The Blind Assassin in Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge

Sep 08, 2008 Martin rated it liked it

Shelves: 2008books

They say that “you can’t prove a negative.” (or can you?) But sometimes it's more convenient to define something by what it’s NOT, rather than what it is. For instance, “The Golden Compass” ISN’T just for kids. “Animal Farm” ISN’T about zoology. The stupid book floating around about Sarah Palin ISN’T worth the paper it’s printed on. In that same vein, “The Blind Assassin” by Margaret Atwood ISN’T a beach book. I know this because I read the entirety of this book on the beach, and it was truly no They say that “you can’t prove a negative.” (or can you?) But sometimes it's more convenient to define something by what it’s NOT, rather than what it is. For instance, “The Golden Compass” ISN’T just for kids. “Animal Farm” ISN’T about zoology. The stupid book floating around about Sarah Palin ISN’T worth the paper it’s printed on. In that same vein, “The Blind Assassin” by Margaret Atwood ISN’T a beach book. I know this because I read the entirety of this book on the beach, and it was truly no easy feat. On the other hand, “The Blind Assassin” IS a complicated, multi-layered, multi-faceted, contemplative, poetic, elegiac, sweeping, dense, wonderfully written book. But, as a reminder, it ISN’T a beach book.

I made the mistake of believing those little blubs-of-praise on the first few pages of this book – which I love reading, but which are also oversimplifications. How could they be anything less? They’re just meant to sell you on the book as quickly as possible, not give you a complete and thorough understanding of anything. At any rate, I was suckered by all the quotes that made me think “The Blind Assassin” was a literary thriller of some kind, a mystery novel, a highbrow twist on genre fiction – gothic romance, science fiction, melodrama, etc. And while I suppose in some opaque ways it is all of those things, it is also so many other things all at once that it’s a pretty much a unique reading experience. (Again, just to stamp out any lingering confusion: not what you are probably looking for on a beach vacation.) The first 50 pages of the novel are so complicated and “in medias res” that I actually brought a pen down to the beach with me, so I could chart out the genealogy of the narrator’s family on the inside cover. (Big time nerd alert, I know.)

Yet the book does a wonderful job interweaving the main narrative, a large novel-within-a-novel, an extended series of stand-alone sci-fi stories within the novel-within-a-novel, and fictional newspaper articles chronicling the “objective” history of the main narrative. Not to mention the huge amount of time that the events in the novel cover – much of two whole generations – and the mischievous (maddening?) way Atwood flits from one timeframe to another and back again. Like I say, this is no easy read. Further, while the writing is unmistakably beautiful, and the way Atwood nimbly manages the whole unbelievably cumbersome structure is a gigantic achievement, the plot tends to get bogged down in (overly?) detailed descriptions while the writing can also get extravagant. For instance, if I ever read another simile, it might be too soon; Atwood has about 3 per page, and in a 521-page novel…well, you can do the math. I realize I’m complimenting and critiquing the writing in virtually the same breath, but it’s utterly intentional. The writing IS beautiful, and the similes are generally interesting and evocative. They are just overused. (Some of my comical favorites include: “she feels heavy and soiled, like a bag of unwashed laundry” (407), “Soft-edged, blurry, soggy, like a bun fallen into the water” (389) “the meat grey on bread white and soft and flavourless as an angel’s buttock” (358). And that’s just from the point 3/4ths of the way through when I started marking the more outrageous ones.) So while I generally was impressed by and enjoyed the writing, I still have my small critiques. The plot, such as it is, is contemplative at best, but it’s a thin line between contemplative and boring. “The Blind Assassin” never quite stumbled across that line, but it came perilously close a few times in the 300-400-page range. (There are really only so many insanely depressing mediations from an octogenarian narrator in rural Canada on the embarrassments of aging, the ravages of time, the vagaries of love & lust, and the finality & mystery of death that one can take. ESPECIALLY ON THE BEACH!!!!)

Frankly, this is a book I think I would have enjoyed much more, and taken much more out of had I read it in different circumstances. It isn’t a page-turner. It isn’t a thriller. It isn’t light-hearted. But it IS an excellent, impressive work of fiction. Just not for the beach. Seriously. ...more

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Sep 10, 2019 Jen Hubbard rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: babes-reading-books

I'm not a big fan of Margaret Atwood's writing style, so why 4 stars? I loved the plot, and especially enjoyed the Blind Assassin story within the book. It rambles for far too long for my taste, and I spent a lot of the non-Assassin chapters hate reading it. Iris, in her earlier years, is infuriating! I didn't especially love her detached retelling of her and Laura's lives. There are beautiful, perfect paragraphs sprinkled throughout, many I probably glossed over as I slogged on. This review doe ...more

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Jul 11, 2012 Nina rated it really liked it

Shelves: library, fiction, abandoned, book

I *loved* this book, once I got into the story of it. I love books about a novel with the novel-within-a-novel weaved throughout. None of these characters are particularly good, and I'm curious to learn what Meghan and Ellen have to say about it. ...more

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