Atwood Never Fails to Disappoint

I have read about five of Margaret Atwood’s novels, and I don’t think I ever have NOT liked one of her books. I might at times have wanted the narration to speed up or have been disturbed by an idea, but overall, I’ve always enjoyed her writing. I most recently finished The Blind Assassin, published in 2001 and winner of that year’s Booker Prize. The book is about two sisters, one of whom dies of ambiguous circumstances in the first pages of the book. The survivor, Iris Chase Griffen, seems to not have much reaction to the death and to be a bit heartless in response. The book then almost immediately switches narrations, diving into a book-within-the-book–The Blind Assassin. This novel, we discover, was published posthumously and had been written by Iris’ dead sister Laura. This novel follows two unnamed lovers, one a well-to-do married woman and the other a renegade fiction writer. The book then switches back to Iris, who we discover is elderly and desperately attempting to finish writing her life story as she remembers it. Flashbacks illuminate the Chase history and we learn of her family’s struggle to maintain their feeble hold on wealth as the country endured economic strife.The book continuously switches narratives and eras as it tells the story of the sisters’ childhood, their romances, and their tragedies. The book unravels a great mystery a little at a time, so slowly that at times I was frustrated enough to sneak a peek at the next section in the hopes that I would discover the answer the questions I had at the end of the previous narrative. Atwood cleverly weaves this tale, leaving the reader clueless as to the depths of the lies Iris had spent years concealing.  The energy in this book kept me reading WAY past my bedtime, and I would highly recommend it–but only if you are willing to be patient in the face of literary frustration!