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Feb 08, 2012

Tatiana rated it:

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 t More...

14 comments like (30 people liked it)

Aug 29, 2011

Paquita Maria rated it:

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 book More...

23 comments like (40 people liked it)

Jul 20, 2011

mark rated it:

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...

9 comments like (29 people liked it)

Nov 14, 2010

LeAnn rated it:

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 "publis More...

0 comments like (21 people liked it)

Apr 17, 2008

Susan rated it:

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 More...

3 comments like (21 people liked it)

Aug 23, 2009

Dave rated it:

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 More...

14 comments like (20 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Alison rated it:

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 More...

7 comments like (17 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Keith rated it:

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.

Th More...

0 comments like (12 people liked it)

Jun 19, 2008

Mrs. Miska rated it:

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...

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Sep 26, 2008

Felicity rated it:

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 char More...

1 comment like (11 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

bonnie rated it:

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 trag More...

0 comments like (14 people liked it)

Feb 24, 2008

Alice rated it:

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 ha More...

5 comments like (17 people liked it)

Aug 20, 2008

Philip rated it:

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...

0 comments like (13 people liked it)

Oct 10, 2007

Núria rated it:

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...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Jul 17, 2011

Daniel rated it:

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 More...

6 comments like (9 people liked it)

Sep 11, 2011

Brian rated it:

(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' More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Sep 20, 2007

Bronwen rated it:

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 fi More...

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jul 04, 2008

Jeff rated it:

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:
More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Oct 25, 2010

Rachel rated it:

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 how A More...

8 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jun 11, 2007

Jenny rated it:

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 interestin More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Carolanne rated it:

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 More...

3 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Erin rated it:

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 Atwo

3 comments like (2 people liked it)

Feb 14, 2011

Manny rated it:

- 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 y More...

12 comments like (26 people liked it)

Jan 16, 2009

Andrea rated it:

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 femini More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 15, 2009

Rebecca rated it:

I really wanted to give this book 2.5 stars, but that is not an option. And, I can't say I really liked it, so I will stick with 2. I did abandon this book at page 264 of 521, something which I almost never do. I abandoned it for a couple of reasons. (1) I just think anything over about 350 pages is just too long for a bookclub read. (2) It was a very depressing story that just kept getting more depressing. At about page 250, I realized the only reason I was still reading it was to find o More...

4 comments like (3 people liked it)

Nov 26, 2010

Rosanne rated it:

The Blind Assassin is a great achievement, regardless of how you feel about the story, you will be in awe of Margaret Atwood’s talent after reading this book. I happened to also really like the story and appreciated her masterful literary approach combined with page-turning story telling. TBA is not a quick read though, apart from the complexity of the storyline, the language and descriptions demand to be savoured.

TBA tells the life story of Iris Chase Griffen, and its strength lies More...

3 comments like (3 people liked it)

Mar 13, 2011

Rheo3000 rated it:

I am reading this book right now and for the most part I am enjoying it. I did have a disconcerting episode last night when I pulled it up to read on my Nook and was baffled when Margaret Atwood suddenly descended into potty mouthed gross out descriptions of the main character. At chapters end I realized I was actually in an entirely different book that was being set up in a very similar fashion. So I'm back in the correct book and every once in awhile, when I start to read long passages descri More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 21, 2011

Gloria rated it:

Have you ever done one of those big 5000+ piece jigsaw puzzles, ones that can take weeks to complete? When we were younger, my sister used to love them and I inevitably got suckered into helping her, on occasion. It was engrossing but not straight away. It was a bit frustrating and tedious to begin with, and then all of a sudden you'd find that several hours have passed and you've forgotten to eat but you can't stop, you just need to find that one next piece. This is what the experience of readi More...

3 comments like (12 people liked it)

Apr 02, 2010

Lisa rated it:

A deeply engrossing and tragic story of thwarted lives and loves, loss, regret and the things left unsaid, that's filled with incredibly well drawn and deeply memorable characters.

It's told mostly from the viewpoint of Iris, taking us on a journey through the 20th century as seen through her eyes, as she looks back on her life fifty years after the death of her younger sister, Laura. Throughout the first part glimpses of the future are seen through the newspaper articles interspersed More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 04, 2008

Catten rated it:

Thanks SaraQ for recommending this!

Margaret Atwood's first novel, The Edible Woman, was published in 1969. I just finished her 38th book, The Blind Assassin, which won the 2000 Booker Prize for Fiction and the International Association of Crime Writers Dashiell Hammett Award. This woman can write!

Atwood weaves a tight story - or four in this case.

The book opens:
Ten days after the war ended, my sister Laura drove a car off a bridge. The bridge was being repaired More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

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