The Blind Assassin (May Joint Review) (Novel)

The third installment of our Margaret Atwood May month! We both really love this novel, and it's one we both decided to share and review with you.

Meghan: In my mind, this is Atwood's best work.

So let's start the review!

Just so you know, we both love this show as well. #possiblefuturereview. 

The Story 

“The only way you can write the truth is to assume that what you set down will never be read. Not by any other person, and not even by yourself at some later date. Otherwise, you begin excusing yourself. You must see the writing as emerging like a long scroll of ink from the index finger of your right hand; you must see your left hand erasing it.” 

Olga: Books set in Toronto are always wonderful. There's something about the fact that I'm familiar with the city that makes the story all the more ambient for me. When Atwood mentions something like, "A dead body was found in the basement of a Davenport home", I can't help but wonder if I should take a longer lunch break at work to walk down to Davenport and try to guess which house. I'm not creepy at all. I love imagining what the Royal York hotel was like back in the 1930s, a time period where much of the story is set. Did it look more mighty and glorious without the skyscrapers around? The setting was certainly quite a highlight for me. Atwood showed off some atmospheric places in Canada, providing a nice vibe to the entire story.

Meghan, what do you think we try to find Margaret in Toronto? Stalk for the autograph? :-p

Meghan: Yesssss. Except, I'm not sure if I could keep my composure lol.

So what's the story? This is the synopsis from GoodReads:

It opens with these simple, resonant words: "Ten days after the war ended, my sister drove a car off the bridge." They are spoken by Iris, whose terse account of her sister Laura's death in 1945 is followed by an inquest report proclaiming the death accidental. But just as the reader expects to settle into Laura's story, Atwood introduces a novel-within-a-novel. Entitled The Blind Assassin, it is a science fiction story told by two unnamed lovers who meet in dingy backstreet rooms. When we return to Iris, it is through a 1947 newspaper article announcing the discovery of a sailboat carrying the dead body of her husband, a distinguished industrialist.

Our Thoughts

Meghan: So one of my favourite things about this novel was how seamlessly Atwood worked a Creative Fiction story with a hard-hitting plot and a fantasy "novel" within it. Essentially the two become intertwined, as the fantasy novel that the book leads way to is a way of revealing "truth". This is a key theme throughout "The Blind Assassin" is the means of telling the proper truth, and the whole truth. 

It's as if one of the characters couldn't be brought to tell the truth, and uses the story of "The Blind Assassin" to do so. To me, that seems realistic, as in, if I were in the position of the characters, this is likely what I might do. You substitute the real story in for the fake one. I really like that. Atwood has this way of making Iris' inner thoughts identical to the things that we do in real life, for example with love, and the habit of wondering if someone is thinking about us. For Iris, this is her saving grace in a life of propriety, tragedy, and growing up:

“She imagines him imagining her. This is her salvation.
In spirit she walks the city, traces its labyrinths, its dingy mazes: each assignation, each rendezvous, each door and stair and bed. What he said, what she said, what they did, what they did then. Even the times they argued, fought, parted, agonized, rejoined. How they’d loved to cut themselves on each other, taste their own blood. We were ruinous together, she thinks. But how else can we live, these days, except in the midst of ruin?”

Olga: To the contrary of Meghan's thoughts, the only thing that I didn't particularly like, were the chapters with the mythical girl sacrifice story thing (I don't remember exactly what it was, it's been a while). I felt like those dragged on a bit, and I didn't feel invested in the Android Men of Xerox or whatever. Every time I was in that chapter I just wanted to go back to what was happening with Iris. (Meghan: Ah this is where we're gonna disagree!) (Olga: lol I'm not a magical realism or whatever this was kinda person lol)

Meghan: Another aspect that comes with this, is the search for balance in Iris. Constantly, she gets the short end of things, but she's a silent character in all this. She does what she is supposed to, but you know that this isn't what she wants for herself. Her older self is isolated, and separated from those she loves. She searches for her granddaughter Sabrina, and makes constant reference to both her daughter Aimee, and Sabrina, as being stolen by her sister-in-law, Winnie, who says she's murdered Aimee, and her husband, while Iris constantly says "I did not kill Aimee. Her death was not my fault". Everything at first seems to be against Iris. The scales of justice seem to be against her, and nothing in life has seemed to go her way. At the beginning (I won't spoil) it almost seems like this family she was once married into and had was all a product of social class and wealth. This is Canada in the early twentieth century, so readers will have to accommodate themselves to that.

Olga: Times were bloody hard back then! Even for a family that was fairly well off and privileged (until the Great Depression that is). Atwood described the high end way of life in a dreary and cold manner, that can lead to either unhappiness or madness. Which was quite interesting.

Meghan: Growing up too, this is Iris' life, as she loses her mother and her father throughout the novel, it is Iris who has to grow up and do what must be done, if not to protect her sister Laura. But then there is the fantasy aspect of it which is supposedly shaped by Laura's perspective. By the end of the story, however, is where the twist comes in. The tables have turned and Iris takes back what was rightfully hers. 

“Farewells can be shattering, but returns are surely worse. Solid flesh can never live up to the bright shadow cast by its absence. Time and distance blur the edges; then suddenly the beloved has arrived, and it's noon with its merciless light, and every spot and pore and wrinkle and bristle stands clear.”

Olga: Stages of life were portrayed masterfully through the depictions of Iris' life. She spoke about the various trials and tribulations of old age, as well as the stupidities and traps of youth. Also, it felt like a nice time capsule into what it was like living in Canada back in those days.

Meghan: I would agree. The reader gets a full view of Iris' life and it all seems very real and distinctive. Of course, this is the life of someone who lived in a very different time as ourselves, but none-the-less, I didn't have a problem with it. Atwood takes this into account and weaves why each stage is important into her narrative, both taking into account the pros and cons of it: naivety, and experience.

“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.”


Now, this is absolutely true, at least in my opinion. There is an aspect of independence and freedom associated with youth that one loses as they grow older (I assume, I'm not exactly old yet, but I know the freedoms of youth quite well). 

“Home is where the heart is, I thought now, gathering myself together in Betty's Luncheonette. I had no heart anymore, it had been broken, or not broken, it simply wasn't there anymore. It had been scooped neatly out of me like the yolk from a hard-boiled egg, leaving the rest of me bloodless and congealed and hollow.
I'm heartless, I thought. Therefore I'm homeless.”

Above the story and excellent plot, as usual, we come across some of Atwood's signature and thought-provoking writing. This novel has some of the truest and most beautiful quotations I've ever had the privilege to come across, and it really helps to elicit emotion and relatability to the characters. It provides some real insight into what the characters are like, and how they view life. As with Iris, readers will see a real evolution of the character from her younger to older self. You will go on a journey with her to discover what happened to her to get her to the point she is at. The clues to everything, I will say, hide in plain sight, but you have to be diligent about it. That's partially what makes this book so wonderful. It's not conventional, but also doesn't hide itself, if you're paying attention.

Our Ratings 

Meghan: I really enjoyed this novel. It's well written and enjoyable, albeit like with all Margaret Atwood novels, you may find yourself disoriented at first. This definitely isn't a book for everyone (you need to really like Atwood's style to appreciate it), but I would still recommend it to anyone! Give it a buy/check-out at your local library!

⭐⭐⭐⭐