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A review by dyno8426
The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
4.0
Once again, I can't help but bask in the pleasure of having read such an amazing work of authorship. Margaret Atwood writes brilliantly and you have to give her that. Its intellectual involvement tastes very much like a fine spirit - neither thin, without any substance, nor dense enough to hinder the reception of the depth of observation and creativity that goes in the process.
The execution is an "Inception" of narration - story within a story within a story. The story is set in Canada, between the two World Wars. Iris, the protagonist, narrates the life of her sister and herself and creates that similar Victorian claustrophobic environment, which carries the dominant feminist tones in the story. The helplessness in some seemingly common situations is really haunting and anxious. It is consistently critical, not just of the sexist face of our societies, and not just the fascist front of the world owing to that period, but of the general absurdities which convention and ignorance impart in all phases of human lives. The critique is very clear and very strong. To look at, even the title is brilliant in conveying this contradiction which highlights the peculiarities of the way we live.
Blindness is a disability, a hindrance to the normalcy of life, something which evokes pity and renders anyone helpless, out in the open to be preyed. An assassin on the other hand is dreadful; a threat to society; hidden and working to achieve something malicious and unforeseen. Being an assassin is a position of latent power and displays the tenacity to survive against all odds. A blind assassin is unimaginable. And to imagine someone like that is both ridiculous and scary. On reading the story, one can map these characteristics of power and conflict to the characters of the story. But the beauty of this title itself was sufficient to make me pick this up. The narrative is as rich as it gets, with a transparency of vision which is a recognisable attribute of good authors. The story has mysterious parts to it; who would expect otherwise when it begins abruptly as - "Ten days after the war ended, my sister drove a car off the bridge." While reading it, I felt as if Iris (the protagonist) is as close a manifestation of the personality of the author as it can be. I might be wrong though, knowing how good a writer she actually is.
The execution is an "Inception" of narration - story within a story within a story. The story is set in Canada, between the two World Wars. Iris, the protagonist, narrates the life of her sister and herself and creates that similar Victorian claustrophobic environment, which carries the dominant feminist tones in the story. The helplessness in some seemingly common situations is really haunting and anxious. It is consistently critical, not just of the sexist face of our societies, and not just the fascist front of the world owing to that period, but of the general absurdities which convention and ignorance impart in all phases of human lives. The critique is very clear and very strong. To look at, even the title is brilliant in conveying this contradiction which highlights the peculiarities of the way we live.
Blindness is a disability, a hindrance to the normalcy of life, something which evokes pity and renders anyone helpless, out in the open to be preyed. An assassin on the other hand is dreadful; a threat to society; hidden and working to achieve something malicious and unforeseen. Being an assassin is a position of latent power and displays the tenacity to survive against all odds. A blind assassin is unimaginable. And to imagine someone like that is both ridiculous and scary. On reading the story, one can map these characteristics of power and conflict to the characters of the story. But the beauty of this title itself was sufficient to make me pick this up. The narrative is as rich as it gets, with a transparency of vision which is a recognisable attribute of good authors. The story has mysterious parts to it; who would expect otherwise when it begins abruptly as - "Ten days after the war ended, my sister drove a car off the bridge." While reading it, I felt as if Iris (the protagonist) is as close a manifestation of the personality of the author as it can be. I might be wrong though, knowing how good a writer she actually is.