The blind assassin

I've been thinking about what I want to say about this book since I finished it a few days ago. I loved the theory of this book. Two stories, interleaved -- one of an old woman looking back on her life and the suicide of her sister, and the other of the book her sister left behind. The themes of sacrifice and loneliness and sadness that echo throughout the writing. In retrospect, as I look at it logically, I want to like this book.

But it just didn't work for me as a story. It was just too slow-moving, the themes too obvious, the villains too villainous. The "surprise" ending felt hasty and patched. The pulpy space opera novel-within-a-novel-within a novel was tedious and dumb, and I didn't believe for a second that the book was as terrific and life-changing as it was described.

It took me two tries across ten years to finish this book, and I wish it had been better, more engaging. I expect more from Atwood.

Another great read and phenomenal book from Margaret Atwood! Quickly becoming one of my favorite authors. Her vocabulary and descriptive turns-of-phrases are levels above anyone I think I have ever read. And for the third book in a row (that I have read), Atwood does a fantastic job of crafting a story that entertains as well as making you think.

While The Blind Assassin starts off slower than other Atwood books that I have read, it is in no way less exciting that the others. Once things start to fall into place for the reader, it becomes a page-turner that you don't want to put down until you know the truth about everything and see if your hunches are, indeed, correct.

I would recommend either Oryx & Crake or The Handmaid's Tale for first time Atwood readers, but The Blind Assassin is definitely a must read for anyone who is a fan of hers.

I expected the book to come as billed: "An intricately intertwined set of narratives hiding a shocking family mystery." Instead it was
1. Snippets of an interesting science fiction story, told by unknown lovers, padded with
2. An excruciating story of two young, insipid, girls and their coming of age. The beginning of the lives of the girls was interesting to develop setting and character, and their adulthood (the end of the time described in this part) was predictable, but at least relevant. However, for the middle 300 pages, this becomes an interminably long day-by-day description of everything that they ate and wore. In addition, because these girls are so completely insipid we are treated to the details of how they hate absolutely everything and aspire to nothing, which is a little less than endearing. However, this is still not the most insufferable of the three parts, because the remainder of the book is
3. The nominal framing device. Less a story on its own and more to remind us how "clever" Atwood is in her prose style, this framing device seems to consist of determining how many ways the narrator can find to remind us that she's old and her heart bothers her. She goes to eat donuts. She reads the graffiti on bathroom stalls. She has chest pain, a lot. She tries to do her laundry. Rinse, lather, repeat.

Even without much in the way of plot (that which there is having been telegraphed 300 pages in advance), this book could have had literary merit if the characters had been at all interesting. But instead Laura and Iris are the most frustrating characters known to my literary world. For example, Iris complains bitterly about getting married away to a rich man, for which one may have sympathy, had she not spent the proceeding 100 pages explaining how she wanted to be rich and she expected to marry money to get there. Laura is flighty and "spiritual," and disobedient, in such ways as to be maximally irritating but accomplish nothing. However, if Laura ever directly told anyone anything there wouldn't really be a book, so there is that.

The other most frustrating part of this book is the "unknown lovers" framing device for the Blind Assassin story. It is obvious to the reader who the unknown lovers are; however the characterization in this segment is so drastically different from that of the others (in that the female protagonist of this section, unlike every other female character in this book, has opinions, expresses them and acts on her will.) It is unclear whether this is done in a futile attempt to obscure the identity of the unknown lovers, or because the story is being told by an unreliable narrator (which makes little sense, given the final identity.)

Addendum, 12/11 - having finished Oryx & Crake it feels nothing short of criminal that Margaret Atwood spent time writing this book when she is clearly capable of so much more.