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Summary: A wonderful, engrossing story
Review: This was my first Margaret Atwood book, and I loved it. I loved how the tale twisted and just when you thought you knew something, you discovered you didn't. I loved that it was three stories in one. The "science fiction" tale so many others failed to comprehend was brilliant. It was a parable applicable to the main characters. The love of the blind assassin for the maiden who was to be sacrificed....the maiden who really WAS sacrificed to save her father's company. The description of the sci-fi society and its parallels to the one in which the Chase sisters lived. It was more than just a sci-fi story, it was insight into the mindset of the man telling it and the mindset of the woman he told it to.I read this book non-stop in two days and when I finished it, I was up half the night re-reading most of it. No, it doesn't spell every plot line out to you in black and white, but it does offer a challenge to the thinking reader, and that is what made it so interesting and provoking. The ending was clear...it became evident in the end who the mystery man and woman were, and I found the ending satisfying. I would recommend this book to anybody who loves a good story ...or two ...or three, and especially anyone who likes a plot that isn't spelled out in the first chapter.
Rating:
Summary: A rich pleasure
Review: The Blind Assassin deserved the Booker Price and every other accolade it got. It's a beautifully told, heartbreaking story; populated with convincing characters, set against a rich and well-researched backdrop. Add to that story-technique finesse: The narration consists of flashbacks, newspaper articles and stories within stories within stories. A lesser writer would have lost her audience (and herself), but Ms Atwood can not only pull it off, but make it an enjoyable, gripping read. Five stars!
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely Brilliant
Review: This is one of the best books I've read this year. It skillfully weaves several different narrative lines that keeps the reader engaged to the very end. The language is wonderful. Atwood successfully writes in the voice of Iris, the elder sister, sometimes bitter and always moving. The plot keeps you guessing, but at the same time, Atwood raises important questions about knowledge, belief, and existence.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best novels I've ever read
Review: As a newcomer to Margaret Atwood, I was not sure what to expect. Never one to pass on a book just because the storyline or plot seem dull, I gave it a shot. As you see from my reviews title, I am glad that I gave it a shot. Atwood is able to take the story of an elderly woman reflecting on her life and turn it into a riveting story featuring suicide, adultery, labor strife, and blackmail all in story that unexpectedly turns on itself in the end and surprises you with an ending so good and planned that you realize that it was all there in the book while you read it. ... Highly Recommended
Rating: 
Summary: Atwood at her Best
Review: Margaret Atwood is one of the best writers of her time. She's one of those people who sucks you into her world, and doesn't let go. This story follows the life of one of two sisters, Iris Chase Griffin, a somewhat cold-hearted wealthy socialite, and examines her relationship with her sister, her husband, and the tragic circumstances which bring Iris to the point at which she appears to the reader at the beginning of the novel. Full of plot twists, this story is unpredictable; one of the reasons why it is so engrossing. An excellent read that will leave you thinking about these characters as if you had known them yourself.
Rating: 
Summary: What did I miss?
Review: I must have missed something, because I just don't get much more disappointed in a book than I was in The Blind Assassin. I have both loved (The Haidmaid's Tale, Cat's Eye, The Robber Bride)and hated (Alias Grace) Atwood's other works. This falls into the "hate" category. It was never interesting and not particularly well written. The science fiction story was just plain painful. Was the "surprise" really much of a surprise? I'm rarely disappointed in Booker Prize winners; what happened here?
Rating:
Summary: The Blind Assassin greatly disappointed me.
Review: I began The Blind Assassin with great hopes and finished it greatly disappointed. The story-within-a-story-within-a-story is awkward and, until the end of the book, lacked continuity. Even disregarding that form, I found the substance of the book lacking in meaning and depth, and devoid of issues to consider. Having finished the book, I am at a loss at to why the author wrote it. I do not know what I am supposed to take away with me. Thus, I certainly cannot explain to you why you should read it. Further, the characters were one-dimensional and I cared little for them. The narrator Iris is unbelieveable as portrayed; throughout the book she is a character who allows others to make important decisions for her. After she learns a terrible secret regarding her husband's unfaithfulness, the reader is supposed to believe that Iris has the gumption and the intelligence to respond in a way that I simply found unbelieveable. Other main characters -- her sister, her husband, and her sister-in-law, are likewise portrayed in a way I found contrary to human experience...they are like cardboard people. When I finished the book, I felt empty, I felt like I had endured a long novel with the result of having nothing to show for it. Worst, I felt alienated by the author, whom I felt had achieved a feat of writing a novel of complex form, at the expense of alienating me, the reader.
Rating:
Summary: An intricate tapestry with no broken threads
Review: Possibly Margaret Atwood's finest work. From the opening question of why Laura drove herself off of a bridge, to the well executed denouement, the three separate tales are cleverly entwined as you imagine how they relate, which is clarified beautifully by the end of the book. Atwood's writing skill is such that she moves the reader through the book from tale to tale without breaking the pace. The cleverly placed newspaper articles serve to anchor the reader in both time and space. Well written and beautifully constructed, this book held my interest from beginning to end and was unlike anything I've ever read before.
Rating:
Summary: Dull, tedious and disappointing
Review: This is the first book of Atwoods I have read and may be my last. If it were not a book club choice I would have ended my chore long ago. I agree with a previous reviewer, "Laura Chase drove off the bridge out of sheer boredom." I have lost respect and faith in the Booker Prize.
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Summary: Stunning.....
Review: "Nothing is more difficult than to understand the dead...nothing is more dangerous than to ignore them" writes Iris Chase, the protagonist of THE BLIND ASSASSIN. Chase is an old woman, trying to outrace her "misbehaving" heart, scribbling away on loose leaf notepaper day after day, transcribing her thoughts, documenting her daily doings, remembering the past. She wants to leave behind a legacy of sorts, an explanation of her life for her grandaughter Sabrina from who she is estranged. Atwood publishes a book every few years and I have read all of them except THE HANDMAID'S TALE (lacking in courage I suppose). I never cease to be impressed with her talent and dexterity as a writer, and the beauty of her written words. As I have aged, her books have kept pace with my development or lack thereof. She speaks to me, saying things I think (do you really want someone going through your things when you die?) and expressing feelings I feel (who does not grieve?) She raised my consciousness with LIFE BEFORE MAN, made me laugh with LADY ORACLE, fed my need for the mystical with ALIAS GRACE, and helped me put old resentments to rest with CAT'S EYE. Now as I enter what the insurance companies describe as the "high risk" years, she arrives with THE BLIND ASSASSIN to help me put my house of memories in order. Atwood says, "Happiness is a garden walled with glass: there's no way in and no way out. In paradise there are no stories, because there are no journeys." On earth our lives are stories with a beginning a middle and an end. If you truly live you must love, and if you love, sooner or later the blind assassin rips out your heart and you become--says Iris--a hard-boiled egg with a missing yolk. There are two main stories, one "tale" and a few asides in THE BLIND ASSASSIN. The silly sci-fi incident referred to by another reviewer is a toss-away tale, not the crux of either of the two main stories or the tale. The primary story is Iris's somewhat deconstructed autobiography. Most of the action in her chronicle takes place in the 1930s and early 1940s just prior to and during WWII and concerns her childhood and early adult years with her sister Laura. For a while, you may not know who is telling the second story interwoven through Iris' tale, as it has been written in the third person. This story is lyrical and absolutely haunting --reminscent of the poetic writing in the THE ENGLISH PATIENT. The second story takes place during the same period as the first. "The Blind Assassin" is also the title of a tale constructed by one of the characters for the amusement of another. This latter piece reminds me of one of Scherazade's tales set in an exotic place in Western Asia. Does God have a left hand? Laura asks. In French left is mal or bad. How can God have a bad hand. But man is made in God's image and men have left hands so God must have a left hand. But who would sit on God's left or bad hand? Maybe God sits at a round table says Iris and everyone sits on his right.
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