Rating: 
Summary: I tried, I really Did -- more of a 2.5
Review: I wanted to like this book -- and tried to make myself finish it, but finally, after two months and several other books in between, I called it quits and begged my online book club to tell me what happened.
I've never read Atwood before, and have heard this book is not her typical work. So I do plan to read her again sometime, but this book was so tough to get into. From the beginning I was compelled to keep reading by her excellent, poetic writing. However the people were not incredibly likeable -- were almost one dimensional, and I couldn't develop an interest in them. I felt that because of the acclaims this book has won, I had to keep going, and I did. Until page 200. And a lot happened, in fact three stories were going on at the same time. But not one of them interested me. I usually love books of this time period and of this genre. But this book was so dark. It was as if the world the Author was paining was black, and the lives of the characters were so one dimensional that they had to create parallel universes. Or maybe I was creating them in my mind to try and forage an interest in the stories. Regardless, despite interesting concepts and ideas... Atwood just didn't carry it out for me. And I now know what happens in the end and I am glad I decided not to finish because the darkness just gets darker. And the lives of the characters in the story are never fulfilled -- nothing to learn, nothing to gain, and nothing to think about at the end except for why did I bother reading this as long as I did? I can see some people liking this all the same -- maybe it is a book that people should attempt because they would either love it or hate it. I was pretty indifferent.
Rating: 
Summary: Great story
Review: The only Margareth Atwood book I had read before this one was Alias Grace - a book I loved, so I had great expectations when I started The Blind Assassin. I have mixed feelings about the book. It really took some time to get into the story, but once I was there it was hard to put down. The Blind Assassin is the story of two sisters and the way their life turns out. It is told by the older sister Iris, written by her late in her life, looking back at her life when she was a young girl, through her growing up and through her life as a married woman. There are three lines, or threads on the story, paper clippings, "The Blind Assassin - a sic-fi book said to be written by her sister who took her own life when she was young, and then the story of Iris's life. All three threads sewn together. It was at first hard to keep the stories away from each other, but the more I read the more Atwoods way of writing took me. And the more I saw the masterly way she blended the stories together. For me this is a very sad book. About a lonely woman who looks back at her life, a life she has wasted in so many ways. A weak woman apparently, but when you read between the lines you can also easily see her strength. Still it makes me so sad and so angry the way she was unable to do something about her life when she was actually living it. Britt Arnhild Lindland
Rating: 
Summary: Not Atwood's Best
Review: An uninteresting, slow read that was torture to finish for my book club. Being a Margaret Atwood fan, I was eager to begin this latest book that won the Booker Prize. Although I find Atwood and unbelievable wordsmith, this book with the "book within the book" never really took off for me.
One of the main characters, Iris, narrates the story in a droll, unemotional tone that never engages the reader. If the story does become interesting, especially describing her younger sister Laura and her eccentricities or Iris's moments with her lover, we are plummeted into a frustrating and boring science fiction story that never quite meshes with the rest of the novel. There are parallels with main story, which the reader finds towards the end, but by then who cares.
I did enjoy Atwood's unique use of newpaper articles as lead-ins to a chapter. I have never seen that technique used in a novel and each one piqued my interest.
As a Margaret Atwood fan, I have to say that this book is not one of her finest stories. For me, it had the least likeable characters. It is on another level, a beautifully written novel with wordy descriptions that create visual images that only Atwood can.
Rating: 
Summary: Chase's mysterious world
Review: A Epic tale of love,humor and some speckle of touching untouchables entwined throughout.Old Iris told the tale with humor and sarcasm (but ,one asks,what is she really thinking?The possiblities are of infinity). The Untouchables are actually touched throughout and with much more sensitive or sentimental readers,the real heartwrenching part lies in the vivid imagination of this fictitious world ,rather than Iris 's wordy contact with the readers .Atwood ended the Chase tale like this "I must admit I have a daydream about you.One evening there will be a knock at the door and it will be you.You'll be dressed in black,you 'll be toting one of those little rucksacks they all have now instead of handbags.It'll be raining,as it is this evening,but you won't have an umbrella,you scorn umbrellas;the young like their heads to be whipped about by the elements,they find it bracing.You'll stand on the porch ,in a haze of of damp light;your glossy dark hair will be sodden,your black outfit will be soaked,the drops of rain will glitter on your face and clothes like sequins..........What is it that I'll want from you?Not love : that would be too much to ask.Not forgiveness,which isn't yours to bestow..........By the time you read this last page,that -if anywhere-is the only place I will be." Finally...... Iris Chase was prepared to face whatever was imminent.Despite how much I do not 'want' Iris Chase's 'direct contact' with the readers lamenting how much and how much she has done to not save her little sister,when one looks back and sees the young Laura jumping around and pondering about God or Pure Beauty and the father's love story and the war,the whole thing is simply inevitably poignant.Atwood or Iris did not exactly put who or What innocent Laura Was . Perhaps what truly is incredible and beautiful is something that is probably independent of reality and what is spoken - something that exists in another 'dimension' ?
Rating:
Summary: Deservedly the Booker Prize winner of 2000
Review: Winner of the prestigious Booker Prize award, Margaret Atwood's "The Blind Assassin" (BA) was arguably the most celebrated novel by a major fiction writer in 2000. Subtlety, style and quiet restraint typifies this strikingly beautiful and confident work of Atwood's. It may seem hard to believe but she gets better and scales new heights with each new novel. For a start, the story within a story structure is a masterful sleight of hand. There is even a third sci-fi story just waiting to burst forth from the fictional story. As we peel away successive layers of the onion to reveal a core of uncertain truths (and lies), we steal glimpses of the misty past of Iris & Laura Chase, including their growing up years during the Great Depression and a multitude of compromises foisted upon them that would shape their destinies. Excerpts from Laura's own novel are intermittently but skillfully spliced into Iris' narration from the vantage point of an old woman. The fictional story - about an unnamed lady of high social standing and her bohemian lover - is suitably obscure, hinting at Laura's own left-field sensibilities. Iris, on the surface the resident matyr of the Chase clan, reveals a hidden dimension to her character. When Atwood finally drops the big one on us, we are floored by the subtlety and understatement of her revelation. Still waters run deep. The impact of Atwood's prose, graceful and ethereal, is magnified by the controlled power of her delivery. I can think of no finer book to recommend to anyone this year. BA is a major triumph for Atwood. May the ink of her pen flow on forever.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best books I've read in a while
Review: A truly unique novel that is so engrossing, I actually missed the characters when I wasn't reading it.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointed in The Blind Assassin
Review: I thought this book was so slow to read. It is certainly not the story that "Amazing Grace" was! A vaguely mysterious story of two little 'rich' girls born before WWI who lived a very sheltered life in a factory town near Ticonderoga, Canada. Although there were at least two, possibly three novels being told at once, none of the characters in any of these novels engaged me enough to go to bed early and turn the pages avidly to find out what would happen next. It took a lot of time to read because it was, well, wordy. At the end, I am left with a feeling of... so?
Their grandfather founded a button factory which created the wealth which supported the family. After World War I the girls' father didn't seem to be able to keep the business going profitably, perhaps because he was too sympathetic to the needs of the workers. This story is told by the older of the two sisters, Iris. The story involved me most as Iris told of her arranged and loveless marriage with Richard Griffin, whose sister Winifred controlled him, Iris, and Laura; the sister who seems to have had more guts than Iris, but then she committed suicide, or did she? Laura wrote a book ( or did she?) that gained her a devoted following in the literary world. Both Laura and Iris fell in love with a young socialist (or did they?) who was always hiding from the authorities because it was believed he had set a fire which partially destroyed the button factory. It wasn't until just before Laura's 'accidental' death that Iris learned what she needed to know which gave her the courage to leave her rich abusive husband and sister.
The whole book left me with a feeling that these characters were not real...ever!
Rating:
Summary: Bravo!
Review: This is a wonderful, engaging novel. I enjoyed the story of two sisters written in the present and the past, and observed through news clippings, and a novel within a novel. It is well-written, and Margaret Atwood has such an ability to turn a phrase, that I found myself reading sentences over again just to enjoy their feeling. I had some difficulty getting into it at first, because the sisters's story was so good I hated to stop for the novel within the novel. However, once the story took off for me, I didn't want to put it down. Margaret Atwood is one of our great writers.
Rating:
Summary: Best of the year
Review: I can already tell this will be among my favorite books for the year, maybe because you get three stories in one, and Margaret Atwood is masterful at interweaving them. Plot, language, charaterization, it has them all.
Rating:
Summary: The Blind Assassin Review
Review: The Blind Assassin was a very interesting book. I was intrigued by it from the start of page one to the end of page five hundred and twenty one. It was a pleasure to witness the metamorphosis that Iris undergoes. Her character had been through so much in one lifetime. The way that she handles everything is amazing.
Even though I was very intrigued by the book I was also very confused. I do not understand how some of the "beyond this world" stories related to the overall book. I felt like they were not that important to the overall theme. If they did relate to the theme I must have missed. In conclusion, I would definitely recommend this book to other people to read.
Even though I was very intrigued by the book I was very confused. I do not understand how some of the "beyond this world" stories related to the overall book. I felt like they were not that important to the overall theme. If they did relate to the theme I must have missed.
In conclusion, I would definitely recommend this book to other people to read. You would probably have to read this book a couple of times to understand it. I give it four out of five stars.
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