Two novels for the price of one! The first is the main story, of the life of Iris Chase, or at least the lives of those around her. Married off by her father to an ambitious business rival in order to save his button manufacturing company, Iris is always the wife, the daughter, the sister-in-law, the mother, or perhaps most often the sister, her younger sister Laura having died tragically at a young age. But Laura survives as the author of The Blind Assassin, the pulp magazine inspired novel within the novel, which tells of two lovers whose clandestine meetings involve the telling of a science fiction story about a blind assassin in another world and his love affair with a mute girl intended to be the victim of human sacrifice. Iris' life is haunted by those of the family members who've died off one by one around her. She is the only survivor, and this is her attempt to tell their tale. The narrative moves back and forth between Iris' present life as an old woman coping with the knowledge that her time is almost up, and her stories of the past, starting with her childhood and continuing through her marriage and Laura's death. Interspersed with all this are chapters from Laura's fictional novel and news clippings showing how the outside world portrayed certain of the events Iris experiences.

It's a strange but beautiful book. The truth about Iris and Laura is revealed in pieces, and often obliquely, leaving the reader to put together his or her own ideas about what actually happened. Many of the characters are only sketches -- only Laura and perhaps Reenie, Iris and Laura's housekeeper, come close to being fully-developed. And yet one does get a sense of everyone else. Iris, the central figure, is a shadow in her own life. But in the end it's her "unofficial" life we're learning about here, not the one seen in the newspaper clippings the novel includes. I'm inclined to call this a feminist novel because of its portrait of women's lives, both the "normal" and subversive versions. It is certainly an interesting, if at times frustrating, read.