I heard about this book years ago when it was first published. I read "A Handmaids Tale" and "Alias Grace" by the same author and enjoyed them. The Blind Assassin won many awards including the Booker Prize. I made a point to get it from the library a while ago. Between my own writing, and reading I was doing for research, or book club I had to renew it twice. I am so happy I finally got around to reading it. It was so thick and lush. It is described as novel within a novel, but it is even more complex than that. It spans three distinct time periods, and the novel within the novel has various sci-fi stories told within it. Atwood has a sort of vagueness to her writing. She does not spell anything out, and yet everything is quite clear. I was very caught up in the stories, all of them. I always have the feeling of wanting more, whenever I read Atwood, and yet I always feel satisfied. Like a meal that is so unusual and delicious you wish it would never end, but you are not unpleasantly full when you are finished. If I had a complaint, it would be the two-dimensionality of the villains, a brother and sister. They are completely without redemption, and a little like stock characters. Some of the other characters are so well-developed that these two really stand out. It is a small complaint. The book was mesmerizing.
1 comment:
It's funny, the phases we go through of the things we read. I am so focused on kids lit right now and having so much fun with it that "big people" books just sound difficult. I think it is funny because normally I would jump all over a book like this. I'll tuck it away on the back bookshelf of my mind to be thought of later. Can't wait to see you tomorrow!
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