Review of the novel The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood

    "Ten days after the war ended, my sister Laura drove a car off a bridge."*

     If you can come up with a more gripping first sentence, tell me, because I can't find one. I am quite biased, true, since I know the rest of the tale. I don't care; it's a stellar beginning to a book I could just sit with all day and flip through, marveling at the dazzling strands of story/web that Atwood spins so skillfully. 
     And the many threads of this tale - be they elements of science fiction, family relations, the nature of war - pull a reader in slowly, without warning as s/he navigates the layers: The narrative of Iris Chase Griffin and her sister, Laura, is only the beginning. Set against the historical backdrop of the last century, these two daughters of a once rich and influential Ontario family are also the subjects of much ridicule and suspicion. And there are so many dimensions that are pieced out, luring the reader to continue - fragments and hints. As one begins to map out the mystery surrounding Laura's death with the details that the now elderly and confessional Iris wishes to divulge, there is a sense of great depth and breadth to the novel. Atwood may be telling a very specific fictional tale, but there is also truth residing within - about the nature of family, friendships, grudges, overwhelming sadness and love. 



*Excerpt from the novel