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The Blind Assassin

by Margaret Atwood (Goodreads Author)

3.86 · rating details · 32,493 ratings · 2,515 reviews

"Ten days after the war ended, my sister Laura drove a car off a bridge"

More than fifty years on, Iris Chase is remembering Laura's mysterious death. And so begins an extraordinary and compelling story of two sisters and their secrets. Set against a panoramic backdrop of twentieth-century history, The Blind Assassin is an epic tale of memory, intrigue...more

Paperback, 637 pages

Published September 3rd 2001 by Virago Press Ltd (first published 2000)

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Feb 04, 2011

Tatiana rated it

· 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 t...moreAs 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

Paquita Maria Sanchez rated it

· 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 book...moreThis 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 breath 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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Jul 20, 2011

mark monday rated it

Shelves: past-masters

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...moreatwood'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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Jul 15, 2007

LeAnn rated it

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 "publis...more

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Apr 17, 2008

Susan rated it

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 ...moreWriting 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 under...more
Apr 16, 2008 08:35pm

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 e...more
Apr 16, 2008 09:19pm

Patrick Why were irritated by Laura?
Aug 15, 2010 08:24pm

Aug 23, 2009

Dave Russell rated it

· review of another edition

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 ...more

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Aug 10, 2007

Alison rated it

· review of another edition

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 ...more

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May 08, 2008

Keith Mukai 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

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Jun 19, 2008

Mrs. Miska rated it

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

· review of another edition

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

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

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Oct 05, 2007

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

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Feb 24, 2008

Alice rated it

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 ha...more

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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 ...moreSometimes, 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

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 ...moreMe 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

· review of another edition

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...moreI 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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Apr 11, 2011

Brian rated it

· review of another edition

(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

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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

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Jul 04, 2008

Jeff Scott rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: sony-reader, 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:
...more

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May 08, 2008

Rachel rated it

· review of another edition

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 how A...more

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Jun 11, 2007

Jenny rated it

· 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 interestin...moreGeneral 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

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 ...more

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May 08, 2008

Erin rated it

· 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 Atwo...more

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Feb 14, 2011

Manny rated it

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 y...more

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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

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Jan 15, 2009

Rebecca rated it

Shelves: read-for-a-bookclub, abandoned

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

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Nov 26, 2010

Rosanne rated it

· review of another edition

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

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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

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Jul 21, 2011

Gloria Mundi rated it

Shelves: 21st-century, guardian-1000-novels-list, 1001-books, booker-winners-and-nominees, books-about-books, favourites, gender, adultery, love, sexual-abuse-rape, twist-n-shout, unhealthy-relationships, war, pretty-words

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...moreHave 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 reading this book reminded me of. Completing a jigsaw puzzle, except without the helpful picture that is usually provided with a jigsaw to tell you where the various pieces are supposed to fit, so instead you see the picture emerging very slowly bit by bit and you are not quite sure how the various pieces fit together until the very end.

I was a bit apprehensive about the structure to begin with. All this book within a book within a book nonsense just sounded too convoluted and I didn't expect to enjoy the experience. There are, in fact, at least 5 different narrative strands interwoven in this book. There is the story of Iris and Laura Chase, two sisters growing up at the beginning of the 20th century between the two world wars as told by 83 year old Iris. Then there are descriptions of Iris' present life. I was quite surprised by those. I didn't expect to enjoy descriptions of day to day goings on of an old woman, attempting to do laundry, walking to the cemetery and the doughnut shop and reading the scribbles on the walls of public lavatories, yet I did end up enjoying them a great deal because those passages are so dry, so self-deprecatingly hilarious and reveal so much about Iris as a person. There are also extracts from Laura Chase's novel "The Blind Assassin", published posthumously and describing an affair between two lovers meeting in secret and, within that novel, the lurid fantasy/science-fiction story set on planet Zycron, told by the hero to the heroine, of a blind assassin and a mute sacrificial virgin who fall in love. And finally, there are extracts from obituaries and various other newspaper articles concerning the newsworthy events in Iris' life.

I am still ambivalent about whether this complicated structure works better than a more simple straightforward narrative would have. I did find the story a bit too fractured at times but, perhaps, this is a story that can only be told in this way. Perhaps, that's what gives it its punch. We essentially end at about the same place we start. The narrative is circular and the circle is used as a symbol:

"She’s the round O, the zero at the bone. A space that defines itself by not being there at all. That’s why they can’t reach her, lay a finger on her. That’s why they can’t pin anything on her. She has such a good smile, but she doesn’t stand behind it."

The story that Iris tells is the circle of rock and mountains that she imagines surrounding her, the round dome of the fake sky that suffocates her.

The writing is exquisite. I truly believe that this may well be the most beautifully written book I have read, ever. Atwood has an amazing ability to say something really profound in very few words. This is not a book to be raced through just to find out what happens. Don't expect to be able to finish it quickly, you need a bit of patience, time to pause and to think to truly appreciate this book. There were so many passages that I read and re-read so many times just for the sheer pleasure of reading them. And every so often you come across a paragraph that is so startlingly beautiful, it is almost painful.

"Farewells can be shattering, but returns are surely worse. Solid flesh can never live up to the bright shadow cast by its absence. Time and distance blur the edges; then suddenly the beloved has arrived, and it’s noon with its merciless light, and every spot and pore and wrinkle and bristle stands clear."

"There’s a lipstick heart on the cement, surrounding four initials. An L connects them: L for Loves. Only those concerned would know whose initials they are—that they’ve been here, that they’ve done this. Proclaiming love, withholding the particulars.
Outside the heart, four other letters, like the four points of the compass:

F U
C K

The word torn apart, splayed open: the implacable topography of sex."

"When I look in the mirror I see an old woman; or not old, because nobody is allowed to be old any more. Older, then. Sometimes I see an older woman who might look like the grandmother I never knew, or like my own mother, if she’d managed to reach this age. But sometimes I see instead the young girl’s face I once spent so much time rearranging and deploring, drowned and floating just beneath my present face, which seems—especially in the afternoons, with the light on a slant—so loose and transparent I could peel it off like a stocking."

"The French are connoisseurs of sadness, they know all the kinds. This is why they have bidets."

"When you're young, you think everything you do is disposable. You move from now to now, crumpling time up in your hands, tossing it away. You're your own speeding car. You think you can get rid of things, and people too - leave them behind. You don't yet know about the habit they have, of coming back."

I could go on and on and on.

And then there was Iris. She is so drily amusing and snarky, just the kind of character I usually love. Yet she is so flawed and frustrating at the same time. She seems spineless, she accepts and crumbles. There is no resistance, no spine. Yet, perhaps, this is really a strength rather than a weakness. The strength of grass which bends to the wind and survives where trees are uprooted and destroyed by the hurricane. Does s/he who survives the longest win? Can subsequent actions truly atone for choices and mistakes made? I wonder whether my inability to forgive Iris has to do with the fact that I saw too much of myself in her or the opposite. I don't know. I was never faced with her choices. I would like to think that I would have had the backbone to stand up not just for the people I love but for myself and my own dignity. But would I really? I have pretty much always done what has been expected of me and I do quite often choose the path of least resistance. The only difference is that I grew up in a different time and environment and things that were and are expected of me are quite different to those that were expected of Iris and Laura. When the hero of the Blind Assassin, the novel written by Laura Chase, asks the heroine to leave her home (not quite with him but to wait for him) and she responds with "But I wouldn’t have any money… Where would I live? In some rented room, all by myself?", it is quite easy for me to despise her. But would my own response really have been any different given the same upbringing and social environment? In the end, I don't think Iris really needs our forgiveness. Atonement through the act of writing is not, in my view, what this book is about. It is much more complex than that.

Overall this was a very contemplative and melancholy read. Not easy or quick but very rewarding. A book to fall in love with, word by word and sentence by sentence. Beautifully written, with complex interesting characters, engaging plot and some interesting explorations of the writing process and the motivation behind setting pen to paper. Not for everyone, perhaps, but it is going straight to my favourites shelf. I intend to re-read it when I have a bit more time on my hands as I think it is one of those books that needs to be read more than once. I expect I may even enjoy the second reading more, as I already know what is going to happen and can appreciate the little clues and significant details much better.
(less)

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Jan 07, 2010

Lisa rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: Gaye, Is, Jade, Mum

Shelves: 2010, own, 1001-before-you-die, guardian-1000, times-100-greatest-novels, 2010s-most-enjoyed

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

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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

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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 po...more

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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 dare to.” — 401 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.” — 245 people liked it

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