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Imagine
those Russian nesting dolls, the ones that live one within anotherÖyou
open the first one and there's a whole family inside. Like secrets,
the more they keep appearing the deeper you go. There is an eerily
similar structure to Margaret Atwood's long awaited novel, THE BLIND
ASSASSIN.
The novel's title is actually the title of the story within, written
by the narrator's sister, Laura Chase, who on the very first page
of the book, you learn, drives herself off a bridge ten days after
World War II ends. In the next few chapters you are fed the fate
of the remaining Chase and Griffen family members in newspaper clippings
and articles. In 1998 the remaining family members are narrator
Iris Chase Griffen, older sister to deceased Laura and wife of the
prominent, pestilent and now deceased Richard. Her only descendent
is her estranged granddaughter Sabrina, whom she doesn't know at
all but yearns to meet.
Lonely and regretful, Iris still imagines herself as a young woman
beneath the heavy shackles of age despite her papery skin and brittle
bones. Her blind assassin --- impending death --- feels close by,
so she hurries her pen to paper and tries to write the tragedy that
is her life and ultimately the legacy of her granddaughter. At the
end of her life she realizes, "Nothing is more difficult than to
understand the deadÖbut nothing is more dangerous than to ignore
them." Only now, in the clarity of time passed, can she see the
error of her ways --- and that of her family. In a series of flashbacks
that return intermittently to Iris's present and rather solitary
life, Atwood tells a complicated but engaging story. The backdrop
is over one hundred years of Canadian history, and the story is
of Iris and Laura's posh, then poor and often painful childhood.
Yet at the heart of everything is the fantastical tale of "The Blind
Assassin," Laura's passionate and controversial novel, published
after her death.
Growing up in a sea of old money and then no money, Iris and her
sister rely on the kindness of others, a la Blanche Dubois, and
like Blanche they are deceived. Trying to do what she thinks is
right after her father's business is about to go under, Iris sells
herself --- in a sense --- into marriage and ultimately a business
merger with the older, wealthy Richard Griffen. She immediately
finds herself and her sister thrown into a pit of snakes --- Richard
and his nasty society sister Winifred are the ones with the sharpest
fangs.
In order to stay afloat in this new cutthroat world, Iris feigns
ignorance and plays the role of the dim blonde, in turn allowing
her life to be controlled by the very people who care about her
least, and the one who loves her most, is left to fend for herselfÖunlucky
Laura. Over the years, the scandals and corruption increase, and
Iris realizes the hell she has entered into, but like one who makes
a deal with the devil, she doesn't believe there is any escape.
For Laura, it was death. What will it be for Iris?
Interspersed with the woeful tale of the Chase sisters is another
sad story, that of "The Blind Assassin." It's about a man and a
woman involved in a clandestine love affair, inevitably doomed of
course, but their secret and passionate meetings are highlighted
by the sci-fi fable he tells his lover every time they meet. In
another dimension of time, in a land called Sakiel-Norn, an entire
society of people live in luxury but only at the cost of sadistic
yearly sacrifices and the hands and eyes of unlucky slave children.
With deft hands the children weave the most beautiful and intricate
fabrics with striking colors and fine textures, but after only a
few years they are blinded by their incessant work. They are then
turned into prostitutes, thieves, and finally, assassins. As the
two lovers continue to meet throughout the novel, always at the
risk of getting caught, the story is told in vivid installments.
While reading the excerpts of "The Blind Assassin," you begin to
wonder --- what is fact and what is fiction within this novel? Who
are the real lovers of this story?
A story within a story within a story --- more nesting dolls emerge
with every chapter leading up to the finale. THE BLIND ASSASSIN,
Atwood's enormous and multilayered creation, is a genuine treat
to fans who have waited eagerly for her next novel. Despite a few
moments of melodrama, and antagonists who sometimes appear two-dimensional,
she still delivers a deliriously moving epic.
--- Reviewed by Dana Schwartz
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