The Blind Assassin
by Margaret Atwood
★★★★
This was the first Atwood I ever attempted (a few years back) and I just wasn’t ready for it. I got about 50 pages in and put it down and that’s always bothered me. Now that I have a few other Atwood’s under my belt, I felt compelled to try it again and I’m glad I did. It’s not a book to be rushed through, the story is too rich. You need to be able to settle in and just wander through it.
First we meet Iris Chase, an elderly woman reminiscing about her sister, Laura, who killed herself at the end of WWII. Iris is bitter and harsh and at first we don’t know why. Slowly she tells us the story of her wealthy family, her unhappy marriage, her troubled sister and more. As her tale unfolds we are given bits and pieces of a fictional novel written by Laura and published posthumously. That sci-fi book, titled The Blind Assassin, reveals even larger insights into the Chase family and their complicated lives.
For me, this Atwood falls somewhere in the middle of the books I’ve read of her’s. It’s not as brilliant as The Haidmaid’s Tale, but I liked it more than Oryx and Crake. She has a wonderful way with words and she breathes such beauty into all of her novels. She also gives the reader a lot to process. The “big reveal” of this book was no surprise (to me at least), but instead, Atwood carefully gives you more and more pieces to the puzzle and allows you to form your own conclusions as the picture begins to take shape. It’s a good read and one that has cemented my appreciation for the depth of Atwood’s work.
“The only way you can write the truth is to assume that what you set down will never be read, not by anyone other person and not even by yourself at some later date.”
“Romance is looking in at yourself, through a window clouded with dew. Romance means leaving things out: where life grunts and snuffles, romance only sighs.”
