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The Blind Assassin

By Margaret Atwood

(194)

| eBook | 9780748113347

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Book Description

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 exempContinue

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.

Critics

  • Where women grow on trees

    The Blind Assassin Margaret Atwood Bloomsbury £16.99, pp525 Buy it at BOL Margaret Atwood new novel is made up of three strands. There are the memoirs of Iris Chase, tracing her progress from prosperous beginnings, daughter of a button factory owner, ... (read full critics)

    guardian.co.uk published on Sat, 25 Sep 2010

  • Mirror writing

    Plenty of novels feature novelists, but few give even a line of the novels that the characters are supposed to have written. A recent example is Reta Winters, narrator of Carol Shields's Unless. Further back, there is Nicholas Jenkins, the narrator o ... (read full critics)

    guardian.co.uk published on Sat, 25 Sep 2010

15 Reviews

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  • 3 people find this helpful

    Great, great book, wonderfully written. The irony, the derisory detachment of the old Iris are invaluable! Not to mention the all those hunting ghosts and the disturbing presence of Laura as a child that pervade the book, in spite of her growing up...

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    sexy said on Dec 2, 2008 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

  • 1 person find this helpful

    A book within a book within a book. Meta-fiction, dazzling in its accuracy.

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    Sengaia said on Apr 27, 2009 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

  • 1 person find this helpful

    I hadn't read anything by Margaret Atwood in awhile - I enjoyed it. I like books that take a few chapters to figure out exactly what is going on.

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    secretninjakt said on Aug 31, 2007 about the Paperback edition | 1 feedback

  • A Masterpiece

    One of the most cleverly-written, imaginative and enthralling books I've ever read.
    The second I finished reading it, I went back to page one and started again: Margaret Atwood is a pleasure to read, not only for the spellbinding inventiveness of the plot, but also for the sheer beauty of her prose ... (continue)

    One of the most cleverly-written, imaginative and enthralling books I've ever read.
    The second I finished reading it, I went back to page one and started again: Margaret Atwood is a pleasure to read, not only for the spellbinding inventiveness of the plot, but also for the sheer beauty of her prose.
    A must read for anyone.

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    Marta said on Jul 25, 2011 about the Paperback edition | 1 feedback

  • Poetic lyricism

    Atwood's language is delicate and beautiful but can be tedious at times.

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    Ines Lin said on Feb 27, 2011 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

  • My favorite Atwood: fast paced, full of mysteries that are slowly revealed forming a perfect canvas, passionate, and quite gut-wrenching. Recommended.

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    ilariainthelibrary said on Jun 7, 2010 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

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