Rating: 
Summary: Wow. Ten stars. Marvelous tour de force
Review: Margaret Atwood should be knighted or something. She just gets better and better, and she started out being very good indeed. For me, The Blind Assassin is her most accomplished book. Most of her books have a bit of mystery at their core, and this is no exception. The Blind Assassin is a spellbinding family saga set against the backdrop of WWI, the Depression, and Communist witch-hunt persecution, but those over-arching themes are played out within the tragedy of one family, the Chases.
The matriarch of the pathetically shriveled family is Iris, and she's dying from a heart ailment. Much of the book is told as her recollections back to the wartime suicide of her enigmatic sister, Laura. There's a parallel story interspersed through the main story, and it is the posthumous publication of Laura's novel, "The Blind Assassin."
There is weirdly sci-fi back-story woven throughout, a plot concocted between a couple between their bouts of lovemaking, and it becomes apparent that the young man is in hiding for political reasons. But even with plentiful clues strewn throughout, it takes a while (maybe halfway into the book) to begin to figure out all the many layers of this complex and mesmerizing literary work. There are flashbacks, flashbacks within flashbacks, distorted memories, flights of fancy - and only a writer of Atwood's consummate skill could keep a handle on all this stuff and have it make perfect sense by the end.
Fantastic!
Rating: 
Summary: The Blind Assassin
Review: The Blind Assassin opens with death, the young Laura Chase plunging off a bridge to her doom, which is ruled as an accident, but possibly a suicide. Her sister Iris discovers a collection of notebooks in her possession, notebooks that Laura had left specifically for her to find. Inside these notebooks is, among other things, a novel. Posthumously published, it creates a strong reputation for the deceased woman, critics considering it a tragedy of letters that Chase died so young.
From here, we wander through several chapters of Laura's novel, interspersed with excerpts from newspapers cataloguing other family member's deaths. Laura's novel concerns two young lovers, doing what young lovers do, but between that, the man - nameless for a very long time, an author of pulpy science fiction, and a clear, obvious story-link 'enigma' hook - tells the woman - also nameless - a story about the people of Zycron, a fictional planet. He outlines the customs, beliefs, habits, inserting the details she wants - zombified women, for one - and embellishing upon his own ideas. The story is much, much more interesting than the relationship between the two people, which is hardly understandable. It deals with a blind assassin and a mute young girl, the assassin sent to kill the girl, the girl sentenced to death in a grisly annual ritual to appease the many Gods of Zycron. This fantasy/science fiction blend is quite interesting, and is told through the voice of the male lover, which works to great effect. Rather than slogging through pointless side-story exposition, he and the woman banter, joke, discuss the particulars of the story, enjoying the creating as much as the creation.
Most of the novel is Iris' autobiography, and at the time of narration, she is an old woman. 'The temptation is to stay inside; to subside into the kind of recluse whom neighbourhood children regard with derision and a little awe; to let the hedges and the weeds grow up, to allow the doors to rust shut, to lie on my bed in some gown-shaped garment and let my hair lengthen and spread out over the pillow and my fingernails to sprout into claws, while candle wax drips onto the carpet.' She feels helpless, tired and useless, or thoughtful and curious and, in many ways, jealous of her dead sister whose memory taints everything in her life. Far from being Iris, she is Laura's sister, a title which chaffs, even at eighty years old. She is a bitter old woman, bitter and alone, which can sometimes be annoying to read - twenty pages of anger directed at the world is quite tiresome to read - but for the most part is enjoyable, the language 'historical' in a sense, and sad.
Unfortunately, the next 80 pages or so are wasted on a history of Iris's family, from her grandfather
down. This is an interesting section, it is true, but after the intriguing opening, it feels like a robbery. Why would I care about such things when my appetite for the fictional story of Laura has been growing? Perhaps if this section was placed later, or earlier, it would have been more warmly received, but as it is, the insertion seems a mistake.
We are then taken through the particulars of Iris' life, and the reason for the preceding history becomes clear. Clear, but still not appreciated. It is a shame that, with such an interesting opening, we are then forced to ignore and forget about it while a hundred, two hundred pages of family history go by. Happily, this sensation leaves us two hundred or so pages in, as the 'Blind Assassin' chapters come back with great regularity. If this had been kept up for the entirety of the novel, perhaps the problem of the Chase family history would not have existed.
The novel is filled with trite little one-liners to keep us reading, keep us guessing. A shame, because Atwood's writing and plotting is perfectly functional without this. Why do I need to read lines like, 'Aimee's death was not my fault', or 'Compared to where he might be, it's a palace'. The answer is: I don't. And yet there they are, right in the text. It's unfortunate that she felt it was necessary to insert these meaningless foreshadows. As a literary technique, foreshadowing is fantastic, and she uses it often in subtle and clever ways. But keep-me-guessing lines such as these are simply not good enough, and were probably the biggest disappointment of the novel.
But the writing is, for the most part, simply enjoyable to read. Who could not appreciate this: 'We pass a few more franchises - smiling chickens offering platters of their own fried body parts, a grinning Mexican wielding tacos.', or . But then there are less pleasant lines such as: Did I snore? ...I couldn't bring myself to ask. In case you're wondering, vanity never ends.' I hadn't asked; I don't care. But then a passage like this comes along: 'Why is a honeymoon called that? Lune de miel, moon of honey - as if the moon itself is not a cold and airless and barren sphere of pockmarked rock, but soft, golden, luscious - a luminous candied plum, the yellow kind, melting in the mouth and sticky as desire, so achingly sweet it makes your teeth hurt.', and Atwood is well and truly forgiven.
The novels moves along, chronicling Iris' life. It is unfortunate that the young Iris is presented as so vapid, so unaware so - stupid. Thankfully, the older Iris realises this, it is something for which she is quite apologetic and sad. She never fully understood the implications other people had on her life, or the lives of her sister and father. By the time she did, it was far too late. The older Iris is bitter and sad, but she never really descends into angst or insincere emotion - there are times when she chides herself for being melodramatic. This is an interesting way of presenting the story, because frankly, I had no sympathy for the young Iris - whatever happened to her was her own fault, and as the pampered, never-worked-a-day-in-her-life lazy wife of a rich man, the reasons for being 'on her side' are few - but the older Iris is very sympathetic, a sad, sorry woman who demands - and deserves - respect and caring.
Rating:
Summary: A parable within a novella within a journal within a novel
Review: "The Blind Assassin" could well be the premier example of how good metafiction is when it works--metafiction being a novel about fiction or, more typically, a novel within a novel. Yet Atwood isn't content with mere metafiction: instead she takes the concept and cubes it. Here we have a sci-fi parable within a steamy novella within a confessional journal within a novel, all interspersed by newspaper clippings, and the remarkable thing is how everything interweaves so effortlessly and believably.
Iris Chase is writing the journal that frames Atwood's novel. She relates the daily, humiliating burdens of old age and reflects on the familial and societal circumstances that led her sister Laura to an apparent suicide half a century earlier. Alongside this journal we read Laura Chase's posthumously published noir-style novella called "The Blind Assassin," concerning a well-to-do woman (someone a lot like Laura or Iris) and her torrid, secretive affair with a "Red" (as in proletarian) rabble-rouser. The book's publication made Laura famous in death, both because of the explicitness for its time and, in later years, because of its subtle feminist message, which made her grave a shrine of sorts. And, finally, within that novella is a pulp fiction science fiction story about the Planet Zycron and its bizarre inhabitants, a morality tale related by the boyfriend to his lover during their trysts.
On some level, Atwood's book is a mystery novel--there are several revelations along the way--but (smartly) she doesn't make too much of these secrets. As Iris says when she uncovers the final skeleton (and I won't spoil it here): "But you must have known that for some time." And, it's true, most readers will figure out the book's secrets many pages or even chapters before their unveiling. But deciphering the secrets is not even half the fun of this novel. Instead the marvel is watching Atwood fit all the pieces together, create characters that are both fascinating and realistic, and narrate four different (if interconnected) stories in authentically unique styles.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful! True literature!
Review: From the moment you open 'The Blind Assassin,' Atwood has you hooked. At times, you're not quite sure why - it's not a typical story, but a story chronicalling an entire life that leads up to one event.
The beginning of the book may be a bit confusing, as Atwood bombards the reader with so much important information in a variety of forms. But it all becomes clear as the story progresses. I found myself endlessly entertained in not only reading the novel, but also trying to figure out what would happen next.
As far as the written word, Atwood has the touch. She is effective in writing in a variety of voices and tones. She captures what it is like to age, what the thirties and forties were like, and also writes in a variety of styles including: present narrative, past narrative, science fiction, and journalism.
'The Blind Assassin' is definitely not to be missed! If I have read anything that classifies itself as true literature, 'The Blind Assassin' would definitely be it. Atwood is wonderful, and her portrayal of her characters are vivid. Overall, a beautiful book that I highly recommend.
Rating:
Summary: Bleakly Beautiful
Review: I admit to being an Atwoodaholic--I wrote my master's thesis on Surfacing and paid double the price to have Alias Grace shipped to me from Canada in advance of its US publication date. As such, I devoured her newest novel in two sittings, despite its 500+ page length. It has left me feeling bleak and, in the words of the book's narrator "scraped clean inside." This is a beautifully structured book, involving three (perhaps even four) narrative layers that play off of each other to build a terrifying commentary on love, passion, sisterhood (both the biological and, by extension, emotional kinds), and betrayal. The book contains the closest thing to a love story Atwood has ever written, and it's a harrowing one that will sneak up on you and devastate you in the end. With the primary action being set between WW I and WWII, the novel also offers a final comment on the twentieth century: humanity's culpability in creating, destroying, and creating again, and on the quiet moments of beauty that are possible (temporarily) among the rubble.This is a great book, a worthy successor to the wonderful Alias Grace. Read it at your own emotional risk, but READ IT.
Rating:
Summary: An engaging, lyrical book
Review: I found this book to be an absorbing read - very interesting and well written. Unlike some of the other reviewers, I didn't feel bored or strung along until the end. To me, the identities of the mystery lovers were evident early on. However, what kept me reading was the intriguing story of Iris' journey through life and how it related to her sister's untimely end - There's more than one mystery here!
The historical details in the book were also fascinating and not overly done - it gave a great taste of what times gone by were like for these people, socially and otherwise.
The novel-within-a-novel idea is also fascinating and lends to the book's mystique. Through this vehicle, you get a different point of view on the lovers' relationship. It also gives strong hints as to what's going on beneath the surface in the sisters' real lives, reflecting their experiences in mythological, almost archetypal terms.
Overall, this is an excellent book, especially if you are looking for something bittersweet that has depth and is very well written. I highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Atwood Astounds Me Once More
Review: I have never been a big book reader. I might have read the odd short story, but since I studied Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale" at college last year, I have become addicted to her work. Once I had finished that classic dystopian novel, I picked up "Alias Grace" and adored it, before moving onto "The Blind Assassin" which I finished reading a few weeks ago. I think out of the three books I have read by her, The Handmaid's Tale is the best, then The Blind Assassin, whereas Alias Grace is a magnificent, astounding piece of work but takes quite a while to really get going.
The Blind Assassin was published in 2000, and was the sensational winner of The Booker Prize, one of the most prestigious accolades in the field of literature. What you get when you read this novel is a sense of extreme confusion. The book is actually four in one, nestled in Russian doll style, each one dovetailing into the next, providing a launchpad for the next. It's complicated and twisted at first, then it grows on you like an infestation until the full perspective of Atwood's tapestry begins to weave itself together. This novel further adds to her genius as a true and leading female author - one of the best in the business, in fact.
The main narrator in The Blind Assassin is Iris Chase Griffin, who is 83 when we first meet her, but is obviously younger in flashbacks of her life. As the 20th Century draws to a close, she decides to document her unusual life in notes from childhood into old age in the hope that they will be read one day - inparticular by her granddaughter Sabrina - who is now a young woman - who she hasn't seen since she was a young girl. We know that a rift caused this separation and that it wasn't Iris' fault, or not completely. The threads of each complex storyline swirl around in a mass cloud of Atwood's creation, with her at the forefront, in complete control of the reader's position in the novel. She's a master at these kind of literary devices, and she knows exactly what she's doing. Before long you won't be able to put the book down. The novel is also intersected with newspaper cuttings that give away sly details of her life not filled in by herself.
The novel opens with, "Ten days after the war ended, my sister Laura drove a car off a bridge. The bridge was being repaired: she went right through the Danger sign. The car fell a hundred feet into the ravine, smashing through the treetops feathery with new leaves, then burst into flames and rolled down into the shallow creek at the bottom. Chunks of the bridge fell on top of it. Nothing much was left of her but charred smithereens."
It is to the late Laura that authorship of the novel The Blind Assassin is attributed, with a posthumous publication date of 1947. The novel within a novel gives its title to the whole of the book, a device Atwood also employed in Lady Oracle (1976). The story, which is also told in the first person, details a lengthy and clandestine affair between a socialist on the lam and his socialite lover. Within this story of Laura's, the man tells his lover a story of his own: this one is a pulp fantasy set on the planet Zycron, "located in another dimension of space."
The fictional lover tells his story in installments, during trysts. "Have you cooked up any more?" She asks him in one of his rented rooms. "Any more of what?" he replies. "Any more of my story." And so he tells her of slit throats and murder and betrayal and a blind assassin in the doomed city of Sakiel-Norn. It's a tale more fiction than science and after a time it emerges as a surreal metaphor for the lives of the lovers and - oddly - for the lives of those outside of Laura's fiction.
The characters within Iris' documentation are superb - recalling her life over the past 70 years is a long, tedious process, but characters such as Reenie, Laura, Richard, Winifred make this a classic, unforgettable piece of literature. Since the Chase sisters are born around the time of World War I and the novel climaxes after the end of World War II, most of what occurs obviously takes place in the time between the two wars. Atwood perfectly captures the feelings and emotions of the times - the optimism of the 1920's, of sickness, the fear and hunger of the depression and the ignorance towards Hitler and the Nazi Party's rising power.
At more than 600 pages, this is surely one of Atwood's finest novels in her entire back catalogue. Atwood created one of the most memorable of all female characters from her novels - up there with Grace Marks (Alias Grace) and Offred (The Handmaid's Tale). She is to be congratulated on her intellectual capacity and her ease at crafting such masterpieces. I've just started reading Atwood's "The Robber Bride," and I hope it brings me as much joy as this novel did. Buy it.
Rating: 
Summary: Long, Long, and needs an editor
Review: I listened to this on cassette tape. After the first three tapes I realized that the author was telling a story from the first person way too much. There is a rule in writing good fiction, show not tell. She had to tell a lot since it was first person, but she could have did more showing to make it more interesting. After the third tape, I resolved to listen to the last tape, number eleven, and then pick back up with number four. This was to see if she was going anywhere. She wasn't. I found out that the other tapes were essentially useless. I missed a little plot development, but not much. I'm not going to listen to the other tapes. A good editor would have told her to cut this novel in half, then it might have kept the readers attention. On the plus side, she's a good writer with a good style. I might pick up another of her novels and try again.
Rating:
Summary: Inspiring
Review: I was blown away by this book - it is so amazing, I absolutely adored it!
Right from the first page you are drawn into this intriguing tale of two sisters, Iris and Laura Chase and the story of their lives from birth to death. The structure is very interesting and at times slightly confusing as Atwood emplots three types of narrative to tell her story. In a way, the style allows the reader to fill in the blanks and gain that omniscient, omnipresent view of the Chase sisters' lives.
This is part mystery, part family saga, but much more, Atwood pulls this off so brilliantly it is easy to see why this won the Booker Prize. The narrative voice is beautifully melancholy and realistically bitter as the elderly Iris recounts her life to the reader and slowly unshrouds the mystery behind her sister's untimely death.
It takes a while to get used to the constant chopping and changing of the narrative voice, as well as the jumps back and forth in time, but once you get past all that you begin to see how truly amazing and innovative the novel is.
I can't recommend this anymore! \
Rating:
Summary: couldn't put it down - loved it
Review: I've read Margaret Atwood's stuff in the past, and enjoyed it, but it took me a couple of tries to read more than 30 pages into this one. Once I did (third try) the various storylines got me hooked and I couldn't wait for my train commute so I had uninterrupted reading time. The older Iris Chase character parts are wonderful - probably my favourite storyline of the three - and the sci-fi story is quite interesting. I know some of the other reviews for this title say it's not Atwood's best work - and perhaps not - but it's a wonderful read all the same. Try the first 50 pages, say, and I bet you'll like it.
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