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The Blind Assassin
 
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The Blind Assassin (Paperback)

by Margaret Atwood (Author)
4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (63 customer reviews)
RRP: £8.99
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Product details

  • Paperback: 656 pages
  • Publisher: Virago Press Ltd; New Ed edition (3 Sep 2001)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1860498809
  • ISBN-13: 978-1860498800
  • Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.6 x 4.4 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (63 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 7,990 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #4 in  Books > Fiction > 20th Century Classics > Atwood, Margaret
    #9 in  Books > Fiction > World > Canadian

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Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review
"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.

Review
** 'Atwood has never written with more flair and versatility than in this multidimensional novel. A brilliant accomplishment' SUNDAY TIMES ** 'This is Margaret Atwood at her remarkable best.' SUNDAY TELEGRAPH ** 'Margaret Atwood is one of the most brilliant and unpredictable novelists alive.' LITERARY REVIEW ** 'THE BLIND ASSASSIN may indeed prove to be that most elusive of literary unicorns: the woman's novel.' NEW STATESMAN

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Customer Reviews

63 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.2 out of 5 stars (63 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Margaret Atwood at her best, 4 Dec 2001
By R. Simpson (South Kirkby, Yorks, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)      
It's a relief to find the Booker Award is not just some kind of retrospective justice for the failure to reward The Handmaid's Tale - and an even greater relief to find that the multiple narrative format of the novel is neither confusing (after the first dozen pages) nor pretentious. The extracts from newspapers and magazines which chart the public life of the Chases and Griffens provide a grounding in fact as well as a wickedly amusing satire on snobbery and provincialism. 'The Blind Assassin' itself, the novel that created Laura Chase's posthumous reputation, operates on twin levels of realism and fantasy and equally the main narrative in the person of her sister Iris unites past and present (1999). Atwood manages throughout to maintain a subtle and convincing mix of sympathy for, and detachment from, her characters, allowing irony to flourish alongside involvement. The reader is even flattered by the creation of mysteries which he/she is lured into solving before they are officially unveiled: 'But you must have known that for some time', Atwood writes disarmingly after uncovering the central deception. Of course we did: aren't we clever? Not quite as clever as Ms Atwood, though.
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29 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A beautiful, involving history of the 20th Century, 22 Dec 2000
This review is from: The Blind Assassin (Hardcover)
Let's start out by saying that The Blind Assassin is obviously not for everyone. It's also true that the Booker Award was a lifetime achievement award, for writing three magnificent books and she needed eventual Booker recognition, but taking the Blind Assassin into consideration, it is a fine additon to Atwood's catalogue. She chronicles almost the entire century in every detail, from buildings to clothes, politics to romance. Iris Chase's memoirs are also so readable - Atwood describes her writing as "spinning a web across the page", and she certainly does that. It's easy to get caught up in, and taken on a journey full of action and emotion.

Unlike some, I didn't see the novel within a novel (within a novel) as unnecessary, or padding; from the very beginning it seemed like a fleshing out of Laura Chase and Alex Thomas's characters, and brilliantly done in small chunks - careful readers will also notice that events in the book not only echoed Iris and Laura's life with Alex Thomas, but also events in Iris's present, after Aimee and Selina have gone. Similar emotions run through the novel and over the century: however much indistry changes, we are still the same flawed human beings on the inside.

Then, of course, there's the sheer intelligence that Atwood carries. Her cultural and literary references rise off the page along with her quirky, knowing writing style; she really packs a punch with her turn of phrase, especially the humour. Atwood then uses as many literary genres as possible and espouses the conventional ideas of the "plot-twist" that we so often find in thriller novels and this novel rises above the rest with ultimate panache.

The Blind Assassin shines, spectacularly. It reaches an excellent climax about three pages before the end: the idea of the "left-handed book" tops it off with retrospective beauty. If you appreciate truly good literature, then I wholly recommend this novel.

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24 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A dazzling,haunting novel of hidden love and family secrets., 7 Oct 2000
By A Customer
This review is from: The Blind Assassin (Hardcover)
The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood is a difficult book to catergorize. It works on a dizzying number of levels: A historical novel, depicting an industrial and social milieu in early twentieth century Canada; a complex and shadowy love story; as a study of the symbolism of science fiction, or as a story of women and men and the secrets that bind them. It is the story of two sisters, Iris and Laura, who grow up in provincial Canada, daughters of a wealthy man who runs a button-making factory. The novel opens with a description of Laura's apparent suicide after the Second World War, and then Iris takes over as narrator, trying to understand and unravel the threads of Laura's life and her own. The Blind Assassin is the name of the novel that Laura leaves behind. Published posthumously, it becomes a controversial cult classic in the manner of Plath's writings, lauded as a proto-feminist classic. Iris is the reluctant keeper of her sister's troublesome flame. Woven around this intriguing structure is a dazzling array of characters: anarchists, bitter society women, strikers, husbands, housekeepers and lovers.

Atwood has always had an erudite, sexy and witty way with language and this new novel is no exception. The Blind Assassin, the novel within the novel, consists of an un-named man relating weird and distrurbing science fiction to an equally anonymous upper class woman. Atwood lets rip with her rich and persuasive use of language, conjuring up cities of strange creatures, sacrifical virgins, blind assassins, women who roam the mountains, devouring men, mythologies and exotic religions. The erotic relationship between the two nameless protaganists is consumated in a series of seedy hotel and rooms, furtive and forbidden. Paranoia and fear of discovery follow them everywhere. It seems a strange choice of themes and styles that Atwood has chosen to combine, but the unsettling ideas that bubble through both sides of the story are haunting and stay with you long after putting the book down. You see things coming and then they vanish and you have to re-read passages and re-think your reactions. It shimmers in front of you, glinting off the page. Ultimately it is a deeply moving novel, whose charaters come vividly to life. I found myself crying softly as I finished it, touched by the beauty and pain in the lives of the characters and also by my own yearning for something I can't quite explain. But if you read this extraordinary novel you will perhaps understand what I mean.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars Dreadful!
Having recently read some absolutely amazing books by some truly talented authors, and given the positive feedback on this book, I was massively disappointed. Read more
Published 4 days ago by Pen pal

5.0 out of 5 stars Blinded By Brilliance
I don't think that however long I made this review of Margaret Atwood's Man Booker Winner `The Handmaid's Tale' I could ever hope to cover all the book is trying to say, the... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Simon Savidge "savidgeread...

2.0 out of 5 stars A big disappointment
First of all I must say I love Margaret Atwood's work and have read almost all her books, favourites being Lady Oracle, Alias Grace and Oryx & Crake. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Cleo Hall

3.0 out of 5 stars Second chance
Didn't like it at first. Put it down less than a fifth of the way through. Later, stuck for something to read, I picked it up again and gave it a second chance. Read more
Published 4 months ago by CP

2.0 out of 5 stars too long, some 200 pages too long
The 'Blind assassin is the first Atwood book I ever read, and I was extremely disapointed....
The story in itself is not bad (not extraordinary either) but it is just 200 to... Read more
Published 5 months ago by a costumer

5.0 out of 5 stars A compelling read
The blind assassin is a compelling read, leaving you gripped to practically every word. Atwood has the innate ability to keep her readers in suspense and yet still keep the... Read more
Published 6 months ago by Louisa Buckmaster

4.0 out of 5 stars From Buttons to Bestsellers
This is a tricky one. There's no doubting Atwood's ability as a writer; her prose is consistently elegant (although I do have a few reservations about some incongruous vernacular,... Read more
Published 8 months ago by sft

5.0 out of 5 stars Blindingly beautiful
The Blind Assassin is spellbinding, haunting and bewitching. Atwood's gloriously conrolled use of poignant and delicate prose encapsulates love, passion and loss throughout three... Read more
Published 11 months ago by H. C. EDWARDS

5.0 out of 5 stars An enduring masterpiece
Sometimes, when reading a big book, one gets the feeling that the author set out to achieve size, as if that in itself might suggest certain adjectives from a reader or reviewer -... Read more
Published 16 months ago by Philip Spires

3.0 out of 5 stars Uneven, and largely unnecessary...
I really enjoyed The Handmaid's Tale and, while I normally steer away from Booker prizewinners, I decided to give this a go. Read more
Published 18 months ago by bloodsimple

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