"But the old wound has split open, the invisible blood pours forth. Soon I'll be emptied."
An ambitious novel with two different stories that are not truly independent as one is misled to believe. The Blind Assassin is proof of Margaret Atwood's talent. It's a book about family and the life of a woman that has been marked by the decisions of those around her and obligations, responsibilities, burdens...
PLOT
Margaret Atwood loves creating novels with complex structures that include flashbacks and flashforwards that explain why characters act the way they do. The Blind Assassin is no exception.
The Blind Assassin appears to host two independent novels. The first is about Iris Griffen Chase's life story, and another one where The Blind Assassin tale is narrated. TBA is supposed to be a book that Iris' sister, Laura Chase, wrote before killing herself by driving her car off a bridge.
The first novel narrates Iris' life through her own point of view. Currently, she is an old woman with no family. She explains the origins of the Chase legacy. Her father was the owner of a button factory, her mom a devoted housewife who was involved in charities. Her sister, Laura, used to be an eccentric child. As time went by, many events brought bitterness and duties to Iris: when her mother died, she had to become her sister's guardian and her father's apprentice to the family business.
Iris is a victim of a number of circumstances or at least, that is what she is trying to convey in her narrative. Would it have been possible that she could have done something different? If so, at what price? Which repercussions would have been involved? Did she really have any other choice? That's the main question that one could make, but at her time, Iris knew there was no other way. She was victim of destiny, even if later on, she was going to become a villain in the eyes of the person that loved her the most and the only family left: her own sister.
The second novel that Laura wrote, The Blind Assassin deals with the encounters between two lovers. The man always narrates some interesting and appealing story to the woman (neither of them is ever named). The main story that he makes up: The Blind Assassin which could be considered the third novel. This brief story details a society that is dominated by ruthless monarchs and bloody customs. Children are obliged to create beautiful carpets so meticulous that those working on them end up blind. These boys later become sexual objects to finally look redemption by becoming assassins. The woman having an affair seems too familiar. We quickly realize that it is related to the Chase family.
The ending is completely bleak, unexpected and satisfactory.
STRUCTURE
It has a very demanding structure. It's not a conventional novel. There is a moment when we realize the two novels are extremely associated to one another, but even by doing so, the outcome is always shocking.
Some chapters are about Iris, overlapped by chapters of the meta book The Blind Assassin. There is a third timeline much more neutral, unbiased, but relevant to the final revelation: newspapers clippings about the social life of the Griffen and Chase family, and their eventual fate.
Past and present are intertwined to the main timeline, Iris Griffen's.
THEMES
Old age, patriarchy, the role of women in society, the helplessness on imposed decisions, the demands of a high social position are only some of the complex subjects that are developed on this multilayered novel.
ABOUT THE ENDING
Devastating, poignant and glorious. Iris leaves the manuscript with confessions to her granddaughter, Sabrina. It's a sublime decision to break the vicious circle of the past.The way the chapters Perennials for the rock garden and The other hand are mirrored is sublime and deserves praise. I always love when novels begin and end in a similar note after the development of the characters.
CHARACTER: 9/10
PLOT DEVELOPMENT: 8/10
THEMES: 10/10
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