The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood

[lightreads]

The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


The autobiography of a woman written at the end of her life, encompassing her girlhood as the familial wealth faded; her strange, ethereal sister; her marriage. And running through that, excerpts from her sister’s posthumously published science fiction cult classic.

Strange, beautiful, and just ever so slightly not quite. The genre-crossing here isn’t a gimmick. It’s done so well, it feels like the sort of expensive, avant-garde meal where the fish is sprinkled with pumpkin seeds and the martini is topped with a dash of habanero juice (mmm, that was tasty). Unexpected compliments.

And even though I didn’t think this quite came together into something coherent, it’s Margaret freaking Atwood, you know? She writes like – okay. You know how a lot of professional book reviewers toss the word “luminous” around when they don’t know what to say about a bit of contemporary fiction? Well, Margaret Atwood’s writing is luminous, and I mean that very specifically. I mean that when I read one of her books, I feel like there’s light coming off each page and illuminating me. (We’re pretending, for this exercise, that I actually read a printed copy of this book, which I in fact did not.) Just, her writing makes me think of all those words we use for qualities and textures of light – lucid, liquid, cool. So I honestly don’t care what she’s writing about, when you come right down to it.




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Comments

[ecaterin]

ITA about Mararet Atwood's 'light comes of the page' writing that I would read regardless of subject. Her writing affects me so much that I only seldom read it - too upsetting too much of the time.

[lightreads]

Yes. And this one has so much in it about the way women are subjugated and controlled by their fathers and husbands. There were certain portions that made me frantic and trapped feeling.

[ecaterin]

Yeeeaaaaah, I'll be skipping that one then! *deep breath*