Rating: 
Summary: Suppose
Review: I thought this was a very strange book. Ms. Atwood waves a very complicated plot around a story the point of which does not become clear, because the characters and their motives do not become clear. Before our eyes, great disasters take place, 2 World Wars, the rise and decline of a small town dynasty, secret love, arranged marriages, an abortion, the social upheavals of the twenties, the Big Depression... and yet it does not reach us because all that is important in this story, is not told, not directly. We do not know Alex, for example, what his motives are, what exactly he is running away from, does he love Iris, what does he think? We can suppose he is afraid, in love, an anarchist, a murderer, a rebel... We do not learn about Laura, what really happened between her and Richard. We can suppose she is sad, lonely, special... We do not know anything at all, in fact, about Iris herself, because nearly until the end, she does not participate in what surrounds her, she only reacts, never acts. It is very strange, for example, that she should have been stupified to the point of letting others shut her sister away without even the wink of protest. We can only suppose she is conformist, intimidated, frightened, in love, confused... Instead of reading about the real tings, we only read about what happenes around, before and after them. Laura is - supposedly - raped by her brother in law, but we only see her not eating and taking her coffee outside, to put just one example. I fail to see the point in this technique when the real events must have been immensely touching and interesting.
Rating: 
Summary: Giant rollercoaster of a novel, full of sizzling harpies...
Review: You're in your late twenties, you're married to one of the most powerful industrialists/politicians in post-war Canada (although you're now living apart), and your beautiful Harpy sister has just died in a mysterious road accident. So what do you do? You publish your sister's first and only novel, and watch as the vultures descend... Margaret Atwood's Booker prize-winning novel is long and difficult to digest, a veritable seven-course meal. It's taken me a long time of reading and rereading to get my angle upon it. From the start, everything seems relatively straightforward. You know what happens to whom, and where and when they died. The rest of the novel explores have they got there. However, what's most interesting about this narrative is that it does stray from the path, and ventures into the Wild Woods. When Atwood won the Booker, she poignantly praised the work of Angela Carter, which resounds in a small paragraph in the novel: "All stories are about wolves". The Blind Assassin is very much a work of magic realism. You need to have some background reading, starting off with Dante's Inferno, especially Canto XIII. The Wood of the Suicides features the Harpies, and I believe these are symbolic of Laura's supposed 'hysteria'. Harpies are also known as 'The Robbers', and Laura is a notorious klepto. Iris (the name of our narrator) was also sister to the Harpies in myth. The two young heroes in the pulp novel have to enter a wood that supposedly has terrifying dead women in it. Laura is symbolised by the suicide of Dido from the Aeneid. There's also the glorious Book of Daniel, which recounts how Babylon fell overnight (which resounds in the pulp novel too, including the victorious Assyrians' Code of Hammurabi). Allied to this is the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, translated by Edward Fitzgerald: "The Moving Finger writes" quote is a direct link to the Book of Daniel and the Fall of Babylon. Add to these ingredients a generous helping of the Pre-Raphaelites and Alfred Lord Tennyson, and you've got the kind of novel that I love. No doubt this will sound pretty daunting for your average reader (I've compiled a page concerning the context of this novel for interested readers). However, I think most people will be able to enjoy this novel without all these references. On the other hand, Margaret Atwood makes a big assumption that lots of people will know what the Depression was like in Canada. Unfortunately, Roosevelt and his New Deal are far more famous internationally than the ruthless 'Iron Heel' of Canadian Prime Minister Richard Bennett. Canada had a devastating Depression in the "Hungry Thirties", which was only fuelled by Bennett's policy of setting up forced work camps. This suffering made more people rally to the Communist Party of Canada under the leadership of Tim Buck, and led to organised protests, such as the Ottawa Trek. This was also the time of the 'Red Scare', the violent repression of 'pinkos' in North America. It's worthwhile looking up the trial of Sacco and Vanzetti, and the deportation of Emma Goldman in order to really appreciate Alex's flight. Alex symbolises the many Canadian Communists who fought in the Spanish Civil War. However, Iris and Laura are cocooned in Avilion, and you don't really get to see anyone starving in The Blind Assassin to get any sense of this context, so probably Alex's cause is lost on a lot of readers. The only fault of the novel is openly acknowledged within Laura's narration: "I've failed to convey Richard, in any rounded sense. He remains a cardboard cutout." Due to the plot of the novel, Richard's most significant actions are always clandestine, off-camera. The only factual error I can find in the novel also revolves around him: "He was a frequent participant in the Pugwash conferences," we're told in his obituary at the beginning of the novel. Yet Richard died in 1947, and the Pugwash Conferences started in 1957 - the only way that Richard could have attended would have been as a manifestation of Banquo. Since the Pugwash Conferences were devised to bring around world peace, Richard (who's profited so much from his pugilistic attitude and the Second World War) seems a most unlikely candidate for membership. Margaret Atwood can't have too much of a liking for the legendary King Arthur on this evidence, but it's poetic justice that Richard's Excalibur is thrown away, never again to see the light of day. All in all, this is a very enjoyable novel, and Atwood deserves the Booker prize (even if I think Matthew Kneale's English Passengers is slightly better). John Buchan, author of The Thirty-nine Steps, makes a cameo appearance towards the end in his more formal role as Lord Tweedsmuir, Governor General of Canada at the start of the fall of the British Empire. The narrative also concerns the Fall of the House of Chase. Norval Chase commits an unforgivable act of patriarchy when he sees the writing on the wall, and submits his daughter to the veil. Just like Belshazzar, he cannot avoid his fate, especially when faced with the mercurial Richard Griffen as adversary. Laura finally finds her voice after years of numbness, but at what price? The house of the Patriarch is falling (which is only just), but Margaret Atwood is courageous enough to question what has taken its place
Rating:
Summary: An excellent read
Review: I greatly enjoyed this book. I loved the way it featured several different writing styles: the novel within a novel, the newspaper/magazine articles, and Iris' narrative. The book included several hints of what was really going on without ever truly coming out and directly saying it until the end. I hated having to put it down. This is the best book that I have read in a while!!
Rating:
Summary: I loved this book!
Review: As many of others have said on this site, this book has stayed with me long after having finished reading it. I finished the last page and have still continued to carry it around with me. I'm rereading the "Blind Assassin" sections. This is a remarkable piece of art.
Rating:
Summary: 12 stars would not be enough!
Review: I was a bit disappointed as I read the other reviews for this book; many of them were so negative. I highly recommend this book. I did not think it was overly complex and garbled. I found it to be comfusing at first, but I just kept reading and all of a sudden, I had been drawn into an incredible story. This is a great book.
Rating:
Summary: atwood is a goddess of the written word
Review: Every word, every sentence blends together in a work of art. Margaret Atwood is a master story weaver. This is her finest work. I finally got my daughter to read it, and now finally, she too is an Atwood-addict!
Rating:
Summary: Remarkable
Review: I relished every page in this amazingbook. Atwood's use of language is wonderfully quirky and descriptive -- not a trite metaphor to be found. I've read and liked most of her books, and this one is the best ever!
Rating: 
Summary: Complex But Rewarding
Review: There are two things I really liked about this novel: it is difficult to draw obvious parallels between the main narrative lines; and, the main character is not easy to like -- my sympathy for her is hard won. These may not seem like positive attributes, but they are important aspects of a book that I won't soon forget. I liked this novel's complexity, it's richness of character, and it's mystery. And as a Torontonian, it was nice to see some Canadian place-names in there!
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful - and whole.
Review: A book within a book within a book; Two blind gods: Eros and Justice; More than one assassination - and form of assassination; Gothic literature surviving in the more extreme Science fiction stories - the potboilers churned out to keep 'the masses' occupied and titillated - the ones read by schoolboys under the bed covers with a torch; And the mass movements of 20th Century history - filtered through provincial colonial Canada: complete with the snobbery of the new rich, the banalities of society columns and small town newspaper reports (and a dig at critics). How Margaret Atwood manages to combine these elements, and more, into one novel and at the same time produce a thoroughly intriguing 'detective story' is beyond me - but she succeeds. This is one of those books you cannot put down - and guessing the end doesn't help - she still manages to twist the knife. What look like weaknesses in characterisation finally fit: Weaknesses in plot aren't! Buy and read. This is going to be on the reading list of universities and schools for centuries to come.
Rating:
Summary: It stays with you long
Review: a book review should try to be honest and it should also try to give information to the reader that would make you either want to read the book or perhaps postpone reading it to later or let it go (hey nonny nonny). The Blind Assassin is not a book that makes you smile when you finish it, or make you sad because you have reached the last pages, or make you decide to reared it soon or next year. There are many reasons why this is so; the main reason for me is that it have not still left me. I have read it but I am not finished with it. It is a bit hard to read, its complex, so not a book for those who likes just easy stories that starts on A and ends on Z. One of thereasons for this is that the Blind Assassin is two stories that are entwined and which makes the reading a bit different from normal A-Z stories. In one part of the story we follow a couple of sisters and there life, in the second we are presented for parts of a famous novel written by one of the sisters. Confused? Well then, is not often life itself confusing. But could you state; do we want the novels we read to be confusing as well? And I would have to respond, no, but likewise if all novels were straightforward A-Z, where would the mystery be, the complexity, the compelling and mesmerizing stories where you do not end the book when you finish the last pages. Atwood has delevered a very strong story that should be read carefully all the way to the end. I had to halt my reading midway and let my hardcover copy lay for 5 weeks (I did not want to drag it along travelling)but picked it up whan back home and it was as if I had hardly been away from it. So, its obviosly not that complicated. I advice you to be commited and take the time to savor her descriptions and her voices as a journey through someone's life. If you do have interruptions, be reassure that you won't lose the thread of the storyline. I highly recommend this book to anyone and everyone! You won't regret it. And I have added Atwood to my list over great Canadian writers alongside Robertson Davis and Timothy Findley.
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