The Blind Assassin

By Margaret Atwood

“Ten days after the war ended, my sister Laura drove a car off a bridge.” These words are spoken by Iris Chase Griffen, married at eighteen to a wealthy industrialist but now poor and eighty-two. Iris recalls her far from exemplary life, and the events leading up to her sister’s death, gradually revealing the carefully guarded Chase family secrets. Among these is “The Blind Assassin,” a novel that earned the dead Laura Chase not only notoriety but also a devoted cult following. Sexually explicit for its time, it was a pulp fantasy improvised by two unnamed lovers who meet secretly in rented rooms and seedy cafés. As this novel-within-a-novel twists and turns through love and jealousy, self-sacrifice and betrayal, so does the real narrative, as both move closer to war and catastrophe. Margaret Atwood’s Booker Prize-winning sensation combines elements of gothic drama, romantic suspense, and science fiction fantasy in a spellbinding tale.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Dec 10, 2010
• ISBN: 9781551994949

Margaret Atwood

Margaret Atwood, whose work has been published in more than forty-five countries, is the author of over fifty books, including fiction, poetry, critical essays, and graphic novels. In addition to The Handmaid’s Tale, now an award-winning television series, her works include Cat’s Eye, short-listed for the 1989 Booker Prize; Alias Grace, which won the Giller Prize in Canada and the Premio Mondello in Italy; The Blind Assassin, winner of the 2000 Booker Prize; The MaddAddam Trilogy; The Heart Goes Last; Hag-Seed; The Testaments, which won the Booker Prize and was long-listed for the Giller Prize; and the poetry collection Dearly. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, the Franz Kafka International Literary Prize, the PEN Center USA Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Los Angeles Times Innovator’s Award. In 2019 she was made a member of the Order of the Companions of Honour in Great Britain for her services to literature. She lives in Toronto.

Reviews for The Blind Assassin

[thesmellofbooks · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I loved this multi-layered novel.

[eoin-311239 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Masterpiece.
There is little left to say about Atwood. This is a spectacular example of her total control of structure, tone, incomplete information, and flat-out beautiful sentences. Worth it for the eyes like snake-filled pits.

[eilonwy_anne · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I've already been an Atwood admirer for a few years, but The Blind Assassin is too gorgeous to merely admire. I love it. Where it isn't exquisite, it's precise. It moves expertly between the dry, the brutally truthful, and the passionate, and brings the keenness of the author's eye to them all. Atwood describes both the elusive and the everyday with a transforming grace.All that is merely on the level of prose, of paragraph. Her narrator is human, complex, and honest. The other characters are interesting, Laura chiefly so, of course, and I appreciate the way Iris acknowledges and interrogates her own inability to do others' characters justice. I particularly appreciated the way that Atwood drew us into the book with the mystery of Laura, and then gradually made us (well, me, at any rate) fonder and fonder of Iris. A beautiful literary bait and switch.All this and a compelling plot. Really, if I try to think of something wrong with this book, the first thing that swims to mind is that it's more than a little intimidating to a young author. My consolation is that she was 61 when it was published. I still have some years to practice.

[karndog · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Ok, this book is just really good. Maybe a 4.5. It's a bit long, but I read it slow for more enjoyment.

Here are some of my favorite parts: Why is it we want so badly to memorialize ourselves? Even while we're still alive. We wish to assert our existence, like dogs peeing on fire hydrants. We put on display our framed photographs, our parchment diplomas, our silver-plated cups; we monogram our linen, we carve our names on trees, we scrawl them on washroom walls. It's all the same impulse. What do we hope from it? Applause, envy, respect? Or simply attention, of any kind we can get?

At the very least we want a witness. We can't stand the idea of our own voices falling silent finally, like a radio running down.

or

When you're young, you think everything you do is disposable. You move from now to now, crumpling time up in your hands, tossing it away. You're your own speeding car. You think you can get rid of things, and people too—leave them behind. You don't yet know about the habit they have, of coming back.

[bostonbibliophile · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Blind Assassin is a strong piece of fiction from one of our top writers. It's the story of a woman whose life is filled with secrets- hers, her sister's, her family's- some of which stay hidden forever.

[alexrichman_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I really enjoyed this, a sort of turbocharged whodunnit that jumps between past, present and a novel-within-a-novel (which, like a Russian doll, has its own stories inside, too). The twists are brilliant worked, especially as the pieces fall into place just before the reveals, allowing the reader to feel proud of themselves. I did have some reservations, though: despite the length, some parts are barely sketched out, while others are rushed and some are dwelt on for far too long. Would still highly recommend for the satisfying plot.

[addunn3 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Early century study of a woman and her sister growing up in failing wealth and the compromises and challenges that occur. Interesting read, good writing, though a bit slow to develop, and early plot is a bit disconnected for me. The last 1/3 of the book brought it to life!

[dickmanikowski · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Damn, how did I not start reading Margaret Atwood until the past couple of months? This one was even better than THE HANDMAID'S TALE, and that was a really good novel.

[klh098 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

What I have loved about this book is the story wiitnin a story: The novel, a sci-fi story, then the history of the novel told by the surviving sister and news articles. I love family mysteries and this would qualify. I have read it twice and could not put it down either time.

[oddvark59 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Good, not great, read.

[susan139 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Excellent book

[deldevries · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Interesting and ends with a decent wrap up, but generally it could have achieved this in about half the space.

[kristina_brooke-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I am a fan of Ms. Atwood. Usually, that is. I did not enjoy this book at all. I struggled to make it halfway and finally put it aside. It's just too slow and boring. I love the story-within a story idea but...

[shanaqui_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I'm not as enamoured of Margaret Atwood's writing style as I feel I ought to be: something about it just doesn't quite do it for me. But aside from that, The Blind Assassin is amazing. The structure of it, the framed narrative, is really interesting, and the way bits of information unfold quietly until suddenly, and only near the end, you see the full picture. I like to think I was reasonably on the ball, and picked up various hints fast enough, but I thoroughly enjoyed the process of that.

I thought it was slow to start, and even as much as two thirds of the way through I was having trouble staying put and reading as much as I wanted to. But the last one hundred pages, as things came together, I really loved.

And one thing will always endear this book to me -- a quote from it:

All stories are about wolves. All worth repeating, that is. Anything else is sentimental drivel.
All of them?
Sure, he says. Think about it. There's escaping from the wolves, fighting the wolves, capturing the wolves, taming the wolves. Being thrown to the wolves, or throwing others to the wolves so the wolves will eat them instead of you. Running with the wolf pack. Turning into a wolf. Best of all, turning into the head wolf. No other decent stories exist.

[librarianbryan · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

3.5 stars

Iris is an amazing characterization and is the reason for all the praise the novel gets. But I wanted more from all the other characters, in particular Alex Thomas. Richard and Winifred, the villains, are totally one dimensional. Atwood tends to go for something big and she really only achieves it with one character. (It was the same with Jimmy in Oryx and Crake. Hello, the title is Oryx and Crake and we don't even know if Oryx is "real" or a clone.) The ensemble gets lost. I want moral complexity from all the characters. Laura though is the best Dostoevsky character since Dostoevsky.

As to the book's structure, and in particular the denouement, I knew from the get go Richard got Laura pregnant, but I did go through whole book assuming Alex wrote The Blind Assassin and that it was in the notebooks. I can't say Iris being the author shocked me much. From the middle to the end I found it quite slow, then all the loose ends start coming together far too fast for it to feel right. Again, Atwood is aiming high but falling a bit short. She can't quite handle the scrambled chronology interwoven with the metafiction of The Blind Assassin. Some of the characters are wooden and some of the characters are born in great detail only to vanish.

Margot Dionne does an amazing job narrating.

[tulikangaroo · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Beautiful. Three stories - present day, childhood in the '30s, and the novel-within-the-novel The Blind Assassin - piece together the lives of Iris Chase and her sister Laura, the daughters of a successful businessman in Ontario, whose lives were shaped by the Great War, the Depression, and the rumblings of communist and fascist discontent.

[librarybrandy · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The story of two sisters, of two lovers' imagined story, of those four people intertwining through decades. Richly imagined and told. I really don't know what to say about it--it took me forever to get through the first half, for no good reason (I was just distractable, I guess), but once I committed to it, the second half was pretty quick. It's not my favorite of her books that I've read so far, but I can't think of any reason not to give it 5 stars--there was nothing I can point to that I didn't like about this. So, five stars it is.

I still prefer Oryx and Crake, though.

[bpeters65 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Atwood is a remarkable writer. I enjoyed every written word. The plot is slow developing, so one really needs to stick with it to enjoy it, but it is all worth it in the end. It comes together beautifully and if I was only at 3/5 midway through, I was at 5/5 by the last page. This being my second Atwood novel (the first being A Handmaid's Tale, which I loved!), I'll be looking for more from her.

[adonisguilfoyle · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Took a looooong time to finish, but I love Margaret Atwood's way with words - especially descriptions like 'He was more alarming to me during his moments of levity than he was the rest of the time; it was like watching a lizard gambol' - and felt strangely connected to Iris, the narrator, both young and old. Worth persevering with.

[klmesoftly · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I absolutely LOVED this book, and can't believe it's been sitting on my to-read shelf untouched for over a year! I love books that play around with perspective and include mixed-media/meta stuff like fake newspaper articles, journal entries, letters, and of course books nested within books. At first I felt like I was racing through Iris' sections to get to the Blind Assassin excerpts, and then it was suddenly the other way around as her backstory suddenly became twistier. Despite its 521 pages this was a 4-hour marathon read for me, I couldn't put it down and it really felt like it flew by. I took some notes in my phone when I finished this one; I'll just leave them here: kazuo ishiguros spiritual descendent - very "a pale view of hills." which one of them was the mute girl, the blind assassin?

[dbsovereign · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

If you're only going to read one Atwood, I would definitely recommend this one! The story within a story is a marvelous device and Atwood uses it superbly. Not only a fun read, but a sexy one!

[redpandabear · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book took a long time to get into, and while the premise was interesting, it felt like the whole time I was waiting for something more to happen. Margaret Atwood is a great author, but I preferred The Handmaid's Tale.

[little_girl_blue · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Too good for words. See for yourself.

[wodfest · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I've tried to read this one more than once but I've finally managed it. It was very good - I was more than 2/3rd through before I guessed the story twist. "Nicely hidden and well revealed" describes this book very well.

[leslie398 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I would give this 3 1/2 stars if that was possible...
Despite Wikipedia's classification of this novel as historical fiction & and the reminisciences of the narrator from 1918 to 1950's, this is IMO a contemporary novel of an elderly woman looking back on her life. I liked the style of the writing & the weaving of the "novel within a novel" into the reminisciences.
The glimpse of Canada's post-WWI labor unrest is tantalizing but not really the story being told. For those interested in that time period, [author:John Dos Passos]'s U.S.A. trilogy is more powerful.
I had expected this to be a sci fi/fantasy novel (since that is where it is listed in the Guardian's list of 1000 novels everyone should read), but the "novel within the novel" of The Blind Assassins is also quite contemporary in tone with only a small amount of sci fi included.
This aspect is the love story between two unnamed people - it is obvious fairly early that the man is Alex, who is a union organizer or labor agitator of some unspecified sort. I thought it was clear by half-way through that the woman was NOT Laura but rather Iris the narrator, although this isn't revealed until the last 25 pages. It took longer for me to suspect that Laura didn't write the book...

[helynrob · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I think...I think I quit. And I'm so close to the end. But...I just don't care at all about the characters, the story. It just drones on, I'm tired of being bludgeoned with foreshadowing. I was bored the entire time I was reading it, I kept waiting for it to pick up since there were small (teeny tiny) glimmers of an interesting story. But in the end, I wasn't enthralled, not even a teeny tiny bit.

[hadriantheblind · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

After the extremely high hopes I had from Oryx and Crake and the Year of the Flood, I admit this disappointed a little. A good and very emotional story and the atmosphere was excellent. The narrative gimmicks/mysteries 'story within a story, missing identities' were easy to figure out, and that took a lot of the enjoyment out of it for me.

[yona-414000 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Every now and then I read something that puts the other books I've read and liked so much into a different perspective. Atwood is genius. I'm not really tempted to change any ratings or rethink anything (except updating my favorites - very much in need of such). I felt the way I felt for a reason. It's just impossible to compare something like this to most other things that I read. I want to say some things about the ending but I'm afraid to get spoilery. I'll just say that the characters are so well and intricately developed that it was the only way it could end. This was a hauntingly deep and moving story as well as an excellent insight into a portion of the history and society of the time.

[cameling_2 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The unfolding of this story reminded me of a matryoshka doll. Newspaper clippings tell of momentous events in the lives of Iris and Laura Chase, their father, Capt. Norval Chase and then later, Richard Griffen. A society woman's affair with a fugitive takes place in dingy rooms, but the grime, squalor and noise fade into the background as he weaves a science-fiction fantasy that progresses each time they meet. And in the midst of this, the lives of the two sisters evolve through distinct time periods. Iris's philosophy of living her life as a duty is brilliantly contrasted with Laura's uncanny observations of life's purpose and God. The narrative conceals as it exposes, and the reader is kept guessing until the very end.

[chrystal_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I listened to this and it was terrific, different voices for each character, background sounds and music....