The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood

The Blind Assassin is the story of two sisters, Iris and Laura Chase, who grow up in Canada in the interwar years. Right at the beginning, we are told that after the end of WW2, when she was only 25, Laura committed suicide by driving her car off a bridge. Iris is telling this story many years after the fact. She is an elderly woman now, and the sections about the past alternate with snippets of her current life. By looking back, she tries to understand – or explain – the events that led to her sister’s death and to other tragedies in her life.

Along with the main plot, we have excerpts of Laura’s posthumously published novel, The Blind Assassin. It’s the story of a love affair between a woman and a pulp writer, and inside it we have a third tale, a dystopian story told by the man to his lover. Set in another planet, it's the story of a blind assassin and his love for a mute slave girl. All three stories are connected, and they mirror one another in ways that the reader gradually realizes.

I loved this book so much. I was quite disoriented at first, and it took me almost a hundred pages to begin to make sense of the story, but my endurance definitely paid. And I actually didn’t mind being disoriented all that much, because I had the feeling that’s what I was supposed to be feeling. Besides, Atwood’s writing is such a joy to read that I bet I’d have gladly kept going even if the story hadn’t begun to make sense.

The Blind Assassin is a complex and subtle book, but by complex I don’t mean inaccessible. The several layers and the stories inside the story work so well. And so does the subtlety – you realize things before you know you’ve realized them, and when they are revealed they come not as a surprise, but as a truth that was on the very edge of your perception, that you had been dimly aware of for long but had not yet been able to put a name to.

There’s so much in this novel that remains unsaid, so much that stays between the lines. And yet it’s there all the same. I was actually dumb and gave myself a pretty major spoiler when I was only a few hundred pages into the book, but in the end it didn’t matter. Like I said, this book is not about being surprised. And already knowing this particular thing allowed me to pay attention to all the hints, and to appreciate how the story is structured in a way that I would otherwise only be able to appreciate on a second read. Still, as soon as I finished the book I was seriously tempted to start it again so I could pay closer attention to even more details. And we’re talking of an almost 700 pages book here, so that's saying a lot.

But what is The Blind Assassin about, you ask? I really can’t come up with a simple answer to that. In a way it’s a coming-of-age story, albeit a tragic one. It’s also about the twentieth century, about the two wars and their consequences, about life during the great depression. And it’s also about gender and money and class and how these factors determine the lives of Iris and Laura Chase.

The Blind Assassin raises questions for which there are no simple answers. To which extent did the circumstances determine the lives of these two women? What role did their personalities play? What would we have done in Iris’ place? What could we have done? The fact that the story is told from the perspective of an aged Iris also makes it about memory and regret. In a way, Iris is telling her story to attempt to answer these questions, to atone for what she did (or did not do), to examine her regrets. She actually has a clear audience in mind, but I can’t say more about this without spoilers.

I will say, however, that the fact raises yet more interesting questions about her honesty, about her reliability as a narrator. Iris definitely seems to be at last admitting that she could have done more. But we cannot help but wonder if she knew more than she is saying. Is she being completely honest with herself? Again we go back to the things that remain between the lines.

I’ve gone on for long enough, but let me say again how much I loved the writing. Once again, Margaret Atwood blew me away. The more I read her, the more I love her writing. I think I’ll go with either Alias Grace or The Robber Bridegroom next. Atwood fans, what do you think?

Favourite passages:

Farewells can be shattering, but returns are surely worse. Solid flesh can never live up to the bright shadow cast by its absence. Time and distance blur the edges; then suddenly the beloved has arrived, and it’s noon with its merciless light, and every spot and pore and wrinkle and bristle stands clear.

Listen to the clock ticking, I said. It was a pendulum clock – an antique, white and gold china; it had been Grandfather’s; it stood on the mantelpiece in the library. Laura thought I’d said licking. And it was true, the brass pendulum swinging back and forth did look like a tongue, licking the lips of an invisible mouth. Eating up the time.

Some of the best things are done by those with nowhere to turn, by those who don’t have time, by those who truly understand the word helpless. They dispense with the calculations of risk and profit, they take no thought of the future, they’re forced at spearpoint into the present tense. Thrown over a precipice, you fall or else you fly; you clutch at any hope, however unlikely; however – if I may use such an overworked word – miraculous. What we mean by that is, Against all odds.

But in life, a tragedy is not one long scream. It includes everything that led up to it. Hour after trivial hour, day after day, year after year, and then the sudden moment: the knife stab, the shell-burst, the plummet of the car from the bridge.

The picture is of happiness, the story not. Happiness is a garden walled with glass: there’s no way in or out. In Paradise there are no stories, because there are no journeys. It’s loss and regret and misery and yearning that drive the story forward, along its twisted road.

Other Opinions:
Rhinoa's Ramblings
It's All About Me
Out of the Blue
Trish's Reading Nook
Reading Room
Caribou's Mom
Life and Times of a 'New' New Yorker
The Inside Cover
Just One More Chapter
Bold Blue Adventure
An Adventure in Reading
Back to Books
Belle of the Books
Farm Lane Books
Care's Online Bookclub
Andrea's Book Nook

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