Gyre
5th July 2007, 00:15
Title of Book: The Blind Assassin
Name of Author: Margaret Atwood
Paperback: 641 pages
Publisher: Virago Press Ltd; New Ed edition (3 Sep 2001)
ISBN-10: 1860498809
ISBN-13: 978-1860498800
The Blurb:
"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).
'The Blind Assassin' is the 7th book by Margaret Atwood I have read this year, so I think it is fair to say, I am a fan.
'The Blind Assassin' tells the story of Iris and Laura Chase, who at the beginning of the book drives herself off a bridge. The book follows Iris and Laura's lives from birth to death, in the case of Laura, her untimely death.
The story explores the death of girls mother, something I feel seems to be echoed in most of Margaret Atwood's books, the loss of a mother in 'The Blind Assassin' and 'Oryx and Crake', a mother unable to show love in 'The Robber Bride' and 'Lady Oracle', a continuing theme if you will and something which is explored very deeply by Margaret Atwood.
I enjoyed 'The Blind Assassin' but I did find parts of the story confusing, as one story jumped to another. 'The Blind Assassin' was a great read apart from the story jumping (as mentioned), the characters were brilliant, so brilliant in fact, I found myself getting very frustrated with Laura.
A must read and a very deserving winner of the Booker Prize 2000
Rating: 8/10 (only because of the story jumping. :readingtwo:
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o154/Pictures_073/41PGVR62F5L.jpg
Name of Author: Margaret Atwood
Paperback: 641 pages
Publisher: Virago Press Ltd; New Ed edition (3 Sep 2001)
ISBN-10: 1860498809
ISBN-13: 978-1860498800
The Blurb:
"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).
'The Blind Assassin' is the 7th book by Margaret Atwood I have read this year, so I think it is fair to say, I am a fan.
'The Blind Assassin' tells the story of Iris and Laura Chase, who at the beginning of the book drives herself off a bridge. The book follows Iris and Laura's lives from birth to death, in the case of Laura, her untimely death.
The story explores the death of girls mother, something I feel seems to be echoed in most of Margaret Atwood's books, the loss of a mother in 'The Blind Assassin' and 'Oryx and Crake', a mother unable to show love in 'The Robber Bride' and 'Lady Oracle', a continuing theme if you will and something which is explored very deeply by Margaret Atwood.
I enjoyed 'The Blind Assassin' but I did find parts of the story confusing, as one story jumped to another. 'The Blind Assassin' was a great read apart from the story jumping (as mentioned), the characters were brilliant, so brilliant in fact, I found myself getting very frustrated with Laura.
A must read and a very deserving winner of the Booker Prize 2000
Rating: 8/10 (only because of the story jumping. :readingtwo:
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o154/Pictures_073/41PGVR62F5L.jpg