The Blind Assassin: Amazon.ca: Margaret Atwood, Michael O&#146Brien, Patricia Hamilton, Amy Rutherford, Anik Obonsawin, Tom McCamus, Robert Bockstael, Fiona Reid: Books

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"It's loss and regret and misery and yearning that drive the story forward," writes Margaret Atwood, towards the end of her impressive and complex new novel, The Blind Assassin. It's a melancholic account of why writers write--and readers read--and one that frames the different lives told through this book. The Blind Assassin is (at least) two novels. At the end of her life, Iris Griffen takes up her pen to record the secret history of her family, the romantic melodrama of its decline and fall between the two World Wars. Conjuring a world of prosperity and misery, marriage and loneliness, the central enigma of Iris's tale is the death of her sister, Laura Chase, who "drove a car off a bridge" at the end of the Second World War. Suicide or accident? The story gradually unfolds, interspersed with sketches of Iris's present-day life--confined by age and ill-health--and a second novel, The Blind Assassin by Laura Chase. Allowing a glimpse into a clandestine love affair between a privileged young woman and a radical "agitator" on the run, this version of The Blind Assassin is an overt act of seduction: the exchange of sex and story about an imaginary world of Sakiel-Norn (a play with the potential, and convention, of fantasy and sci-fi).

With the intelligence, subtlety and remarkable characterisation associated with Atwood's writing (from her first novel, The Edible Woman through to the best-selling Alias Grace), these two stories play with one another--sustaining an uncertainty about who has done what to who and why to the very end of this compelling book. --Vicky Lebeau --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Atwood's Booker Prize–winning novel, with its 1930s setting and stories within stories, is well suited to audio dramatization. O'Brien has simplified and streamlined the structure so that it jumps around in time less and makes clearer parallels between past, present and the whimsical internal novel. Some dialogue has been added, while many meditative and descriptive sections are absent, but the new words blend gracefully with Atwood's own, and her elegant style remains intact despite the omissions. Abundant sound effects make the production much richer than many audiobooks; it sometimes seems like a movie without the visuals, with chirping birds, clinking silverware and the murmur of crowds filling in the background. Music that alternates between a lovely, slightly melancholy theme and an ominous one, helps highlight the shifts from the protagonist Iris's personal history to her retelling of the novel. The skills of the cast almost make such extras unnecessary: the three women who play Iris at different ages capture her brilliant but frustrated spirit perfectly, while the actresses for her troubled younger sister, Laura, find just the right blend of dreaminess and defiance. Though in some respects this adaptation is less intricate than the rather complicated original, the condensation serves it well, making the story more tightly wound and intense in a way that should attract listeners who may be put off by Atwood's writing. (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Unwinding of Male Dominance, July 16 2009

By

Ian Gordon Malcomson (Victoria, BC) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME) (TOP 10 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Blind Assassin (Mass Market Paperback)

Having stuck it out through thick and thin with this sometimes complex and twisty novel, I can now truly say the experiene was rewarding. Margaret Atwood once again lives up to her reputation as one of Canada's finest fictional writers. This novel is one of those rare works that effectively blends form and content to provide an entertaining and instructive story about life in high society in southern Ontario during the 20th century. The structure - the multiple-layering of stories - takes a little sorting out, but when the big picture finally emerges halfway through the book, the reader will be rewarded with a very clear understanding of Atwood's working philosophy. The plot is mainly about the two Chase sisters growing up together in the town of Port Ticonderoga during the 1920s. They are members of a wealthy family who during the Great Depression fall on hard times and virtually lose everthing. The moments together during the good and bad times are told much later as the older sibling, Iris, reflects on the life they once lived together and how it eventually fell apart because of circumstances beyond their control. Her reflective account grapples with why she and Laura, once so inseparable, eventually drifted apart and went their own separate tragic ways. Included in this tale are moments of intrigue, love, fantasy, injustice and tragedy, all cleverly woven together around a theme that is found in many of Atwood's writings: the incredible dominating power of the male sex drive to limit and control women. These two women unfortunately fall into the clutches of Richard Griffen, an up-and-coming political star, who marries the older one to enhance his public image while sexually exploiting the younger one. This is where the inner stories cover those parts of the younger sister's life as told by Iris through the aid of letters, diaries, and a vivid imagination. There are a number of key threads running through the book that masterfully converge near the end as a common point of resolution. They include the gradual deterioration of both the Chase and Griffen family names; Iris and Laura's evolving relationship; their separate battles to gain their freedom; and the emergence of a mythical character called the Blind Assassin whose role is to seek out and indiscriminately destroy promising females in a fictional world that mirrors the real one the sisters live in. "The Blind Assassin" offers the discerning reader everything he or she could possibly want in a novel: a well-written storyline; some creative segues into modern Canadian history; and a treatment of some controversial subject material concerning feminism.

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Plot Unfolds Layer by Layer, Oct 17 2007

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Nicola Manning (Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME) (TOP 50 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Blind Assassin (Mass Market Paperback)

Highly recommend! This has moved to the top of my list as best book read this year. Wonderful story. At first it seemed simple and I thought it was good but why did it win an award, I wasn't sure it really deserved it but by about page 250 I realized just how much depth this book had.

This is a book within a book within a book within a book and the plot unfolds layer by layer. At first the story appears to be the memoirs of an elderly woman who is nearing the end of her life. The memoir is two-fold recalling events of the past within her daily life of the present. But woven between the pages of this memoir is the text of the book "The Blind Assassin" written by her sister in the early 1940's. "The Blind Assassin" itself is a book within a book which switches between a clandestine love affair and a science fiction novella. All four stories gradually merge together and the ending is fabulous. I really enjoyed this book!

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars complex sci-fi and historical novel, Jun 24 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Blind Assassin (Paperback)

This is a complex work of fiction composed of 3 sections woven together like the parts of an Oriental rug: 1)The first, and the main, section is a historic reminiscence narrated by Iris Chase Griffen, daughter of a Canadin button manufacturer.
Her upbringing in Port Ticonderoga, Ontario at the Avilion estate is portrayed in rich detail in a series of flashbacks, including her relationship with all members of her family and in particular, with her younger sister Laura. We are given a great deal of historic detail about this period, particularly about World War I and attempts at unionization of the button factory, and we are given details about several generations of Iris's family; in addition, both Iris and Laura's personalities are described in some detail and there are significant differences between them. 2)The second section is an elaborately detailed science fiction story which is woven between the chapters of the main narrative and is narrated by an unknown author to his unknown lover in a series of seedy apartment buildings, contrasting sharply with the opulence of Avilion. We do not understand the connection until the end. The science fiction story itself also contrasts for the most part significantly with the somewhat halcyon life at Avilion, since it includes a great deal of gratuitous violence and appears to be about some sci-fi tribe out of the Dark Ages. 3) The third section is a series of "newspaper articles" of familial or newsworthy interest which are interwoven between the other two stories. Through them, we learn more about World War I, about attempts at unionization of the button factory, about deaths in the family, and about social events significant to the family. Two of the most important deaths--Laura's and Iris's husband Richard's--are apparent suicides, and Iris's daughter Aimee also meets a violent end. All three strands are tied together in the last 50 pages with some surprising twists in the plot in the end; the whole narrative works quite well and there are no loose ends. Two of the other well- developed characters are Richard's rather assertive and colorfully-attired sister, who defends her brother at all costs, and the sculptress Callista Fitzimmons.
Still I am rather hesitant to call this great literature, since parts of it are quite "salty" and remind me a bit of Stephen King in their detail: for example, Iris describes and interprets, several times, the graffitti inscriptions on rest room walls at a local donut shop. In this and in other respects she is throwing "everything including the kitchen sink" into her narrative and one might not be totally off the mark to call the whole thing somewhat ridiculous despite its considerable historical detail.

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4.0 out of 5 stars Few hundred pages for a century in Canada!
This was my first book of Atwood and it certainly encourages me to read more of her. I am fan of thick books with a historical context. Read more

Published 20 months ago by Litt�rature sans fronti�res

5.0 out of 5 stars love Margaret Atwood!
It's like reading three books in one, the way it is written. Again, Atwood is still the best..

Published on May 6 2010 by lafleurpetite