The Blind Assassin

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The posthumous publication of a scathing novel entitled The Blind Assassin shakes up the reputation of several residents of Fort Ticonderoga, the country hometown of author Laura Chase who drives a car off a bridge to her death. Even years later, the controversial content of her book still haunts the real-life figures it allegedly alludes to. One of them is her sister Iris Chase Griffen, wife of nouveau riche Richard E. Griffen, particularly concerned considering his political ambitions. Decades later as she nears her death, Iris begins to write her very own autobiography hoping that it would clarify things and reach her estranged granddaughter Sabrina, who has been used as a pawn together with her deceased daughter Aimee by her sister-in-law Winifred Griffen Prior, who blames her for the death of her brother and his political aspirations. As the old woman awaits her life’s end on her deathbed, she reveals some long-concealed family secrets.

WILD! This is quite a long novel with over 500 pages but easily readable because each chapter is further subdivided into short subchapters alternating between the autobiography being written by Iris and the novel within the novel entitled The Blind Assassin published under the name of her dead sister Laura. The Blind Assassin is about two unnamed lovers who discuss the science fiction novel they are writing during coitus breaks in various shady locations. A novel in a novel in a novel. You soon get wind of the real-life parallelisms and it is that intrigue and ambiguity that keep you flipping through the pages until the truth is revealed.

The plot unfolds in a non-linear fashion, which is effective for concealing some important info for a more dramatic reveal later on. Aside from the autobiography and the novel within the novel, you also get to read one-page clippings of fictional newspaper articles, mostly of the society page type, giving you some “news” about the characters at various stages of their lives. It somehow gives you the illusion as though they were real-life socialites who were always the talk of the town. That veneer of voyeurism and gossip adds a certain charm, a semblance of made-up fictional truth in the book’s universe.

Iris’ autobiography which serves as your anchor could have been more elaborate, but perhaps Atwood decided that it would’ve been too dragging had she fleshed out each and every character included in the family tree. Tracing the family’s story and lineage from her grandparents all the way down to her granddaughter, Iris manages to situate most of them having some memorable events in Canada’s history as the backdrop. In effect, this novel can be classified as historical fiction given how most of the events unfolding in the background indeed occurred in real life.

The novel within the novel, The Blind Assassin, works as an effective plot device because of its ambiguity. Its meaning heavily depends on who is reading it, which means there are so many possible interpretations out there. For us as readers, it mainly serves as an intriguing hook to keep our attention as it keeps you guessing. While you have an idea in mind as to who the characters might be referring to, these speculations continuously evolve as more tidbits of new information are revealed. If you analyze the novel based on the points of view of the characters themselves, it is quick as a chameleon to adapt to new meanings.

As for the novel within the novel within the novel, the sci-fi one being written with the planet Sakiel-Norn as its setting, it comes across more like a veiled critique of society through otherworldly science fiction. You have aliens in societies that function distinctly from ours yet echo the same societal norms and restrictions. This is perhaps the reason why I had a hard time deciphering its meaning, because I kept my interpretation exclusively to the protagonists. As to why Atwood decided to lift the title of the novel itself from there, I have no idea. It doesn’t really capture the novel’s premise and gives weird ideas as to what the storyline might be.

Overall, The Blind Assassin, and by this we mean the entire novel instead of the novel within the novel, is an enjoyable read thanks to the build-up of intrigue and the way Atwood wrote her characters. At the beginning, you really don’t have a clear judgment as to who is telling the truth, but the ambiguity justifies all that. The non-linear plot development allows for the evolution of your feelings toward the characters, often leading to understanding when it comes to their bad decisions in life. As such, the twist in the end packs a punch but deemed tolerable because the author has prepared you well enough for it. The gamble pays off.