'Ten days after the war ended, my sister Laura drove a car off a bridge.' Thus begins THE BLIND ASSASSIN, Margaret Atwood's stunning new novel. Laura Chase's older sister Iris, married at eighteen to a politically prominent Industrialist but now poor and eighty-two, is living in Port Ticonderoga, a town dominated by their once-prosperous family before the First War. While coping with her unreliable body, Iris reflects on her far from exemplary life, in particular the events surrounding her sister's tragic death. Chief among these was the publication of THE BLIND ASSASSIN, a novel which earned the dead Laura Chase not only notoriety but also a devoted cult following: as Iris says, she herself lives 'in the long shadow cast by Laura'. Sexually explicit for its time, THE BLIND ASSASSIN describes a risky affair in the turbulent thirties between a wealthy young woman and a man on the run. During their secret meetings in rented rooms, the lovers concoct a pulp fantasy set on the Planet Zycron. As the invented story twists through love and sacrifice and betrayal, so does the real one, as events in both move closer to war and catastrophe.
By turns lyrical, outrageous, formidable, compelling and funny, this is a novel filled with deep humour and dark drama. It is Margaret Atwood at her breathtaking best.
“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.
The Blind Assassin is three stories in one and all intertwine in the end; so it becomes a novel within a novel. While reading the story of the two anonymous lovers I was convinced that the woman had to be one of the Chase Sisters but kept me wondering which girl it truly was as the woman had qualities that each woman possessed. The semi sci-fi story of the Blind Assassin, which the novel gets its title from I found a little dull as I am not a big science fiction fan, but of course in the end it served its purpose. As fir the main story in The Blind Assassin, which centers around Laura and Iris's lives from childhood to adults was fantastic, beautifully written and truly kept me spellbound. This was the first book I read by Margaret Atwood and has left me wanting to read more.
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23 March, 2007:
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23 March, 2007:
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