Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood

No Arguments whatsoever with Blind Assassin. It's intricate, placed in a historic setting -which I always like- and its secrets are well kept right up to the grand finale. Let's face it, Margaret Atwood tells a good story. I wouldn't have always said that. I didn't enjoy The Edible Woman, my required course reading at university. But with Blind Assassin Atwood does what she did so well in Amazing Grace; she gives us a picture of unique women's lives in good old historic Ontario; a time and place in which being unique and female could lead to a world of trouble.

My main objection to Margaret Atwood's writing is the ease with which she adopts a sexist point of view. If I can recall, that is what bothered me about The Edible Woman (Why am I learning so much about what this mysogynist Duncan character thinks?). In a historic setting, this viewpoint becomes more tolerable. Also, she does an excellent portrayal of Ontario's own brand of tight-lipped puritanical censure for people who are foolish enough to do any number of silly things, like fall in the river, or get themselves killed in a war.

In Blind Assassin two of the disapproval-worthy are the Chase sisters, Iris and Laura, who are raised in a gilded cage, on account of their elevated status as descendants of their town's main employer. The girls are isolated and somewhat neglected, except for the care of the housekeeper, Reenie:

"Reenie believed that people decided when it was their time to die; similarly, they had a voice in whether or not they would be born. Once I'd reached the talking-back age, I used to say, I never asked to be born, as if that were the clinching argument; and Reenie would retort, Of course you did. Just like everyone else. Once alive you were on the hook for it, as far as Reenie was concerned."

Iris writes down the story of her and Laura's lives, interspersed with chapters from a novel-within-the-novel, called "Blind Assassin" written by Laura Chase. Of course both stories serve to complete each other, much like the sisters themselves. In fact, therein lie the fun ambiguities of this book. In general, this is a great read, and nice and thick at 655 mass paperback pages. --RBR

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