Rating: 
Summary: The Best Book of 2000
Review: As the manager of a busy inner city bookstore, I read quite a few books in a year. This was my absolute gem for 2000.The Blind Assassin is a very different story, mixing pulp sci fi with mystery, early 20th Century romance and scandal. A fantastically explored piece, The Blind Assassin proves the Booker Judges once again gave the top nod to the right person, particularly as this was the third time Atwood was nominated for the award. Read and enjoy.
Rating: 
Summary: Clever Words, Rotten People
Review: The only character who has a clean (pure) view of the world and the people in it is Laura, who is ostracized, marginalized, mocked and institutionalized by the poeple who are supposed to love her. Everyone else in the story is small-minded, greedy, self-involved, and cruel. Big Deal. Atwood is a sharp writer and has a catchy turn of phrase, but her characters are so vicious or appallingly weak that you really don't care at all what becomes of any of them. Worst is Iris, who despite having a galaxy of personal battles to fight, sits on the sidelines and twiddles her little thumbs and lets other people do the living for her. She's a sickening nitwit. Atwood can write, but she can't entertain, at least not with this novel. As for the Booker Prize, the best readers know not to confuse excellent writing with a good read.
Rating:
Summary: Atwood's Masterpiece!
Review: This book was so moving, poetic, and lyrical I couldn't put it down! I have always enjoyed Ms. Atwood's novels, but this one is in a new league. It has a depth and spirituality that has been missing in her other work. There are many, many passages in this book that deserve to be read more than once... The narrator has a clever, insightful wit that kept me smiling throughout the book... A really original story...highly recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: Well, it's not Alias Grace. . .
Review: I've been addicted to Atwood since I was in Junior High (I'm now mostly done with an MA in Literature). I'm beyond hooked on Alias Grace--I've read that novel at least once a year since it came out,last year I taught it in my Freshman Composition class--and everytime I read that book, I find something new that holds onto me and brings me back again (usually a question that I wrestle with for months after each reading). I'm going to confess right off the bat that I'd read anything of hers, regardless of the critical drubbings it received, and find something in it to defend. That said, The Blind Assassin is no Alias Grace. By this I mean--I was sooooooooooooooooooooooooo disappointed in the ending! a) I figured it out pretty early on, and was excited by the idea, but b) how cheap can you get, coming right out and GIVING your audience the answer that way? Last spring it took me MONTHS to convince my students that the fact that there's so much you still don't know at the end of Alias Grace is one of the most brilliant and provocative parts of the novel. And ten months later, Atwood comes out with a book which basically tells them that they were right, that we do need easy answers, that we oughtn't have to think for ourselves and interpret things (god forbid) because we've got novelists to do it for us??? I feel like this is a personal affront. . . (kidding). On the plus side, it's not The Edible Woman either. Atwood is constantly changing and growing as an author (inevitable, when your first novel is published in your early 20's), and her work here is much fuller and richer than it was in many of the early books (the fact that the clunky and heavy handed Handmaid's Tale will always be revered as her magnum opus makes me want to retch). The prose is phenomenal, the story engaging, I loved the part where Iris writes the letters back to scholars enquiring about "Laura's" book (that one hit home!), her tales of learning to navigate Richard and "Freddie," the way the pieces fell into place gradually. The oft maligned "novel w/in a novel" is what really haunts me about the book, and what will (probably) send me back to it sooner rather than later. If nothing else, it's worth having for the gorgeous cover. I don't know if this will join the once-a-year-crew (Grace, Robber Bride, Cat's Eye, Lady Oracle), but my copy is going to see some mileage.
Rating:
Summary: "Little Pitchers Have Big Ears....."
Review: "...Looks are deceiving. You get what you ask for." Such are the vacant homilies that define the lives of Iris and Laura Chase, as they attempt to find structure in a confusing world. Their mother has died giving birth, their father drinks himself senseless, but at least they have a home. And a housekeeper, Reenie, their surrogate mother, the fount of endless aphorisms: "Leave well enough alone. Thank God for small mercies." Nothing is as it seems in this new novel by Margaret Atwood. THE BLIND ASSASSIN is a story within a story, written in the phrases of the 30's and 40's, the Depression Era and World War II. Save the occasional tutor, Iris and Laura grow up in a museum of a house with minimal preparation for the world outside. When their father is on the cusp of losing his factory, a quiet deal is arranged with Industrialist Richard Griffen, a man with a hidden political agenda. Upon Mr. Chase's death, which is imminent, ownership of the Chase Factory is passed along to Mr. Griffen, along with the hand of the oldest daughter, Iris, 18, in marriage. The younger daughter, Laura, 14, is a purist and fervent idealist who chafes at the guardianship of the Griffen family after her father's demise. As the girls mature, circumstances separate their lives. Tragically, Laura is killed in a car crash. Accident? Maybe not. Iris Chase Griffen posthumously publishes a single book of Laura's, one that gains a multitude of fans for this tragic young author. As Iris shares these memories in her waning years, another tale is introduced, "The Blind Assassin". This story unravels along with an ongoing affair of an idealistic young man and his married paramour. Each clandestine meeting hints at mystery, while the story is early science-fiction of the simplest kind. We find a renewed strength in Iris Chase Griffin; she is no longer malleable or passive. Certainly she is capable of exposing her own behavior, her part in this drama, with a stunning conclusion. Without the armor of self-delusion, Iris makes it clear that "blind" has many definitions indeed.
Rating:
Summary: Atwood is the master of tragedy.
Review: Like some others, I bought this great book, then set it aside because of negative reviews. That was a big mistake, because The Blind Assassin is a great book and well deserves the plaudits it is now receiving. I won't review the plot, but have a couple of observations. First, Atwood continues to establish herself as one the great stylists of the English language. Like writers such as John Le Carre and Charles Frazier, Atwood clearly loves the English language. She writes sentence after sentence after sentence of thoughtful, beautifully crafted prose. Every word is well considered and suited to the sentence, to the plot and to the mood. If, like me, you stand in awe of those who can consistently create well crafted sentences, you will love everything Atwood writes. Second, there are a lot of messages in this complex book, but one "universal" message struck me more than any other. Late in the book, Iris remembers a moment in the attic when she and Laura were doing some homework prescribed by their execrable tutor Mr. Erskine. Laura then laments that their earlier tutor "Miss Violence" was gone. Then this brief exchange. First Iris: "So do I. I wish we had Mother back." Then Laura: "So do I." Whether intended or not, Atwood has written a parable of the pain that befalls children when the parent who could have made the difference in their lives is gone. To a large degree, the tragedy of the lives of the Chase daughters stems back to the loss of their mother. Every child deserves at least one loving parent to guide them to adult life. But there is far more to this book than that. After 100 pages, I was enthralled with the unfolding tragedy. Atwood is worthy successor to Shakespeare in in her ability to present the agony of a great tragedy in the guise of a well told tale.
Rating:
Summary: Not to be read in a day...
Review: The story of Laura and Iris Chase is one of the most mesmerizing stories I have ever read. Although admittedly a difficult work of fiction, "The Blind Assassin", full of symbolism and human emotion, is a clever novel that weaves several stories into a fluent narrative. I read here a review attacking this book --without making any reference to the actual content of the novel by someone who said to "have an Ivy League PhD in English Literature and still read 2 or 3 novels a day." Although I am no one to judge a person's claims, I must say that this is not a novel that could be read in a day. Actually that would be nigh-impossible, for it is so well layered, that it takes you in a journey and it cannot easily be dismissed if at all. With this modern work, Ms. Atwood ranks herself along with Timothy Findley as one of the most brilliant nad disturbing Canadian literary masters of our time.
Rating:
Summary: Worth the effort
Review: The Blind Assassin is primarily concerned with disconnection - from feelings, from family, from bodily pleasure and pain, from truth, and, ultimately, from life. The multi-layered narrative isn't difficult to follow, but the first third of the novel took its time in luring this reader into its center. Once the connection was established, however, this, the latest Atwood novel (and, deservedly, a Booker Prize-winner) was irresistible: I spent much of the holiday weekend absorbed by the interwoven stories of Iris, Laura, Alex, and the other dysfunctional souls in Assassin's cast of characters. (If you liked The Blind Assassin, check out some of the other books I've reviewed. Happy reading!)
Rating: 
Summary: THE BLIND ASSASSIN - CATCHY TITLE FOR A CRUMBLE BOOK
Review: I am retired, have an Ivy League PhD in English Literature and still read 2 or 3 novels a day. You would think that after so much practice writing, Margaret Atwood would finally come through with a genuine sizzler. A sizzler 'The Blind Assassin' is not. It is more like a small, once white hot coal doused with with a gallon of water during a driving tropical rain storm. The stuff for potential is there in the novel but it just doesn't cut the mustard. Atwood likes to put in the literary descriptive details a la Edgar Allen Poe, she has adopted some kind of twisted emulation of William Faulkner's style it seems to me - the end result is a disturbed mish mash of Margaret Atwood's mental masturbation. Grow up or give up Margaret. If you want to read a five star version of "The Blind Assassin", read Steven King's "Insomnia" - it is the best 1900's love story I've probably read in the last 10 years and yes, a genuine white hot sizzler.
Rating:
Summary: Atwood Disappoints
Review: Let me start out by saying that I am a fan of Margaret Atwood but was sorely disappointed by BLIND ASSASSIN. I found the book tedious and uninvolving, and felt a particular disconnect when reading the novel-within-a-novel. Atwood is a brilliant writer and captures complex human experience better than anyone (read THE ROBBER BRIDE or CAT'S EYE). Unfortunately, in BLIND AMBITION she fails to capture an engaging plot.
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