Margaret Atwood

Michael O'Brien

The Blind Assassin

The blind assassin

Patrick Book

I'd give it 3.5 if I could, but I recognize the prestige and acclaim. This turned out fairly fascinating in the end, but goddamnit if it doesn't feel like Atwood structures some of her books as though she's challenging you not to finish them. This was so disorienting at the beginning I was nearly chased away. But I'm glad I wasn't. Still seems a touch overlong though, if I'm honest.

Winner of the Man Booker Prize By the author of The Handmaid's Tale and Alias Grace 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. 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 Planet Zycron. As the invented story twists through love and sacrifice and betrayal, so does the real one; while 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.

Vicky  Nuñez 

The Blind Assassin blew my mind. This is the first book I've ever read by Margaret Atwood, so I didn't knew what to expect. 

Margaret Atwood writes such a compelling story that I seriously thought it was happening. It wasn't until I the book ended that I reminded myself that this was a work of fiction. And still I have a hard time believing it because it's so perfect, so beautifully put together. 

I loved Iris, even if most people don't. I understand her actions & what she's gone through. I loved how misunderstood she was throughout the whole novel. The Blind Assassin keeps you in suspense until the last pages, revealing secrets until the last moment. 

I loved the story within a story & how it reflected the main plot.

I really loved this book & I think EVERYONE should read it.

Well-written and put-together, but the 'twists' were quite obvious and I didn't really identify with any of the characters. 

Doug Belshaw

Mandy

Surprised by how much I did not like this.

C. J. Daley 

I’m disappointed I decided to pick this up on audible. I should have known that with Atwood’s work it would need to be read. 

With that being said it was a perfectly enjoyable performance on the audio, it’s just that it was very muddied with the amount going on. Reading would have been better to follow along. At one point I actually had to google the story because with the audio I was having trouble grasping that it was a story within a story, that had a story within that story.... (crazy). 

I would certainly buy this book and read it instead of listening one day, there were plenty of things I really loved in it. 

So 3.5 stars with audio, if you’re interested in this book, PLEASE READ IT.

Frederik De Bosschere

Given I had really enjoyed some of Margaret Atwood’s other work, and this novel having won the Booker Prize, I came into it with high expectations. It took me a few hours to really get into the book, but things did click. The frame story is very, very clever. The over the top scifi story about the titulary blind assasin is amusing, and both protagonists in the two periods are portrayed very realistically. (One is a life of new riches in the early- and mid-twentieth century. The other chronicles the last life chapter of an elder who has lived a turbulent life but is now lonely.) Despite the clever structure and emphatic portrayals, my read came in at 18 hours, which felt overly lengthy for this narrative, no matter how well structured.

Siya S

The most excruciatingly boring and most disappointing book I've read in years. I endured and tried so hard to get to the next page without throwing the book across the room in frustration. 

My patience worn off around page 326, when I suddenly realized this turtle-oil-fueled book took me nowhere than 2 centimeters from the first page. I waited and waited for something to happen but alas, nothing is ever gonna happen! At least not until the last 20 pages of the book. Fellow reader please save yourself from depression and self loathing by reading the summary in wikipedia instead. My eyes ache with hopes for something to happen, seriously.

So, you can save the precious time of your life by doing so, reading only the last chapter, I mean. Really, 3.9 seems to be way too overrated. Can I have my time back? I can guess the whole stuff halfway through to the second half of the book. 

Gosh, I hate this book so much. The characters are all complete morons who all live in a house of forever depression. Non of them is likable, especially Iris and Laura, the main characters of this mess. I will give it 0.5 star for my effort to read it almost two thirds of this firewood. If you want to read something beautiful that actually MAKES you feel something, I recommend Tell The Wolves I'm Home by Carol Rifka Brunt, or just any other books would do the work. 

The only good feeling I get from this book is the fact that I borrowed it from my friend. I'm so glad I didn't spend a single penny on this portable boredom.

Claudia Ganea

As long as this book was, it never seemed tedious. Margaret Atwood has this beautiful quality of being among the only authors that we're assigned at uni whose books don't seem like a chore.

I absolutely loved the narrative and the way it all came together. I must admit, I pieced it all up way before the final reveal - but it was really nice to get that validation. Beautifully written, engaging at all times, unique action - it was really really good.

Even now, at the age of 82, Iris lives in the shadow cast by her younger sister Laura. Now poor and trying to cope with a failing body, Iris reflects on her far from exemplary life, in particular the events surrounding her sister's tragic death and the novel which earned her such notoriety.

Angbeen Abbas

would've been nicer if it wasn't so long. it took a good 400 pages to reach the point where it really got interesting. margaret atwood's prose is beautiful but it wasn't enough to make this book like, really good.

blind assassin

Sarah Escorsa

I've always been attracted to Atwood's novels because of her style. It sets her apart from anyone else and the way she weaves a tale is unparalleled. Her writing is quite fascinating and her stories never fail to have a certain hypnotic quality. That said, her writing tends to be too dense sometimes, so much so in The Blind Assassin that the book feels overwritten.

The problem here is that there is so much emphasis on the form that the story in itself sometimes seems like an unimportant element of the book. It just didn't feel engaging enough and I quickly lost interest. Having a fantastic writing style is one thing but it's nothing without substance. 

A disappointing read with a three-star rating, as Atwood's style is brilliant and inimitable.

Caroline Mao

So. . .wow.

I've heard good things about Margaret Atwood, and for 2015 I wanted to read longer books, and more classics instead of the addicting but trashy dystopia YA lit I'm used to. She seemed exactly like what I wanted. Also, that title fascinated me - I thought maybe whoever the blind assassin was would be some kind of Celaena Sardothien-esque character, which he wasn't, but that's okay, because I still love the title, and I love the story surrounding it.

See, the thing about classics is that they kind of break my brain. Most books (see: above comment on dystopia YA lit) make me cry, and they make me feel, but classics make me think. And The Blind Assassin did that perfectly.

The plot captivated me right away, which is not something I can say for a lot of books in any genre. I'm used to pretty much every book I read starting off slow and boring, but the story leaps right into the action without waxing poetic about all the deep, philosophical thoughts the protagonist was thinking while she sat under the apple tree when she was six years old or whatever. If there are any childhood moments like that, they all contribute to the buildup of the story, and I appreciate that.

I was even more captivated by the introduction of the story of the blind assassin and his lover. Like, really, it's all a story even within the story, yeah, (view spoiler)[but nonsense about aliens from the planet Xenon? Tiny cities buried under a pile of rocks? I really love fantasy/sci-fi stuff, okay. (hide spoiler)] At first, I cared about that and the unusual dynamics between the storyteller and the woman listening to it even more than I cared about Iris' own narration. It just interested me so much.

The writing style, too. It was pretty simplistic, and if it dragged at least it had things that helped build atmosphere instead of six paragraphs about the color of the jewelry the protagonist wore last month that's full of unnecessarily flowery adjectives. I expected it to drag, so I'm okay with that, and the way the characters are so carefully characterized over the course of the story, and the plot that so slowly revealed itself, was more than enough to make up for it.

The relationships. God, the relationships. Most of them weren't exactly happy, not by a long shot, but I loved the relationships between Iris and her family (namely Laura, sure, but her father as well, and the way she describes her family), her relationship with her children - I would have loved to see more of what happened between Aimee and Iris as she grew up - and between Iris and Reenie, Callie, so many other characters. Relationships of every kind are my favorite thing, but unfortunately, unlike characters, I can't seem to find many ones I like or even have something to say about.

The character I loved the most was definitely Laura; I was apathetic to Iris at first, but by the end of the novel, I'd come to love her much, much more. Yet Laura will always remain my favorite, because I can relate to her while she isn't completely normal either, and I still stay the opposite of her in many, many aspects. This sounds like I'm trying to make myself sound unique and special, but Laura saw the world so differently than the people in her time - I could tell by her dialogue alone - and I could relate to that kind of perspective.

I honestly can't detail out how much I love this book without spoiling everything. I wouldn't say it's for everyone, but I love it so, so much.

madina

Alex

Boring plot, monotonous writting and predictable twists. Also, way too long to tell this story. Sorry, I know it's considered to be a masterpiece by a lot of people, but I just didn't like it.

The  blind assassin

Trevor Berrett

This was my first venture into the world of Margaret Atwood. It was a great trip. It was fun, frightening, and enlughtening to see how the story comes together. At once Atwood's writing is easy to read and refreshingly innovative. It deserved its Booker.

Prashant Prasad

expected more 
i appreciate the story-within-story structure but i don’t think it added much as the characters themselves weren’t too interesting or complex and each chapter didn’t really develop anything other than some slight incidents / memories 
figuring out how the stories reflected each other was somewhat entertaining although it didn’t lead anywhere to spectacular (the ending i guessed and got right :/ )

Lisa Miller

Essentially this is a family saga, set in Canada, the main story taking place between WW1 and WW2 and centres on two sisters. However this is also a mystery and a romance, with SF elements and a commentary on society and the time it was written (turn of the century). It's a big book, compelling, yet the pacing felt a bit too slow overall.

I'm not going to give this book a rating because I took a break halfway through for about a month (and didn't read at all) so I'm not sure how that has influenced how I feel about this book.

Amber Laha

I loved Atwood's writing, but I did feel that it started dragging 80% in when things should have been starting to close to the finale. It felt like, even when we were at the end, that we were still in the middle of it all. But, the way she drew the story around the book was brilliant. The story, itself, was great. I thought Iris didn't have a backbone, but really she did have a bit of one. The twists and turns were awesome.

Francesca Haselden

*Spoiler-free*

Margaret Atwood is fast becoming my favourite author, despite the fact I've only read a handful of her books.

This book is a beautiful, slow-burn, tragic tale. It's utterly compelling despite being almost undramatic at times and it paints a beautiful picture of life spanning many decades. I was honestly surprised by just how much I enjoyed it. I felt like I really did not know where it was going next for the majority of the time, but not because it was full of twists and turns. Not at all. This is like sitting down with a grandparent and having them tell you a long story of their life, loves, betrayals and relationships. 

The book is the sum of its parts. I can see why some people might drop out midway, but it's worth it for the complete picture. A really wonderful book. Atwood writes so beautifully but without being over flowery. Like a nice watercolour.

Ezra Alie

Krystal Campbell 

Closer to 2.75. 

It was an easy read although overly descriptive at times. As a reader I feel that if someone takes to long to describe a certain situation or location I can appreciate that the writing skills are excellent and the ability to describe something so vividly is awesome. However... some things dont need that much description and I feel that this book could have been half the length and had the same effect. 

It was not my fav Atwood... She has done better.

Katie Cheng

I enjoyed this book! Probably more than 3 stars, but fewer than 4. I think my expectations were initially rather high, and the book falling short of those expectations just threw a pall over my judgment.

Pozzie points - it was different from other things I've read! The book jacket aptly describes the mix of romance, reality, and sci fi. And it wove together a few interesting themes - it had a bit of the new-money old-money story, some pull and tug of sisterly love/hate, and some sexual scandal ooh la la. So that was an interesting mix. 

I didn't love the style. There was too much extraneous description fluffing up the passages, without any added meaning or value. It reminded me, at parts, of my own high-school-esque attempts at creative writing, with its gratuitous similes, metaphors, and analogies that added no depth to the characters, or the story, or the scene. 

I do always love a good puzzle though, and the book provided some of that! It's the whole draw of movies like Entrapment or Prestige or Italian Job - they're fun to watch because they keep you guessing. I think that's was the primary incentive that kept me reading.

Nicole Moreno 

"Immolation is what she wants, however briefly. To exist without boundaries." - Margaret Atwood 
.
The Blind Assassin continues to be one of my all-time favorite books. Margaret Atwood is an incredible writer that pours so much meaning and heart into her books. In this novel, she focuses on the lives of Iris and Laura Chase, both young women who grew up in unstable and challenging circumstances. Atwood artfully takes us on a journey through their lives, bringing each loss, scandal, and heartbreak to life. One of my favorite things about this book is that it has slowly built up suspense and mystery. I try to warn readers that the story might feel disjointed since it is told through news articles, Iris's perspective, and The Blind Assassin ( story within a story). Please hang in there! It is absolutely worth finishing and arriving at the moving ending.

The Blind Assassin

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