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List Price: $14.95Amazon.com's Price: $10.17 You Save: $4.78 (32%)Prices subject to change.
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780385720953
ISBN: 0385720955
Label: Anchor
Manufacturer: Anchor
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 544
Publication Date: August 28, 2001
Publisher: Anchor
Release Date: August 28, 2001
Sales Rank: 17800
Studio: Anchor
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
The Blind Assassin opens with these simple, resonant words: 'Ten days after the war ended, my sister Laura drove a car off a bridge.' They are spoken by Iris, whose terse account of her sister'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. Brilliantly weaving together such seemingly disparate elements, Atwood creates a world of astonishing vision and unforgettable impact.
Amazon.com:
The Blind Assassin is a tale of two sisters, one of whom dies under ambiguous circumstances in the opening pages. The survivor, Iris Chase Griffen, initially seems a little cold-blooded about this death in the family. But as Margaret Atwood's most ambitious work unfolds--a tricky process, in fact, with several nested narratives and even an entire novel-within-a-novel--we're reminded of just how complicated the familial game of hide-and-seek can be: What had she been thinking of as the car sailed off the bridge, then hung suspended in the afternoon sunlight, glinting like a dragonfly, for that one instant of held breath before the plummet? Of Alex, of Richard, of bad faith, of our father and his wreckage; of God, perhaps, and her fatal, triangular bargain. Meanwhile, Atwood immediately launches into an excerpt from Laura Chase's novel, The Blind Assassin, posthumously published in 1947. In this double-decker concoction, a wealthy woman dabbles in blue-collar passion, even as her lover regales her with a series of science-fictional parables. Complicated? You bet. But the author puts all this variegation to good use, taking expert measure of our capacity for self-delusion and complicity, not to mention desolation. Almost everybody in her sprawling narrative manages to--or prefers to--overlook what's in plain sight. And memory isn't much of a salve either, as Iris points out: 'Nothing is more difficult than to understand the dead, I've found; but nothing is more dangerous than to ignore them.' Yet Atwood never succumbs to postmodern cynicism, or modish contempt for her characters. On the contrary, she's capable of great tenderness, and as we immerse ourselves in Iris's spliced-in memoir, it's clear that this buttoned-up socialite has been anything but blind to the chaos surrounding her. --Darya Silver
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Absolutely loved it!
All I need to say is I loved this book. I haven't read any of Atwood's other books but soon will. This was a book club choice and I read it over a weekend. I loved the intricate timelines, plot and suspense of it. Great book that I have since reccomended to friends.
Rating: - Great read
Hands down, this is my favorite Margaret Atwood book. I was skeptical when confronted with the story-within-story thingy----hated, at first, to be dragged off into some other world----but it works. Beyond the structure, the prose is so good, the writing so crisp and ironic, that there is a treasure on every page.
A favorite, at the beginning, when our POV learns that her sister has committed suicide:
"I was furious with Linda for what she'd done, but also with the policeman ... Read More
Rating: - One of Atwood's best
Before reading this I had read "Alias Grace" and half of "Handmaid's Tale," neither one did anything for me. Though the writing style was intricate and held depth I just couldn't find anything in the stories that I connected to. I thought that I would just never become a fan of Atwood's style or stories.
This changed, however, when I read "The Blind Assassin." It had been on my bookshelf for years but when I finally picked it up I discovered that the tale was inventive, complex, and ... Read More
Rating: - Stunning Sisterly Juxtaposition
Blind Assassin / 0-385-72095-5
I have always been an avid Margaret Atwood fan, ever since I first picked up The Blind Assassin and been swept away by Atwood's stunning interlay of layers and imagery. The two sisters, Iris and Laura, are on one level completely realistic sisters, complete with childhood bickering and adult maneuvering. Yet, on another level, Iris and Laura are both sides of the same person. When the unnamed lady speaks with her lover, we realistically cannot know who is speaking ... Read More
Rating: - The Blind Assassin Hits the Mark
As the novel The Blind Assassin opens with the words, "Ten days after the war ended, my sister Laura drove a car off a bridge," the reader becomes entranced in the intertwined lives of Iris Chase Griffen, her sister Laura Chase, and Laura's female protagonist in her post-death novel The Blind Assassin. Margaret Atwood cleverly creates a flourishing novel within a novel that portrays the mysterious life of these two sisters while unraveling the ambiguity behind the tragic death of Laura Chase.
... Read More
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Copyright © 2003-2008 Gunnar Bengtsson, Poetry Connection. All Rights Reserved.
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780385720953
ISBN: 0385720955
Label: Anchor
Manufacturer: Anchor
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 544
Publication Date: August 28, 2001
Publisher: Anchor
Release Date: August 28, 2001
Sales Rank: 17800
Studio: Anchor