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The Blind Assassin Margaret Atwood 9781860498800 Books

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The Blind Assassin Margaret Atwood 9781860498800 Books

This is a compelling story, perfectly executed. I read the book quickly and, at times, couldn't put it down. The narrative is twice framed, even if one of the frames is ambiguous. In the early-going, the context is set by a few newspaper clippings describing events pertaining to characters later revealed more fully. The rest of the book gradually answers the questions implicit in those events.

I am reluctant to touch on the plot at all because doing so could upset a reader's experience. Suffice it to say, the novel focuses on a portion of the lives of two Canadian sisters in the interwar period. A key driver is their gradually deteriorating financial circumstances.

Structurally, the novel is ambitious, and gives us the piecemeal composition of three different books, albeit sometimes obliquely. There is a mystery of sorts and the reveals occur only vaguely. The reader kind of realizes that he or she has known a crucial thing for some number of pages, and came to know it at exactly the appropriate time.

I haven't read the other books that were nominated for the Booker Prize in 2000 but that this won is not surprising. It is both complex and accessible, which is not an easy feat.


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The Blind Assassin Margaret Atwood 9781860498800 Books Reviews

It’s hard to summarize such a long and complex book, but the short version is that it’s actually three stories in one. The first is about a woman named Iris who, in present day, looks back on her life, including her marriage to wealthy man and her complicated relationship with her sister, who died as a young woman. The second is the vivid recreation of Iris’s past, itself. The third is a book written by Iris’s tragically misunderstood sister who’s death serves as an unspoken catalyst for the entire story.

If I thought summarizing the book up was hard, I can say that telling you why I loved this book is equally difficult. It’s no secret that Atwood has a way with words and is able to weave a complex story with complete ease, but she is also able to foster empathy for misunderstood characters. Atwood manages to recreate a world where the suppression of women is commonplace, but not evil, while at the same time punctuating the story with little rebellions by strong women. Feminism in the 1930’s was of a very different variety than today and Atwood‘s ability to capture both the the reality of the times and the subtle ways women rebelled is nothing short of stunning.
Margaret Atwood took a long time to get where she was going in "The Blind Assassin" but my patience was ultimately rewarded. This book reminded me a lot of Shirley Hazzard's The Transit of Venus, which was also flawed stylistically and revealed its profound core only toward the very end. Both books are about two sisters, the early events that shape/distort their lives and the different trajectories their lives take. In "Blind Assassin," this basic narrative is embedded in a more complex story within a story which has its virtues (mystery, anticipation, secret rendezvous) and drawbacks (confusing identities, convoluted sci-fi, no sex scenes - "Come here" is as hot as it gets).

Much of the main story of "The Blind Assassin" is told through long interior monologues by 83-year-old Iris. Iris is a sharp observer who can be very witty and whose wisdom is hard-won, but Atwood's detailing of her routines, like endless trips to the donut shop (with long meditations on donut holes), tried this reader's patience. On the other hand, when all of the pieces of the puzzle came together at the end of the book, I had a definite "Oh, wow" moment and found much to contemplate the vulnerability of youth; the scars of family life; generational change; love and responsibility; fate vs. will/agency; memory and regret; blindness (whether willful or thoughtless); the burdens of old age; and how it is that some of us make it and some of us don't. "The Blind Assassin" could have been 100 pages shorter but it certainly has something to say to everyone.
How to describe? Saying I loved this book isn't enough, but any analysis I could offer would be pale. After I turned the last page I had to take a break from starting a new book for several days because all the samples I surveyed did not grab me like what I had just finished. Beyond the alternating stories, which dovetail very well, the words are beautifully selected, and never tedious. I really cared about the characters, and no one is pure protagonist or the antithesis. Simply, Margaret Atwood is in a league of her own.
This is a compelling story, perfectly executed. I read the book quickly and, at times, couldn't put it down. The narrative is twice framed, even if one of the frames is ambiguous. In the early-going, the context is set by a few newspaper clippings describing events pertaining to characters later revealed more fully. The rest of the book gradually answers the questions implicit in those events.

I am reluctant to touch on the plot at all because doing so could upset a reader's experience. Suffice it to say, the novel focuses on a portion of the lives of two Canadian sisters in the interwar period. A key driver is their gradually deteriorating financial circumstances.

Structurally, the novel is ambitious, and gives us the piecemeal composition of three different books, albeit sometimes obliquely. There is a mystery of sorts and the reveals occur only vaguely. The reader kind of realizes that he or she has known a crucial thing for some number of pages, and came to know it at exactly the appropriate time.

I haven't read the other books that were nominated for the Booker Prize in 2000 but that this won is not surprising. It is both complex and accessible, which is not an easy feat.