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• Giant rollercoaster of a novel, full of sizzling harpies...

  You're in your late twenties, you're married to one of the most powerful industrialists/politicians in post-war Canada (although you're now living apart), and your beautiful Harpy sister has just died in a mysterious road accident. So what do you do? You publish your sister's first and only novel, and watch as the vultures descend... Margaret Atwood's Booker prize-winning novel is long and difficult to digest, a veritable seven-course meal. It's taken me a long time of reading and rereading to get my angle upon it. From the start, everything seems relatively straightforward. You know what happens to whom, and where and when they died. The rest of the novel explores have they got there. However, what's most interesting about this narrative is that it does stray from the path, and ventures into the Wild Woods. When Atwood won the Booker, she poignantly praised the work of Angela Carter, which resounds in a small paragraph in the novel: "All stories are about wolves". The Blind Assassin is very much a work of magic realism. You need to have some background reading, starting off with Dante's Inferno, especially Canto XIII. The Wood of the Suicides features the Harpies, and I believe these are symbolic of Laura's supposed 'hysteria'. Harpies are also known as 'The Robbers', and Laura is a notorious klepto. Iris (the name of our narrator) was also sister to the Harpies in myth. The two young heroes in the pulp novel have to enter a wood that supposedly has terrifying dead women in it. Laura is symbolised by the suicide of Dido from the Aeneid. There's also the glorious Book of Daniel, which recounts how Babylon fell overnight (which resounds in the pulp novel too, including the victorious Assyrians' Code of Hammurabi). Allied to this is the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, translated by Edward Fitzgerald: "The Moving Finger writes" quote is a direct link to the Book of Daniel and the Fall of Babylon. Add to these ingredients a generous helping of the Pre-Raphaelites and Alfred Lord Tennyson, and you've got the kind of novel that I love. No doubt this will sound pretty daunting for your average reader (I've compiled a page concerning the context of this novel for interested readers). However, I think most people will be able to enjoy this novel without all these references. On the other hand, Margaret Atwood makes a big assumption that lots of people will know what the Depression was like in Canada. Unfortunately, Roosevelt and his New Deal are far more famous internationally than the ruthless 'Iron Heel' of Canadian Prime Minister Richard Bennett. Canada had a devastating Depression in the "Hungry Thirties", which was only fuelled by Bennett's policy of setting up forced work camps. This suffering made more people rally to the Communist Party of Canada under the leadership of Tim Buck, and led to organised protests, such as the Ottawa Trek. This was also the time of the 'Red Scare', the violent repression of 'pinkos' in North America. It's worthwhile looking up the trial of Sacco and Vanzetti, and the deportation of Emma Goldman in order to really appreciate Alex's flight. Alex symbolises the many Canadian Communists who fought in the Spanish Civil War. However, Iris and Laura are cocooned in Avilion, and you don't really get to see anyone starving in The Blind Assassin to get any sense of this context, so probably Alex's cause is lost on a lot of readers. The only fault of the novel is openly acknowledged within Laura's narration: "I've failed to convey Richard, in any rounded sense. He remains a cardboard cutout. "Due to the plot of the novel, Richard's most significant actions are always clandestine, off-camera. The only factual error I can find in the novel also revolves around him: "He was a frequent participant in the Pugwash conferences," we're told in his obituary at the beginning of the novel. Yet Richard died in 1947, and the Pugwash Conferences started in 1957 - the only way that Richard could have attended would have been as a manifestation of Banquo. Since the Pugwash Conferences were devised to bring around world peace, Richard (who's profited so much from his pugilistic attitude and the Second World War) seems a most unlikely candidate for membership. Margaret Atwood can't have too much of a liking for the legendary King Arthur on this evidence, but it's poetic justice that Richard's Excalibur is thrown away, never again to see the light of day. All in all, this is a very enjoyable novel, and Atwood deserves the Booker prize (even if I think Matthew Kneale's English Passengers is slightly better). John Buchan, author of The Thirty-nine Steps, makes a cameo appearance towards the end in his more formal role as Lord Tweedsmuir, Governor General of Canada at the start of the fall of the British Empire. The narrative also concerns the Fall of the House of Chase. Norval Chase commits an unforgivable act of patriarchy when he sees the writing on the wall, and submits his daughter to the veil. Just like Belshazzar, he cannot avoid his fate, especially when faced with the mercurial Richard Griffen as adversary. Laura finally finds her voice after years of numbness, but at what price? The house of the Patriarch is falling (which is only just), but Margaret Atwood is courageous enough to question what has taken its place.

• Good

  Im using this(used) book for my school. I have no problem because book is so cleanly delivered. It took a little bit longer to arrive than I expected--like 3-4 weeks? but for me, it was ok.

• It was just ok

  The most wonderful thing about this book is the side-by-side storytelling of the main plot along with a main character's own novel (which itself contains a sub-story). Interesting and well-done. The main plot 'twists,' however, are easily guessable. I had only finished half of the book when I knew the big secret which drove Iris' sister Laura to despair. I can't imagine anyone else not being able to figure it out. If the author had kept that 'revelation' hidden, this book would have been amazing. But still a worthwhile read. 試み Giorgio Kostantinos 極度 小説 The Quest

• 時間と場所が混ざる不思議な小説

  原書に挑戦したが、小説の構造が複雑かつ単語も難しい用語が多数使用されているため読みこなすのに苦労した。 構造は今は老女となった主人公のアイリスが過去を振り返る手記の体裁をとっているが、その中で妹のローラが書いたといわれるThe Blind Assassinという小説が平行して展開し、更にこの小説の中でSF的な物語が語られるという複雑なものだが、これを最後まで読ませる著者の技量はおみごと。 但し、主人公のアイリスとローラの姉妹とこの二人に関わる男性アレックスのキャラクターに共感できるものがないため、感情移入はできなかった。

• Another Fantastic Read from Atwood

  Having read two books from Atwood in 2016 - The Robber Bride and now The Blind Assassin - my target for next year is set and that is to read all books written by Margaret Atwood (and from Alice Munro). Coming to this book - The Blind Assassin had me glued to it from the very first page, to be precise from the very first line: "Ten days after the war ended, my sister Laura drove a car off a bridge." What comes next is story, a story within that story and then another story - one is that of the two sisters, the other about two lovers who are just referred as he, him, she, her and then the story set in another time narrated by one of these lovers. This book is very cleverly and beautifully written. As you read page after page, you learn a lot about the characters in this book but you are not sure about which character you are getting the details of. I was clear quite early in the book about what the secret might be and what the author is trying to keep hidden. But, still Atwood being a brilliant author makes you question your understanding and kills the Sherlock in you. You would not trust your decision and you would look for the subtle hints Atwood drops throughout the book to be sure that the detective in you has been right all along. I loved The Robber Bride and I loved this book even more. The book works for me in every area - the extraordinary and remarkable narration, the grey characters and an amazing but dark story. A fantastic, soul-stirring book

• A unique experience of being inside an elder women’s mind

  Added by an intertwined plot. Really surprising

• An extraordinary book

  TV success of The Handmaids Tale may have put this one on the forefront of M. Atwood's production, but The Blind Assassin is a literary masterpiece of wider and deeper ambition. A fabulous, engaging read.

• Delicious writing, engaging story

  Written in her distinctly Canadian voice, I find reading Atwood a reminder of the stories I heard growing up. Engaging and irreverent, always superbly crafted. In time I'll read all her novels though if I had stayed in Canada, I may not have had the same interest. Thank you from an X-pat a long way and a long time from home.

• Eccellente

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