Wren Ren answers “Almost two years later and I still cannot...”

A Goodreads user asked this question about The Blind Assassin:

Almost two years later and I still cannot finish this book. I am more than half way through, but I just can't finish it. Why, oh why? It's been picked up and abandoned multiple times. I'm not sure if the reason is because the story moves too slowly for my taste or if the dialogue is putting me off. Should I continue? For those who have read this book, does the ending make up for the first half?

Wren Ren I just finished this book. It took about a month. I find Atwood's language in this consuming and satisfying but I also found the first 75% slow going …moreI just finished this book. It took about a month. I find Atwood's language in this consuming and satisfying but I also found the first 75% slow going and melancholy. I like Jami's take in thinking of it as the exposure of dirty family secrets - that is certainly what happens. The last quarter revealed much about the characters, especially Iris. But I also found that while 'dirty secrets' were revealed, these were in a somewhat ambiguous context. I thought I'd missed something and tried to backtrack. I didn't feel it all tied seamlessly together and felt that Iris, as the writer of her story deliberately mislead us until the last few chapters.....weird to feel this way as the writing and descriptives I was in awe of.(less)

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The Blind Assassin

by Margaret Atwood (Goodreads Author)

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