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The Blind Assassin

Originally Published: 2000

Pages: 521

Available on: Kindle, Audiobook, Paperback, Hardcover

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The Blind Assassin renders readers themselves a little blind, as they navigate three separate storylines flowing through the novel. You definitely need to keep your brain turned on as you notice (or try to force?) connections between stories, and switch between time frames, plots, and perspectives. You will flip back among pages to confirm suspicions you have, feeling yourself sucked into the sadness and nostalgia and poignant regret that reverberates throughout the mysterious tale.

Set in the 1390s Ontario, the primary storyline of The Blind Assassin begins from the nostalgic perspective of an elderly woman, Iris, reflecting on her childhood, her complicated but close relationship with her sister, her loveless marriage, and her unhappy adult life. (Noticeably, mostly everyone in this novel is unhappy.) Iris is memorializing her life for the sake of her estranged granddaughter, who has been taught that her grandmother does not deserve a place in her life. Iris wishes her private writings on her life to clear the air between her and this grandchild she never officially met.

“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.” 

Iris and her sister, Laura, were raised in a well-to-do home, quietly located in a peaceful manufacturing town in rural Canada. Their mother died early in their lives, leaving them under the guidance of their distant father and affectionate housekeeper. The girls are dispositioned very differently: Laura being odd, philanthropic, quirky, and highly unpredictable; Iris, protective but resentful of her younger sister, private, stifled and inhibited, yearning to break free of her humdrum lifestyle. 

Laura does not seem to be of this world—her mind is constantly elsewhere; whereas Iris is practical and realistic, more able to play life’s game to her advantage. Their relationship is a little baffling, as it is clear they are each other’s best friends, yet maintain a strict emotional distance.

Once, when they were children walking in the snow near a rushing river, Iris hears a splash and turns to see Laura nearly swept downstream into the icy waters. Iris swiftly grabs ahold of Laura’s clothing and is shocked by her little sister’s reaction: Laura glares hatefully at Iris, as if affronted by her interference. Odd foreshadowing follows throughout the nostalgic, mysterious novel.

“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.

Time in dreams is frozen. You can never get away from where you've been.” 

Their father holds an affluent position in the area, as he owns a factory that employs many of the locals, but after the widespread economic damage of the 1930s, the family’s business suffers. Still a young woman, Iris finds herself in the position of being able to help her father with a beneficial marriage to another business tycoon, whom she does not know well at all, but has faint hopes that this fresh start could be the life she had been yearning for.

Unfortunately, it is not to be. 

Loneliness and heartbreak and betrayal remain forefront throughout the rest of Iris’ story, as the plot is complicated with the additions of an untrustworthy husband, a spiteful and manipulative sister-in-law, Laura’s refusal to adapt to life and society, and an evasive male figure, Alex Thomas, linked romantically and mysteriously to both sisters.

The Blind Assassin is absorbing, difficult to put down, and leaves you wanting more. It’s as if you want to understand these interesting characters; you crave a better grasp at these people’s motivations, but are constantly foiled. You must view them through a smokescreen—from a distance—just as each character holds one another off, and for the most part, do not understand one another. Atwood gives you curious, sharp, brief insights into their characters and thoughts, and then that insight flees into obscurity, leaving the figures grey and standoff-ish. Which in turn begs the question: Is Atwood playing with her style and character development or is it Iris’ biased point of view?

There is little doubt that this novel is, in fact, a tragedy, but the two accompanying storylines offer diverting accompaniments. First, a type of pulp science fiction, detailing life on another planet, and another ensuing romantic saga between two lovers, who rendezvous secretly in hidden meeting places. Names never given, this man and woman are clearly from different socio-economic standings. The woman is married and in some important standing in society, and the man is a poor writer with connections to some covert undercover political operation. Her married and high social status, and his need for undercover secrecy, keeps them both looking over their shoulders, despite their desperation to be with one another. Their passionate and doomed love story seems like a dream and keeps you guessing as to how this story is connected to Iris’ narrative. What is the missing link?

The novel increasingly grows in tension and drama, culminating in the last few chapters, so once you’ve started this book—you’re in it! You’ll be drawn in to the very last, to where missing puzzle pieces fall into place.

Atwood’s mastery over words is once again proven in every chapter. She is wise but playful, dark but ironic. She has an extraordinary ability in crafting short, emphatic lines (due to her talent and work in poetry). With one sentence, she can pull a laugh:

“I'm not senile," I snapped. "If I burn the house down it will be on purpose.”

or tug a heartstring:

“Time rises and rises, and when it reaches the level of your eyes you drown.” 

As always, Atwood portrays her female characters as complicated, real people whose faults are so well-drawn and -explicated that you feel empathy for even the worst characters, because a small part of you recognizes those shortcomings in yourself.

Margaret Atwood is author of more than fifty works of literature, well-known for her Canadian roots, brilliant prose, and postmodern feminist themes. Her career began in poetry, described by her as such: “[A] large invisible thumb descended from the sky and pressed down on the top of my head. A poem formed.” (Don’t we all wish it happened like that to the rest of us, Margaret?)

“How could I have been so ignorant? she thinks. So stupid, so unseeing, so given over to carelessness. But without such ignorance, such carelessness, how could we live? If you knew what was going to happen, if you knew everything that was going to happen next—if you knew in advance the consequences of your own actions—you'd be doomed. You'd be as ruined as God. You'd be a stone. You'd never eat or drink or laugh or get out of bed in the morning. You'd never love anyone, ever again. You'd never dare to.”

You will enjoy this pick if you love mysteries and dramas, if you have an appreciation for a stark and bleak depiction of reality, if you enjoy books with some historical relevance, and if you take delight in noticing a really, really well-written sentence delivery. If you’ve never read a Margaret Atwood novel, this is a fantastic place to start!

We chose another Margaret Atwood book as February Book Of The Month, The Robber Bride, and we invite you to take a look at that selection as well if you enjoy The Blind Assassin.