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ATWOOD-BLIND ASSASSIN
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Blind Assassin thread 4: Part XI - End & Large SPOILERS
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Traveller
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Jun 26, 2015 10:33AM
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Some of the ending I suspected, but it had curves that were consistent in the story now that I think about it...
what i did suspect I dismissed as being too cynical on my part! When we have such an unreliable narrator, its hard to anticipate
Magdelanye wrote: "what i did suspect I dismissed as being too cynical on my part! When we have such an unreliable narrator, its hard to anticipate"
Given the way things played out, I'm considering (view spoiler)
isn't this the thread where all spoilers get to be aired?
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Yep! Let it rip!
This is a response to a comment of Derek's from an earlier thread. Posting it here b/c contains a spoiler!Derek (Guilty of thoughtcrime) wrote: "...I think you have to realize that this is not just someone who is getting old. Iris is near-death. I don't think it's at all unreasonable to reflect on what you've lost and what you've missed at that point."
Especially if you've had one hot love affair in your youth and that's it! I used to call that "the Thornbird phonomenon" (but really I use that for the case where the protagonists have sex once, of course get pg, and it ruins their lives--so this is only a related plot development!).
Iris plays her 'poor me' cards to the hilt. She was never a team player, never nice except for when it suited her. She never develops appreciation, until maybe very late on, realizing she, the great manipulator, cannot escape the common fate. But maybe she can garner some pity, and she writes to prove she was human. Towards the end of her account, realizing she has obscured the truth more than set the record straight, we are given her secrets. By then, this reader is maybe not magnanimous enough to forgive her emotionally stingy response to life.
How dare she claim P 261 desire is not a motive when its was her desire for a different kind of life that led her straight to richard.
but was laura willing?
From the prior thread:Chance wrote: "But, Iris is the one whose actions indirectly caused the death of Richard and Laura. She is an assassin, of a kind."
I disagreed in both cases but for different reasons. I think she is in fact directly responsible for Laura's death. I'm still not sure whether it's because she told Laura Alex was dead, or because she told Laura she was having an affair with him, but in either case it was that conversation that directly led to Laura's suicide.
But I can't consider Iris at all to blame for Richard's death. He committed suicide over actions he took, particular his actions that contributed to Laura's own suicide. If he wasn't such an utter Dick (and I have no doubt that Atwood chose his name deliberately, she does enjoy the odd childish pun), Iris's blackmail would have had no effect—and in any case, he had NO reason to expect that Iris would reveal his secrets as long as he kept supporting her: which is what he would have to do to keep his political aspirations alive, anyway.
But yes, I have to agree Iris (and Laura) was "maimed by her father". Not intentionally, but he had no clue how to raise a couple of daughters, and nobody giving him any good advice.
Magdelanye wrote: "How dare she claim P 261 desire is not a motive when its was her desire for a different kind of life that led her straight to richard."
Wow... I didn't get that at all. Iris never even had a clue what she was in for when she married Richard, and she DID try to resist it. I can't see that she had any desire to marry him.
"Richard proposed to me in the Imperial Room of the Royal York Hotel. He’d invited me to lunch, along with Father...
Of course it was a put-up job between the two of them.
“Richard will be asking you something,” said Father to me. His tone was apologetic.
“Oh?” I said. Probably something about ironing, but I didn’t much care."
That doesn't sound at all like she had a desire that "led her to Richard".
Magdelanye wrote: "but was laura willing?"
Laura never did anything unwillingly. Her reasons were often unsound (having sex with Richard so that God would save Alex...), but if we know nothing else about Laura, it's that nobody could make her do anything against her will.
A collection of images that practically make me weep:"I could neither drink nor eat, but why did God make toilets? I left a few brown crumbs for authenticity."
I sat confused for a few moments after reading that before bursting into laughter.
About God and religion:
"That kind of thing doesn't run in her [Myra's] family: her mother Reenie never went in much for God. There was mutual respect, and if you were in trouble naturally you'd call on him, as with lawyers; but as with lawyers it would have to be bad trouble. Otherwise it didn't pay to get too mixed up with him."
Of Grandmother Adelia (known only in photographs):
"...her white forearms boneless as rolled chicken"
So totally true of much of Canada:
"On the main street of Port Ticonderoga there were five churches and four banks, all made of stone, all chunky. Sometimes you had to read the names on them to tell the difference although the banks lacked steeples."
Reading the Ladies' magazines:
"A Latex foundation garment with two-way stretch would help me play better bridge."
I'm a competitive duplicate bridge player: where do I get me one of these!
At a nightclub with Richard, the singer "was not free. She had to go through with it—to sing, to wiggle. I wondered what she was paid for doing this, and whether it was worth it. Only if you were poor, I decided." I can totally understand people who wouldn't get on stage for any amount of money, but it was one of the most indicative lines, to me, of how sheltered Iris's upbringing had been. She could literally not conceive that anybody would choose to be on stage, unless it was their only chance to make a living.
Toronto:
"According to [Walter], the drivers in Toronto were all crazy."
and
"Outside Union Station there was a mist of bituminous fumes, from where they were fixing the potholes."
Plus ça change, as we say in Canada. The last few times I was outside Union Station (over a period of some years), the pothole they were fixing was actually a subway station.
Richard, on Tea:
"The tea would be dark, tannic, like swamp water. This was the correct, the English way to serve it, said Richard."
Trav? Cecily? Really? That's the way I drink it, but my recollection of English tea is weak, milky and sweet. I'm suspecting that this is actually a way of saying that Richard doesn't have a clue.
France:
"The French are connoisseurs of sadness, they know all kinds. This is why they have bidets.
!!!!
When looking for Laura at the amusement park:
"It's all gone now, Sunnyside—swept away by twelve lanes of asphalt highway sometime in the fifties."
Not quite all gone. A huge amount of the waterfront was swept away by those twelve lanes of asphalt (actually two separate highways running parallel, or even one over the top of the other) but the outdoor swimming pool at Sunnyside remains—it's this weird splash of Art Deco in complete isolation.
Rich people plundering the Queen Mary for souvenirs:
"I myself made off with an ashtray."
Laura:
"I don't know why you listen to anything Winifred has to say. It's like listening to a mousetrap. One without a mouse in it."
That works on so many levels.
The sanitarium where Laura was commited:
"BellaVista, he said, was outside the city."
LOL. I grew up not too terribly far from Arnprior. In 1977, when I was young and stupider, and had tickets for Jethro Tull in Toronto, I made that trip in a little over three hours (in my father's car—mine would never go that fast!). Google says it's 4¼ now, and in the day, by train, it was probably something like 8-10. "Outside the city" is a small understatement.
Walter's safety gloves:
"Myra got those. Guy three streets over, took the ends of his fingers off with a fretsaw… The guy's a numbnuts…"
He'd have to be! As power tools go, there isn't much less dangerous than a fretsaw. I've done more damage with hand tools (too often, in fact).
Richard:
"I've failed to convey Richard, in any rounded sense. He remains a cardboard cutout."
Take that, critics! Accuse Ms. Atwood of writing two-dimensional characters at your peril!
Kobo has a "Canada Day sale" (until Tuesday), with the MaddAddam trilogy on sale for $10. Instead of snatching it up, I'm finding myself resenting them for getting me to pay half that for Oryx and Crake. Never mind that if I buy the trilogy, I'd be getting the 2nd and 3rd books for the same price as the first...
Magdelanye wrote: "How dare she claim P 261 desire is not a motive when its was her desire for a different kind of life that led her straight to richard."Do you think she ever really wanted Richard, or even what he could give her?
Edit: I see Derek has answered that very comprehensively.
Derek (Guilty of thoughtcrime) wrote: "Richard, on Tea: "The tea would be dark, tannic, like swamp water. This was the correct, the English way to serve it, said Richard."
Trav? Cecily? Really? That's the way I drink it, but my recollection of English tea is weak, milky and sweet. I'm suspecting that this is actually a way of saying that Richard doesn't have a clue."
There's a class angle. "Builders' tea" is typically served very strong (with milk, but lots of tea) and sweet, whereas more refined households will serve something much lighter, with the choice of milk or lemon, and maybe sugar. So yes, Richard hasn't quite got it right, which fits.
Remember Avilion, after Winifred and Richard refurbish it, “no longer had the courage of its pretensions”. Again, they didn't get it quite right.
Derek (Guilty of thoughtcrime) wrote: ""I've failed to convey Richard, in any rounded sense. He remains a cardboard cutout." Take that, critics! Accuse Ms. Atwood of writing two-dimensional characters at your peril!"
Yes, I noted that cheeky line. And the obverse, “As the days went by I felt I knew Richard less and less… I myself however was taking shape – the shape intended for me, by him… coloured in.”
One mystery still leaves itself open in my mind. In on of their arguments, Winifred accuses Iris of killing Richard, indirectly. And I can't help wondering if it was actually much more direct, because it seems to me he wouldn't have committed suicide unless he felt some remorse, which would require him to have at least a trace of humanity. On the other hand, after believing she married Richard to save her father's business, Iris almost immediately learns that Richard betrayed him and drove her father to suicide. At the time, she took it stoicly, but then she finds out what he did with Laura, and it begins to look as if he may even have deliberately driven Norval Chase to suicide to make himself Laura's guardian. Iris certainly has means, motive and opportunity, and if she could make it look anything like a suicide she could be sure Winifred would get it covered up.In the same argument, Winifred says that Papa Chase had burned down his own factory, which Iris denies, but seems almost certainly true. Which just goes to show that neither woman is prepared for the truth.
Still, I disagree with claims that Iris is an unreliable narrator. In the end, I don't see that events contradict anything she's said. I think she's always told the truth as she knows it, and corrected the story when she learns better (though I think she might have concealed her part in murder).
I would argue that Iris is unreliable because she was in the dark (blind) about so many things. She was not a curious person, or even one who wanted to right the wrongs she saw, so I think she rationalized her role and allowed everyone else to take action--to define her. Finally, when she takes matters into her own hands, people die.
She certainly was in the dark. I'm not sure she rationalized her role so much as thought she had no role at all, but I don't see that she talked much about the things she didn't know (which were many). In the early narration, there are huge blanks—exactly because she didn't have a clue.
Derek (Guilty of thoughtcrime) wrote: "She certainly was in the dark. I'm not sure she rationalized her role so much as thought she had no role at all, but I don't see that she talked much about the things she didn't know (which were ma..."She accepted having no role, because she didn't want to take care of anyone or have any responsibility. As Laura's big sister, she stated several times that she didn't want to have to watch over her. That's okay, maybe for an adolescent, but Iris never matured out of it. Submitted to Laura being sent away to an institution, and she didn't take much of a part as the mother of her only child. She didn't want a role, so it was easy to blame others, yet, I think the reality is hard to face, so she made excuses for her helplessness, even as an adult. When she finally decides to do something, she gets it done. Too little, too late, and still, she cannot take possession of her own grandchild. Did she want to? She makes it sound like she did, but I'm not certain.
Chance wrote: "She accepted having no role, because she didn't want to take care of anyone or have any responsibility."I agree.
Chance wrote: "That's okay, maybe for an adolescent, but Iris never matured out of it."
But not with this. I think she did mature out of it. I also know that it would not have been nearly as simple as you suggest for her to prevent Laura being sent to the institution or to keep her child.
"female refuges act 1897". This act (which was in existence for almost Iris's entire life) made it possible to commit or incarcerate women for being "incorrigible", which could be anything from talking back to your father to having sex either out of wedlock, or even if married to a non-white man (obviously applying specifically to white women). Iris had no chance to prevent Laura's incarceration. She might have tried to fight harder, but it would have made no difference (and the fact that she admits not doing so hardly makes her unreliable—if anything it makes her more reliable).
As for her daughter, she seemed to take more part raising Aimee than she got from her own parents (OK, that wasn't entirely her mother's fault—she couldn't help being dead) right up until Winifred stole Aimee from her: and that again was backed by the Refuges Act. If Iris had tried to fight Winifred, she'd still lose Aimee, and be incarcerated into the bargain.
I broadly trust Iris as a narrator, for many of the reasons Derek gives. The gaps in her knowledge early on are made plain, but in the end, she joins the dots. And if she was a deliberately unreliable narrator, I think she'd have painted herself in a better light.
Cecily wrote: "And if she was a deliberately unreliable narrator, I think she'd have painted herself in a better light. "That's my thought exactly.
She is, at times, what TVTropes calls "Innocent Inaccurate". I don't know if there's a literary equivalent, because I didn't know any of this stuff before I started talking about books on Goodreads :-)
At one point, Iris writes about writing honestly as though no one were going to read what is being written. After that point, the narrative seemed to change, and only then did I believe she was being totally honest. Up to then, I think she was trying to cast herself in the best light she could. Thoughts of death, and wanting to give something to her granddaughter changed the narrative.Early on, Iris mentioned Laura's death, but did not own up to the part she herself played until near the end. There were hints, which made me think she was hiding something...which made her unreliable, for me, as a narrator.
Derek (Guilty of thoughtcrime) wrote: "Chance wrote: "She accepted having no role, because she didn't want to take care of anyone or have any responsibility."I agree.
Chance wrote: "That's okay, maybe for an adolescent, but Iris neve..."
Well, that was an interesting law. Still, when Aimee was older and out of Winifred's care, she could have used Iris's help, and Iris ran away. Iris never really worked to help anyone. Once Richard was gone, I don't think Winifred wanted to draw attention to Iris, since Richard's transgressions could have come to light. Iris always gave up without a fight, which may have been due to fear, but I never saw any real fight in her.
Chance wrote: "Still, when Aimee was older and out of Winifred's care, she could have used Iris's help, and Iris ran away."But she didn't. She went to see Aimee, and was met by a total wall. It wasn't Aimee's fault, and Iris recognized that, but it would have taken a trained professional therapist months, if not years, to make any kind of a breakthrough there, and Iris was barely equipped to deal with people without major issues.
Once Richard was gone, Winifred would have done anything to get back at Iris. I think she'd have welcomed a fight—she had, after all, the moral high ground. Anything Iris could have brought to bear would have been countered with Winifred's proof that she'd had an affair (as a widow!). Winifred held all the cards, and even if Iris had been given half an education she'd have lost.
Derek (Guilty of thoughtcrime) wrote: "Chance wrote: "Still, when Aimee was older and out of Winifred's care, she could have used Iris's help, and Iris ran away."But she didn't. She went to see Aimee, and was met by a total wall. It w..."
Iris was easily deterred, always. She had an opening once Aimee turned against Winifred. Whose to say a few more visits might have helped--but Iris crumbles with every obstacle she encounters.
What proof did Winifred have of Iris's affair? I missed that. The novel was fiction, and never identified as Iris and Alex. Winifred didn't want Richard's name dragged through the mud. He was a child molester. Given his enemies, that would have rubbed off on her too, and her position in society.
Chance wrote: "What proof did Winifred have of Iris's affair? I missed that. The novel was fiction, and never identified as Iris and Alex. "It wasn't her affair with Alex.
"I suppose you were taught the gospel according to Winifred. In her version, I would have been a lush, a tramp, a slut, a bad mother.…
"There was a period of excessive drinking – I admit it – though not until after Aimee was gone. As for the men, there were some of those as well.…
"But Winifred was too persistent for me, in the end. All she’d needed was one man, and that’s what she’d got. The pictures of the motel room door, going in, coming out; the fake signatures in the register;…"
As for Richard's name being dragged through the mud, that's why I don't believe it was suicide. These people (if I'm ever going to use that phrase, "these people" deserve it!) don't worry about being dragged through the mud: they control the newspapers and the police. When Laura ran away, they had no trouble covering it up. They'd simply have countered that Iris was "a lush, a tramp, a slut, a bad mother" and probably crazy to boot. And since Iris could be committed on Richard's word alone, it would be self-evidently true.
But I'm glad you brought me back to this passage, because it includes the cryptic reference that originally made me believe Iris murdered Richard: "I doubt she ever said to you that I murdered Richard, however. If she’d told you that, she would also have had to say where she got the idea."
Where did she get the idea?
I forgot about that. Now I remember thinking the one man Winifred caught was Alex. Looks like there were others. Up to then, Iris doesn't mention her transgressions. Seems she only admitted them because Winifred exposed her. Doesn't all that make Iris an unreliable narrator? Before Richard's death, his political career was toast. I thought Winifred argued that Iris murdered Richard much the same way Iris triggered Laura's death--through exposing secrets. I don't think Iris actually murdered him. Perhaps Iris thinks Winifred had something to do with it.
Chance wrote: "Up to then, Iris doesn't mention her transgressions. Seems she only admitted them because Winifred exposed her. Doesn't all that make Iris an unreliable narrator? "Why? It's a basically serial narrative (despite the jumps in time!). There were no other affairs before Richard died (at least so far as we have any reason to believe). When she got to the part after Richard's death, and Winifred taking custody of Aimee, she was truthful about what happened.
I agree that Winifred said, to Iris, that she had caused Richard's death, not that she had actually done it; what is intriguing to me is that this quote from Iris suggests Iris might actually have murdered him. Iris's argument with Winifred could have led to Winifred suspecting it, but then rather than being something she wouldn't want to admit to Sabrina, it seems like something she'd have been sure to tell Sabrina. So I still can't see where Winifred "got the idea". The only thing that makes any sense to me is if Winifred actually killed Laura and Iris retaliated by killing Richard, but that just seems too convoluted on far too little evidence.
Chance wrote: "Before Richard's death, his political career was toast."
Certainly, but he'd never actually been a politician, so I don't see that being enough to cause him to kill himself.
If Iris actually killed Richard, she is keeping it to herself. If she had other affairs while married, she kept those to herself as well. However, she told Laura she had an affair with Alex, and I don't think she just meant the kiss in the attic. Before that confession, we only have the novel to go by, and since Iris wrote it, I assume she was writing about Alex.Perhaps Iris was glad she caused Richard grief enough to commit suicide. Causing Richard's death was a sort of revenge against Winifred, too, since Winifred worked so hard to help her brother towards a political career. Everything R & W did was towards that end, and Iris gave Richard's enemies enough ammunition to kill any hope he had of election.
I like the idea that Iris went after Richard because Winifred somehow caused Laura's death. However, it seems Atwood went to a lot of trouble to prove Laura steered her own car off the bridge. We knew she was upset, and her personality was on the dramatic side.
I think Richard was working all his life to get into office, and when he lost that possibility, and could be exposed as a child molester, and perhaps some shame (one can hope), he took the easy way out. An ego like that would not want public shaming. I suppose it had something to do with the novel, but I don't understand that connection.
Chance wrote: " However, she told Laura she had an affair with Alex, and I don't think she just meant the kiss in the attic."No, she said "months". It wasn't just a kiss!
Chance wrote: "However, it seems Atwood went to a lot of trouble to prove Laura steered her own car off the bridge"
Exactly. Which is why I don't trust my own intuition here—but there's something going on that I haven't worked out.
Chance wrote: "I think Richard was working all his life to get into office, and when he lost that possibility, and could be exposed as a child molester"
I just don't think he ever could have been exposed as a child molester. It's 80 years ago. Even today, someone in a position of power, as Richard had, can sow enough doubt to make the court of popular opinion believe that an innocent like Laura "asked for it". Now, I think there'd be enough questioning to at least get a sizable minority listening to Iris. Then, I have no doubt she'd never have had a hearing.
I really appreciate you arguing with me, Chance! I'm far from certain I'm right on any of this, but I need somebody to make the opposing points! Cecily's only agreed with me, and Traveller's been strangely absent. :-)
Richard was afraid of something. He fell apart after Iris left him. She had enough ammunition to stop him from coming after her, or turning her in. Then, the steamy novel was published, and he fell apart...if I remember correctly. I think he was asked to endorse another candidate instead of run himself? Iris blamed him, of course, but I think she would have been content if Richard would have simply left her alone.I am uncertain of Iris's motive telling Laura that she had an affair with Alex. She knew Laura was infatuated with the man, and withheld the affair in the attic. Why let it slip now? Along with the jolt of Alex's death? Perhaps Iris was trying to hurt Laura, but why? For sleeping with Richard? Doubtful. Iris stuck a dagger in Laura's heart, and either Iris was careless, insensitive, or calculating.
It has been fun discussing this with you. I see that I missed a few items that provide a different perspective to the story.
Don't worry...Traveller will be back!
Chance wrote: "Perhaps Iris was trying to hurt Laura, but why? For sleeping with Richard? "I'm sure Iris was trying to hurt Laura. [and this is probably the best reason for considering her unreliable]
I'm pretty sure Iris didn't have a clue that Laura had slept with Richard until after her death. When Laura said she slept with "him", Iris thought she meant Alex—and I think Iris probably believed Laura had done that long before Iris' own affair began.
I suspect, but I'm way out on a limb now, Iris was jealous of Laura. Even though she was the one having an affair with Alex, she always thought he really loved Laura, and she knew Laura loved Alex (though she was wrong about the physical aspect of that love). I doubt Alex loved either of them, but it's pretty much irrelevant since he didn't make it back from the war.
Derek (Guilty of thoughtcrime) wrote: "...I think she is in fact directly responsible for Laura's death. I'm still not sure whether it's because she told Laura Alex was dead, or because she told Laura she was having an affair with him, but in either case it was that conversation that directly led to Laura's suicide...."That is the type of thing people believe when a loved one commits suicide. They look back and think they "caused" it--that if only a word or two had changed, it wouldn't have happened. They think they are in control of what other people do. There is a temporal--and a narrative--connection here, but not causality.
Laura was already suicidal as a child. We don't know what her relationship with Alex was, do we? When she doctored the newspaper photo and cut it the two different ways--was that foretelling? For me it is as though there were aspects of classical tragedy playing out (assuming I understand what that is).
If anything, there is a cumulative effect of lack of love or kindness for these sisters, although it impacts them differently according to their character.
Think, too, of the corrosive impact of not knowing what's going on. I think it's mostly better to know.
So, no, I don't think Iris killed Laura, and I hope I would not look on real life situations that way, either.
Derek (Guilty of thoughtcrime) wrote: "I really appreciate you arguing with me, Chance! I'm far from certain I'm right on any of this, but I need somebody to make the opposing points! Cecily's only agreed with me"Oh no I haven't...
Actually, I mostly have. I'll try to rectify that. ;)
One problem I have is that it's more than two months since I finished it, and I've read more than usual since, so some of the details are hazy, and if I don't have my copy with me, I can't even try to track things down.
Derek (Guilty of thoughtcrime) wrote: "I doubt Alex loved either of them, but it's pretty much irrelevant since he didn't make it back from the war."His death is exactly why it's NOT irrelevant if he loved anyone/thing other than his cause.
Iris and Laura grieved, reminisced, and embroidered separately, each constructing their own reality, without Alex being there to refute it (though he'd probably have tried to wriggle out of anything definite).
Cecily wrote: "Iris and Laura grieved, reminisced, and embroidered separately, each constructing their own reality, without Alex being there to refute it "Well, I think that's what I really meant. If he'd come back, Iris at the least would have had to face reality (and that would be a whole 'nother novel, because Iris isn't good at facing reality).
Hey, I thought you wanted me to disagree with you! :p
Jan wrote: " We don't know what her relationship with Alex was, do we? When she doctored the newspaper photo and cut it the two different ways--was that foretelling? For me it is as though there were aspects of classical tragedy playing out (assuming I understand what that is)."No, we don't. That's why I thought Iris was jealous. When Laura first met Alex, Iris thought they were having sex. So, Iris felt her affair with Alex was cheating on both Richard and Laura. Then when Richard said Laura was pregnant, Iris was both confused and jealous. She thought Laura couldn't have been pregnant because Alex was with Iris; then maybe Alex had been seeing both of them. I don't recall her ever wondering if Laura had had sex with anybody else at the time (though she did suspect it of the vendor at the fairground, but I think that was much earlier).
Derek (Guilty of thoughtcrime) wrote: "...When Laura first met Alex, Iris thought they were having sex. So, Iris felt her affair with Alex was cheating on both..."She did??? Did she think Laura was capable of such, at that point?
Derek also wrote, "Then when Richard said Laura was pregnant, Iris was both confused and jealous. She thought Laura couldn't have been pregnant because Alex was with Iris; then maybe..."
Yes, I remember Iris' confusion. Who could imagine what Richard had been up to? It took her a while.
Remember how Richard used to stare at Laura, even Iris commented on this. Thats when my sixth sense kicked in, but Atwood skillfully deflected that ominous feeling and so i was as shocked as anyone when The great reveal finally happened. I felt so upset, punched in the gut, thats when I went to bed without supper at six pm, to finish it. Thinking back, I wonder if Iris's emotional constipation and jealousy that made me react so, not only the revulsionary thought of Laura, who I identified with, with Richard, the vulgar cad.
Derek (Guilty of thoughtcrime) wrote: "... the cryptic reference that originally made me believe Iris murdered Richard: "I doubt she ever said to you that I murdered Richard, however. If she’d told you that, she would also have had to say where she got the idea." ..."It truly never occurred to me while I was reading that Iris may have murdered Richard.
That would fit with--or explain--the title of the novel!
Mod
I mean, the story as is revealed at the end was laid out completely for us right from the start already. Right at the beginning I thought it was Laura who wrote TBA, but it soon became obvious that it was actually Iris, so I was wondering if the big reveal would be that it was actually Laura after all, but nope, the ending was completely predictable in that respect, I found. Not bad, and quite poignantly sad, but very predictable as well.
Derek (Guilty of thoughtcrime) wrote: "From the prior thread:
Chance wrote: "But, Iris is the one whose actions indirectly caused the death of Richard and Laura. She is an assassin, of a kind."
I disagreed in both cases but for differ..."
I completely agree with everything Derek says in that post of his. :)
Mod
"The tea would be dark, tannic, like swamp water. This was the correct, the English way to serve it, said Richard."
Trav? Cecily? Really? T..."
The big difference between American and English tea is that English tea tends to be hot with milk (not compulsory) and usually not with lemon. What Americans call "tea" Brits tend to call "iced tea" - right, Cecily?
Hmmm, about the English drinking it weak? ... I suppose that comes down to personal taste, all I can say is that I grew up with and still use a teapot to steep my tea in, and... yeah but really, milk and sugar and how much is usually left up to the guest. I mean, you pour a certain amount and the guest says "when" and the guest adds his/her own amount of milk/sugar.
...and in summer you have iced tea. :)
Mod
Ha, this thread is interesting, as I suspected it would be. I've thought about Iris's passivity. The novel often gives us hints that Richard was messing with Laura and that Iris seems incredibly innocent not to get a whiff or suspicion of it, but I think she is purposely blind, because she cannot face the truth, as only a spouse who is being cheated on but prefers not to know can be blind.
Mod
I agree.
Chance wrote: "That's okay, maybe for an adolescent, but Iris neve..."
That is shocking... :(
Yes, I also got the idea that Iris is reliable certainly in the sense of not purposely lying. She is close to death and she more than once says that the only gift she has to offer Sabrina is the truth.
I personally don't think she directly murdered Richard; I think she knew the political and emotional death-blow she was dealing him was enough revenge, and yeah, it does seem as if, to some extent at least the book may have been out of revenge, - but I think the book was more than that.
One needs to keep in mind that very often, there is no record of historical events aside from what people remember. In a way, The Blind Assassin story that Iris wrote, was a way to keep Alex alive indefinitely, in the sense of that the written word tends to have a certain degree of immortality.
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At the end of the book Iris makes it clear that the clinic was investigated and that uncomfortable correspondence between Richard and the clinic staff was discovered:
The story that Laura had committed suicide, so efficiently quashed at the time, rose to the surface again. People were talking, not just in Port Ticonderoga but in the circles that mattered.
If she’d done it, why? Someone made an anonymous phone call – now who could that have been? – and the BellaVista Clinic entered the picture.
Testimony by a former employee (well paid, it was said, by one of the newspapers) led to a full investigation of the seedier practices carried on there, as a result of which the backyard was dug up and the whole place was closed down. I studied the pictures of it with interest: it had been the mansion of one of the lumber barons before it became a clinic, and was said to have some rather fine stained-glass windows in the dining room, though not so fine as Avilion’s.
There was some correspondence between Richard and the director that was particularly damaging.
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Iris is in love with Alex, really in love, and she believes Laura's unborn child to be Alex's child, so of course the thought of Alex two-timing her with Laura makes her feel wildly jealous.
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I'm sure Iris was trying to hurt Laura. [and this is probably the best reason for considering her unreliable..."
Yes, she was trying to hurt Laura, but she admitted it! (Okay, she admitted in a roundabout way that she had hurt Laura enough to commit suicide.) That's why she was so very worried after Laura took the car. This is her dark burden that she has to bear, this is what she blames herself for. She even says that she should have kept her mouth shut, but one can read between the lines that she couldn't resist getting her dig in because she felt so hurt herself, at Alex and Laura (as she thought at that point) having an affair.
Mod
Have you people forgotten that Alex asked Iris to leave Richard for him and to run away with him, and that Iris refused because she was doing her usual "helpless little me" act? ...and even after she forsook him in that manner, he still went back to her again. So I think he loves her as much as it was possible for him to love a woman.
We have no proof that he ever even thought of Laura, although he did hint at admitting to infidelity towards Iris, although I thought he was possibly just getting a dig in at Iris because she was married and he could not (as he said himself) stand the thought of her with Richard.
