble over. such as sad experience!

ONLY SPOILERS AHEAD:

poor laura chase, the secret and tragic hero of Blind Assassin. a fascinating, frustrating character. by the end, her motivations revealed, it all made so much sense. not a temptress, neither vindictive nor vacant, but simply a person out of place and out of her time. her motivation: to do good, to understand God, to live for herself, to not live in a world of deceit or corruption. i fell in love with her a little bit. but really, she's too deep for me, too strange, too...not for this world.

iris griffen: i was reminded of many things when trying to understand her character: the tunnel-vision of those madly in love, their inability to recognize the thoughts and feelings of others; the frustrating blankness of those who let life carry them along, the placidity that may appear to conceal depth but often is only a symptom of disengagement; and the potential villainy of that passivity, that blankness. this is a woman who thoughtlessly destroys her sister's reason for living, who does nothing when that sister is carted off to an asylum, who rejects the obvious need for love from her daughter, who lets her daughter and granddaughter get carted away from her, whose primary attribute is inaction. until she is, at long last, able to engage in some good old fashioned revenge. Blind Assassin has a pair of truly repulsive villains, but the the reader is not allowed to see inside of them. their motivations remain both shallow and shadowy. but iris griffen is the real deal: a character whose motivations the reader comes to understand, a person whose yearning for love and for redemption and for independence is expressed in no uncertain terms, a woman who is rendered so three-dimensionally that the reader comes to understand almost every part of her, a villain whose passivity allows the destruction of those she should protect.(less)

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Oct 14, 2012 Kelly rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 20th-century-postwar-to-late, fiction, goth-goth-baby, grande-dames

I don’t trust the light in this book. I don’t trust the personnel on the switches. I think that most of them came straight from a based-on-a-book-by-Nicholas-Sparks movie set. One of the most insightful comments I ever heard about that particular saccharine mini industry was about how the majority of these movies seem to perpetually take place at “magic hour”. That is, the hazy twilight hour which is made even more hazy by classic southern settings where the heat shimmers and the light fades in...more

23 likes · like · see review

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Kelly Interesting. So... are you saying that reading cases means that everything else seems easy to decipher? I have heard bad things about the writing of s...more
Nov 18, 2012 03:59pm

Sparrow I giggled a lot of the way through Swann's Way, but I don't know if that's a common experience.

I think there are good legal writers and bad ones. I d...more
updated Nov 18, 2012 04:26pm

Jul 15, 2007 LeAnn rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: literary fiction readers

Blind Assassin started out fairly slowly for me. I'd picked it up at the same time as Time Traveler's Wife and TTW won out for which book hooked me faster. Part of the slowness is due to the narrative devices used to tell the story. Some of the story is told from a first-person viewpoint with the narrator talking about her present situation and slipping back into the past. Some pieces of "fact" are told through newspaper clippings and some of the story is excerpted from a "published" novel by th...more

25 likes · like · see review

Apr 17, 2008 Susan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ocanada

Writing a novel like The Blind Assassin is so challenging that only a monumentally gifted writer like Margaret Atwood can pull it off. Structuring it like those nested Russian dolls, she tucks a science fiction/fantasy tale within a sad, mysterious love story. Both are then enveloped by a grand narrative of the lives of two sisters from a wealthy Ontario family. The Blind Assassin succeeds on all these levels: historical fiction, mystery, love story, and fantasy.

The main story is told in the fi...more Writing a novel like The Blind Assassin is so challenging that only a monumentally gifted writer like Margaret Atwood can pull it off. Structuring it like those nested Russian dolls, she tucks a science fiction/fantasy tale within a sad, mysterious love story. Both are then enveloped by a grand narrative of the lives of two sisters from a wealthy Ontario family. The Blind Assassin succeeds on all these levels: historical fiction, mystery, love story, and fantasy.

The main story is told in the first person, in the voice of elder sister Iris Chase Griffen, whose memoir spans the 20th century. Iris and younger sister Laura are the daughters of a wealthy manufacturer in the small (fictional) city of Port Ticonderoga, Ontario. It’s difficult to view Iris and Laura with anything other than pity. Their father’s wealth and social standing never compensate for the repression, emotional starvation, and isolation that characterized their upbringing. Iris’s feelings toward Laura are, well, complicated. Laura is sensitive and painfully literal. Iris is irked by her offbeat spirituality and, as the reader learns on the first page, even her death provokes as much anger as grief.

Iris’s recounting of the Chase family saga is periodically interrupted by the novel-within-a-novel: namely, The Blind Assassin. This is a story of an illicit romance conducted by two nameless lovers during the lean, desperate years of the Great Depression. To some 21st century sensibilities, “illicit” may seem like an outdated, judgmental word to describe an extramarital affair. But this affair was farther outside this society’s boundaries than most. It was a relationship that posed clear risks for both the man and the woman, whose identities are only gradually revealed to the reader.

The Blind Assassin is imbued with even more sadness than is to be expected from a story that is told by an aged woman reminiscing about long-ago events. Even though one can understand Iris’s peculiar mix of power and powerlessness, I found it difficult to empathize with her, or to like her very much. My feelings about the two sisters changed only a little even after I learned the truth about their lives. They seemed too passive and too detached from their fates. Even Laura’s odd, obtuse rebelliousness was unsatisfying. I know that my attitude is unfair because the time and place of this novel is so far removed from the world in which I live. In the end, I was able to muster some empathy for Iris, but I couldn’t stop being irritated with Laura. And this novel’s sole hero was, in my eyes at least, so strangely faceless and soulless as to be almost a cipher.

So why did I award four stars to The Blind Assassin? I cannot say that I “really liked it” but it is true that I “really admired it.” It is beautifully written, powerful, haunting—and unforgettable.

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Steve It sounds like if you're looking to stretch your brain a little with an intriguing mix of genre fiction, this could be a good choice. I think I unders...more
Apr 16, 2008 12:35pm

Susan Steve, you probably thought that this fell into the genre fiction category because of what I wrote. I should have made it clear that this novel has el...more
Apr 16, 2008 01:19pm

Patrick Why were irritated by Laura?
Aug 15, 2010 12:24pm

Aug 23, 2009 Dave Russell rated it 3 of 5 stars

Recommended to Dave by: Amanda

Shelves: novels

Apparently with no surprise
To any happy Flower
The Frost beheads it at its play --
In accidental power --
The blonde Assassin passes on --
The Sun proceeds unmoved
To measure off another Day
For an Approving God.
-Emily Dickinson

In the novel-within-the-novel-within-the-novel--also called The Blind Assassin--the title character is a young blind boy on the planet Zycron sent to assassinate a girl whose tongue has been removed. He falls in love with her instead. He can't see and she can't speak. That, it...more

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Aug 10, 2007 Alison rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: alltime100novel

I certainly didn't intend to spend the larger part of my summer getting through The Blind Assassin. I can't really put my finger on why this didn't engage me. The writing was interesting and brilliant, but the story itself just didn't propel me.

There is the story of two sisters growing up in the 1900's in Toronto. Their mother dies at a young age and the tale is of their father trying to raise them with their wise housekeeper's help, his business failings, the World Wars, and the elder sister's...more

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May 08, 2008 Keith Mukai rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

My favorite novel from my Prizewinning Lit class.

Atwood can be criticized as being somewhat cold and distant in her narrative style. That's certainly valid and definitely turns off some people.

But for my money The Blind Assassin is one of the most perfect novels I've ever read. Atwood's tone fits the character perfectly; the distance and coldness come from weariness and deep, deep pain that is tempered by a degree of the indifference that comes from old age.

The novel is intricate, ambitious, and...more

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Jun 19, 2008 Mrs. Miska rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Atwood fans, those wanting a bit of a mystery to solve

Reading The Blind Assassin, it's obvious that Atwood had fun crafting the complicated storyline, which is just as enjoyable for the reader as it must have been for the writer. The interplay of past, present, and fiction-within-fiction all merge in the end to provide a complete picture of the life of the Chase/Griffen family, particularly of the narrator Iris Chase Griffen, and the events that bring about the demise of nearly her whole family (her father, sister Laura, husband Richard, daughter A...more

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Sep 26, 2008 Felicity rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Writers, readers, anyone who loves a good long read and a well-turned paragraph.

Recommended to Felicity by: Jeannine Hall

Shelves: booker-winners, fiction, novel, favorites, historical-fiction, literary-is-a-genre, rereading

I've already been an Atwood admirer for a few years, but The Blind Assassin is too gorgeous to merely admire. I love it. Where it isn't exquisite, it's precise. It moves expertly between the dry, the brutally truthful, and the passionate, and brings the keenness of the author's eye to them all. Atwood describes both the elusive and the everyday with a transforming grace.

All that is merely on the level of prose, of paragraph. Her narrator is human, complex, and honest. The other characters are i...more

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Oct 05, 2007 bonnie rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I liked Cat's Eye, and expected to like this book as well - but I didn't. This book has been more or less the bane of my existence since I picked it up one ill-fated traveling weekend. Sure, it's innovative in form, but I don't think there's much substance beneath it.

I was bored by all four layers of this book, which are interspersed with each other in a pattern I couldn't quite crack: 1) the present narrative, as told by an elderly woman who has lost various family members to tragedies over th...more

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Feb 24, 2008 Alice rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2008

Having absolutely loved Atwood's "A Handmaid's Tale," I decided to try out "The Blind Assassin."

Verdict? It was... okay. The writing was really great, but everything else kind of bored me -- the characters, the plot, the novel within the novel within the novel. By the time the book worked itself up to its climax, I had long since lost interest. I was just trying to plod through and finish the thing.

At times, I was more eager to find out what happened to the blind assassin and the girl without...more

23 likes · like · see review

Jul 17, 2012 Nenia Campbell rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 1001-books, x-2000s, chubby-chunksters

A literary classic is always one of two things: a book with an extraordinary plot or a book that takes extraordinary liberties with narrative and language, blowing tradition out of the water. In either case, Bookus literarius is a clear step above Bookus commonus. While the two categories are not mutually exclusive, it is rare to find one that has both. With The Blind Assassin, it is possible to have your cake and eat it because this is a textbook example of the exception that shares the best of...more

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Aug 20, 2008 Philip rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Sometimes, when reading a big book, one gets the feeling that the author set out to achieve size, as if that in itself might suggest certain adjectives from a reader or reviewer – weighty, significant, deep, serious, complex, extensive, perhaps. Sometimes – rarely, in fact – one reads a big book and becomes lost in its size, lost in the sense that one ceases to notice the hundreds passing by, as the work creates its own time, defines its own experience, shares its own world. Even then, reaching...more Sometimes, when reading a big book, one gets the feeling that the author set out to achieve size, as if that in itself might suggest certain adjectives from a reader or reviewer – weighty, significant, deep, serious, complex, extensive, perhaps. Sometimes – rarely, in fact – one reads a big book and becomes lost in its size, lost in the sense that one ceases to notice the hundreds passing by, as the work creates its own time, defines its own experience, shares its own world. Even then, reaching the end can often be merely trite, just a running out of steam, the process thoroughly engaging, the product, however, something of a let down. Rarely, very rarely indeed, one reads a big book that actually needs its size, justifies itself, continues to surprise as well as enchant and then, finally, stuns. Margaret Atwood’s Blind Assassin is such a book, a giant in every sense, a masterpiece beyond question.

Blind Assassin was awarded the Booker prize in 2000 and charts intersecting histories of two well-to-do Canadian families, Chase and Griffen. The two Chase sisters, Iris and Laura, are quite different people. Born into the relative opulence of a Canadian manufacturing family, they have a private education of sorts, experienced throughout and yet alongside something vaguely like a childhood. Various aspects of twentieth century history impinge upon their lives and eventually force their family to reassess its status. Economic downturn, war and family tragedy take their toll on the father, who becomes less able to manage either his own life or his business. Something has to give. Ways of coping must be found.

Iris, the elder sister, is the first person narrator of about half of the book, the other half being devoted to a book within a book, a novel in the name of Laura, the younger sister. This novel, entitled The Blind Assassin, is an eclectic mix of experience, sex, fantasy and politics. It has made a name for Laura and retains a significant cult following many years after its publication. Laura, herself, died in a car accident. She drove off a bridge into a ravine. The car belonged to Iris. There was never any real explanation for the event.

Iris, meanwhile, has been married off to an older man, a Griffen, who seems to treat her like so much chattel. But then he is an industrialist with the wherewithal, not to mention capital, to assist the bride’s family business in its time of need. Iris, therefore, experiences the Canadian equivalent of an arranged marriage. Perhaps the word marriage is a little overstated. The partnership could be better described as a merger, or a union, if that were not a dirty word because of its political connotation.

And so the octogenarian Iris, clearly anticipating the end of her days, embarks upon a cathartic outpouring of personal and family history in the hope that an estranged granddaughter might just understand a little about other peoples’ motives.

The book takes us through Canada and north America, across to Europe, via an imagined universe, to political commitment, direct action and its inevitable reaction. Iris needs to write it all down. And so she works her story out, constructing it, perhaps reconstructing it, maybe inventing it from memory and relived experience against a backdrop of contemporary Canada and her own failing health. Her vulnerability, in the end, is our debt, our penance, perhaps. She is a wise old woman with much to hide, but her acerbic wit is undiminished by age, her observations of others stunningly perspicacious.

It is not often that a novel, a mere flight of another’s fancy, achieves the subtle, stunning and surely enduring power of the Blind Assassin.
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Oct 10, 2007 Núria rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2007, prestados, literatura-en-ingles, 2-ni-fu-ni-fa, siglo-xx

Me ha costado una eternidad terminar 'El asesino ciego' y estoy convencida de que hace un año hubiera sido incapaz de terminarlo, pero parece que últimamente estoy aumentando mi resistencia para terminar tochos muermos, pero no estoy segura de si esto me gusta o no. Cuando estaba leyendo, notaba que se leía bien, pero tan pronto lo dejaba ya no tenía ganas de volver a ponerme. Y es que ni un solo momento ha conseguido engancharme. Es todo tan neutro que no atrapa. Es la historia de dos hermanas...more Me ha costado una eternidad terminar 'El asesino ciego' y estoy convencida de que hace un año hubiera sido incapaz de terminarlo, pero parece que últimamente estoy aumentando mi resistencia para terminar tochos muermos, pero no estoy segura de si esto me gusta o no. Cuando estaba leyendo, notaba que se leía bien, pero tan pronto lo dejaba ya no tenía ganas de volver a ponerme. Y es que ni un solo momento ha conseguido engancharme. Es todo tan neutro que no atrapa. Es la historia de dos hermanas de casa bien. Hay dos partes que se van intercalando. Por un lado, está la parte de la hermana mayor que escribe la historia de su vida una vez ya es una anciana. Por otro lado, está el libro que escribió la hermana menor, que se suicidó lanzándose con el coche de un puente, un libro que narra su relación a escondidas con un fugitivo de la justicia. Como el fugitivo para ganarse cuatro duros se dedica a escribir novelas baratas de ciencia ficción, también le cuenta a ella historias baratas de ciencia ficción como para retenerla a su lado. Inevitablemente las partes de ciencia ficción me parecieron las más tediosas.

Es todo muy feminista. Las dos hermanas ven coartada su libertad por la sociedad patriarcal y no les aguarda otro destino que el de complacer a los hombres, por más que se quieran librar de ello. Así que al final los malos acaban siendo malos-malísimos de opereta. Tampoco no me pareció que el carácter de las dos hermanas estuviera nada desarrollado: la joven es la típica heroína romántica rebelde (y de tan típica acaba siendo sosa e inverosímil), y la mayor es tan neutra que nunca puedes llegar a simpatizar realmente con ella. Aún así, me gustó la historia de amor entre jovencita rica y pija y fugitivo pobre e izquierdoso, porque no es nada romántica: los dos tienen poco en común, es más bien una historia de sexo que de amor, él es bastante idiota, y se discuten y a veces son crueles el uno con el otro, y hay cosas de las que no pueden hablar y en el fondo son dos extraños. Pero todo es tan terriblemente previsible que a la primera página ya te puedes imaginar qué va a pasar, en parte porque ya te descubre el pastel, pero es que ni las sorpresas son sorpresas. Tiene algo de ironía y sentido del humor, pero es todo tan neutro que acaba resultando bastante aburrido.
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Jul 17, 2011 Daniel rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-2004, favorites

I made my way to this book for two reasons: 1) the title caught my eye. It is a very good title, after all; and 2) about four years before I picked this up, I met Margaret Atwood.

The latter event I owe to the good fortune of being in the right place at exactly the right time. Even more fortunate was the fact that I met Atwood at a bookstore in Prague, where I was one of only a few English speakers, thus placing me in an excellent position to chat with her for a few moments. We talked about the t...more I made my way to this book for two reasons: 1) the title caught my eye. It is a very good title, after all; and 2) about four years before I picked this up, I met Margaret Atwood.

The latter event I owe to the good fortune of being in the right place at exactly the right time. Even more fortunate was the fact that I met Atwood at a bookstore in Prague, where I was one of only a few English speakers, thus placing me in an excellent position to chat with her for a few moments. We talked about the two pieces out of her entire repertoire that I had read, these being a short story about bats, and the short poem "Fishhook" (which is so short that I can still recite it from memory). I was able to sit right next to her (get excited) and speak with her for about ten minutes, and in those ten minutes I was overwhelmed by her intellect and her elegant way with words. Upon walking away from that table with wide eyes and a mind that felt stretched every-which-way, I vowed that I would soon pick up a novel by this juggernaut of a writer.

"The Blind Assassin" turned out to be that novel. It is a very excellent novel. The prose is gorgeous, effortless, a joy to read. The story is both fantastic and brutal. In it, Atwood mixes together a science fantasy story; a story about girl's childhood in Canada during the early part of the 20th century; and this same woman's contemporary life. Over the course of this story, Atwood builds a dreadful tragedy that waxes with a deliberation that draws you in even as you fear what lies ahead. The suspense grows with each page, begging you to read yet more pages.

I loved this book, and when I was reading it, I hated putting it down; when I had to be away from it, I couldn't wait to return. I devoured it in marathon sessions, and when I closed the cover I sat back, feeling sad and happy and satiated--and certain that Atwood was now a writer firmly attached to my life.

Should you ever get the chance to see Atwood speak--do so. If you're even remotely considering reading her--do so. Now.(less)

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Aug 14, 2012 Mmars rated it 4 of 5 stars

If Margaret Atwood were not such an amazing writer I'm not sure I would have made it past the first three sections. But, to her credit, it was definitely worth the effort.

I understand that the "Blind Assassin" was serialized, but still did not find it believable that as a book it would have been a successful publication. This premise dropped my rating to 4 stars. Personally, I really struggled with those sections in much of the book.

But beyond that, Atwood has penned another marvelous & un...more

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Jul 06, 2012 Zulfiya rated it 5 of 5 stars

Magical and inventive writing, intricate yarn of a family saga, fiction, life, and confabulation are the key words that come to my mind after reading this most beautiful and bitter book. How do you describe something so captivating, so fragile, so monumental, and so ingenious?
The stories in this book, seemingly disjointed, eventually enrich and complement each other in this intricate and dainty narrative structure. The voice of Iris Chase Griffin is equally convincing, mature, and brooding. S...more Magical and inventive writing, intricate yarn of a family saga, fiction, life, and confabulation are the key words that come to my mind after reading this most beautiful and bitter book. How do you describe something so captivating, so fragile, so monumental, and so ingenious?
The stories in this book, seemingly disjointed, eventually enrich and complement each other in this intricate and dainty narrative structure. The voice of Iris Chase Griffin is equally convincing, mature, and brooding. Spirituality, skepticism, secret love, obsession, the mundane, fiction and life are just some of the topics explored in this literary oeuvre.
The novel itself is a vortex that sucks you in and never lets you go without the destruction of your expectations, the demolition of your worst fears, and the pain of the inevitable.
The story within the story is also a double narrative. It is also an allegoric testimony of the whirlpool of the real life which Iris could not and was not willing to control. This story or at least parts of this story were definitely not publishable in real life, at least in the form they were presented to a reader, but this far-fetched story line has a different function in the novel. This bizarre meta-text confirms our expectations and explains so many things that could not be organically interwoven into the main plot.
The main story has all the elements of the family saga: told by an elderly lady from a respectable family, regular flashbacks and reminiscences, meditations about the bleak prospects, turbulent military background for the main yarn, but gradually the seemingly reliable narrative of a familial sacrifice and a sisterly affinity sounds less and less plausible. The undertones of some other darker events gradually become more and more tangible though still verbally silent. And that is when the double fictional narrative of the book, ostensibly written by Iris’s sister Laura, and published posthumously after her death, gains emotional clout and becomes a key to unlock the doors, leading to the chamber of mysteries and tears because fiction is a reflection of our own secret lives, our desires, our sins, and our blind mistakes. So the other narrative is there to serve a seemingly utilitarian purpose to tell the story before the story is actually told by Iris, to avoid her painful confessions or to mitigate the dumbfounding effects when the dirty linen is shown to readers.
Iris is a flawed character, and some of her actions in the past are hardly redeemable, easily avoidable, and reckless with disastrous consequences. Her sister Laura is a sensitive victim who fell prey to her quest to explain the Divine or the order of things. Her quest makes Laura vulnerable and turns her elder sister Iris into the blind and accidental assassin. Iris is given the secular absolution of her ‘sins of ignorance and denial’ when her long-lost granddaughter finally comes to see her right before or after her death. The reader is left clueless here, and there is a hope for optimists that they met before Iris’s death. A pessimistic reader, on the other hand, would say that Iris was granted only a limited pardon by the almighty Margaret Atwood and could only hope to see her granddaughter who actually came but only to attend the funeral ceremony. An eternal enigma of fiction to explain and confuse persists even in the final pages of this engrossing story.
The book per se is also a linguistic delight: the language is rich and succulent, and often tart and tangy; the descriptions are keen, nostalgic, and serene; the observations are brooding and pensive, the metaphors are original and very visual. It is an example of literary fiction at its best.
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Apr 11, 2011 Brian rated it 3 of 5 stars

(3.0) Expected more from it

I wasn't sure how we were supposed to experience the novel. Were the secrets revealed toward the end supposed to surprise us, or was it just more that Iris didn't know what was going on and we were supposed to identify with her naivete/ignorance? And are we supposed to enjoy the novel-within-a-novel? I didn't much care for it and despite the conventional wisdom that posthumous publication sells well (not to mention books that were once banned), I still don't see how th...more

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Sep 20, 2007 Bronwen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A story within a story within a story. Iris Griffin Chase narrates her life history and the story of her family and the bumpy road it follows spanning the last century. Throughout the book are chapters chronicling the love affair of an anonymous woman and her secret lover, who is weaving her a pulpy sci-fi tale about a blind assassin, adding to it at each of their rendezvous.

Margaret Atwood's writing is phenomenal. The story of Iris and her sister Laura, who dies tragically on the first page, is...more

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Jul 04, 2008 Jeff Scott rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 1001books, science-fiction, fiction, classics

What do we leave behind? How will others know us after we are gone? Atwood's The Blind Assassin peruses these concepts. The story is a life examined very similar to books I have recently read like The Almost Moon and Out Stealing Horses.

Iris Chase Winifred is approaching the end of her life. She ponders the changes around, how the youth don't appreciate what they have, and the desire to be remembered after they are gone. How will she be remembered?

Favorite Passages:

When you're young, you think...more

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May 08, 2008 Rachel rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Oh my goodness...anyone! Read it...now!

Recommended to Rachel by: Author Loyalty, Prize/Award Winners Goal

Shelves: 1-favorites

Dear Margaret, how I worship thee... I first saw The Blind Assassin while strolling through Barnes & Noble. When I saw Ms. Atwood's name on the cover (just below the Booker Prize stamp), I knew I had to devour it. One of my most favorite books, The Blind Assassin grabbed me from the first page. Granted, I had no idea what was going on for about the first 1/4 of the book, but I was still so intrigued by what I did not know and all there must be to find out that I had to keep reading. I love h...more

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Jun 11, 2007 Jenny rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Anyone with a penchant for entertaining use of the English language

General Plot Overview, or Why I Liked The Book: A sort of novel-within-a-novel-within-a-novel. Set in a time from the end of the first World War until the present, the book spans the lifetime of one Iris Griffen Chase, the narrator of the book and central character. Iris tells the story of her history, interspersed with accounts of her everyday existence, and interrupted with chapters from a tawdry Sci-Fi/Romance novel authored by her sister, who dies on the first page. What I find interesting a...more General Plot Overview, or Why I Liked The Book: A sort of novel-within-a-novel-within-a-novel. Set in a time from the end of the first World War until the present, the book spans the lifetime of one Iris Griffen Chase, the narrator of the book and central character. Iris tells the story of her history, interspersed with accounts of her everyday existence, and interrupted with chapters from a tawdry Sci-Fi/Romance novel authored by her sister, who dies on the first page. What I find interesting are the ways that, throughout the book, you begin to find pieces of Iris and her sister's past woven throughout the Sci-Fi novel, little connections that you have to really be paying attention to to catch.

This book was, however, mediocre. The plotline more meandered than twisted, and the conclusion was not exactly climactic. More hesitant than anything else. And you kind of saw it coming, or at least I did. I feel like I could have done with it in about half the length and still gotten the full effect.

That said, the language in the book was phenomenal. Margaret Atwood has always had a flair for describing things in an unconventional but strikingly accurate (and occasionally funny) way. Examples:

"Perhaps her mind is slipping, perhaps she's going off the tracks, perhaps she is coming unhinged. Unhinged, like a rammed gate, like a rusting strongbox. When you're unhinged, things make their way out of you that should be kept inside, and other things get in that ought to be shut out."

"Time rises and rises, and when it reaches the level of your eyes, you drown."

"The only way you can write the truth is to assume that what you set down will never be read. Not by any other person, and not even by yourself at some later date. Otherwise you begin excusing yourself. You must see the writing as emerging like a long scroll of ink from the index finger of your right hand; you must see your left hand erasing it.
Impossible, of course"

"We passed a few more franchises - smiling chickens offering platters of their own fried body parts, a grinning Mexican wielding tacos... by the roadside, three crows pecked at a furry burst lump of groundhog."(less)

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Jun 18, 2007 Carolanne rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: waste-of-time

UPON FINISHING: This book could have been exciting. It really had it all to be really awesome, but Atwood didn't make me feel enough sympathy for any of the characters. I felt really slighted on all of their back stories, I felt lied to also. Very disappointing.
(And I don't want to get old even more...this old lady was pathetic and depressing.)

___________________________________________
DURING READING: Ms. Atwood had a lot to hold up to after reading "The Handmaid's Tale" and this is a book in m...more

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May 08, 2008 Erin rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is probably my favorite book of Atwoods. I love how carefully she weaves the two plotlines together. Her diction and syntax in this book are just superb--proving that she can not only come up with an interesting plot, but has the writing chops to tell the story beautifully as well.

She is courageous to take on so many characters, fully develop them, and then weave a sub-plot throughout the original. As I said before, don't pass up the chance to read anything from Margaret Atwood.

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Feb 14, 2011 Manny rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: older-men-younger-women, too-sexy-for-maiden-aunts, well-i-think-its-funny

- So are you still trudging through the Margaret Atwood?

- George, you should stop being so dismissive! Have you ever read it?

- Well, I think I got as far as chapter three. Typical po-mo cleverness with a story inside a story inside... anyway, I decided I couldn't take any more, so I gave up.

- So do you want to know what it's about?

- You're going to tell me, aren't you?

- Only if you want me to.

- Okay, okay. I want you to. Snuggle up and tell me all about it. Satisfied?

- Mmm. Well, satisfied f...more

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Jan 16, 2009 Andrea rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I had read Blind Assassin in High School but had hardly remembered it. When one of my coworkers gave it to me as a gift I instantly jumped in.

I find the way she tells the story brilliant and consuming. I love the way the pieces start to all fit together as your read more and how I become so consumed by the twists that are somehow both expected and surprising.

There are, however, some downsides to the story. My dad often says "It's not so much that Atwood is a feminist, she just hates men" and,...more

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May 16, 2012 jessica malice rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Oh my goodness do I ever love Margaret Atwood. I connect very much with her dry but somehow just flowery enough style. Perhaps I don't really mean dry, but there is something detached about her women, as though they are all merely observing from the backs of their minds... despite the fact they all have so much agency, even in a story set in a time when women had a minimum of that.

Her incidental descriptive poetry in this book is unending, while never seeming forced or unnatural. Every page is e...more

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About Margaret Atwood

Margaret Atwood was born in 1939 in Ottawa and grew up in northern Ontario, Quebec, and Toronto. She received her undergraduate degree from Victoria College at the University of Toronto and her master's degree from Radcliffe College.

Throughout her writing career, Margaret Atwood has received numerous awards and honourary degrees. She is the author of more than thirty-five volumes of poetry, childr...more

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The Year of the Flood (MaddAddam Trilogy, #2)

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Quotes from The Blind Assassin

“If you knew what was going to happen, if you knew everything that was going to happen next—if you knew in advance the consequences of your own actions—you'd be doomed. You'd be ruined as God. You'd be a stone. You'd never eat or drink or laugh or get out of bed in the morning. You'd never love anyone, ever again. You'd never dare to.” — 662 people liked it

“The only way you can write the truth is to assume that what you set down will never be read. Not by any other person, and not even by yourself at some later date. Otherwise you begin excusing yourself. You must see the writing as emerging like a long scroll of ink from the index finger of your right hand; you must see your left hand erasing it.” — 466 people liked it

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